- Why Do I Have Doubt?
- When You’re in a Season of Doubt
- How to Overcome Your Doubts about God
If you’ve ever experienced a season of doubt about your faith, I want you to know you’re not alone. Many believers have traveled through a time of wondering whether the Bible is true, whether God is real, and whether there’s an eternity with him.
There are all kinds of triggers for this doubt. For some, it’s a weariness of the battle between the world and the Bible. People around you claim that Christians are narrow-minded, stuck in the dark ages, and completely out of touch with today’s advanced society. You must update your beliefs to reflect modern beliefs. Maybe someone at your work or school has openly mocked your faith. If we’re not careful, all of this can cause doubt to creep in.
Lots of people have staggered in their faith because of church scandals. Someone you looked up to has a moral failure, and there goes another crack in your faith. If he can’t stand firm, how can you? Maybe you see a church in the middle of an ugly fight. People you looked up to aren’t behaving any better than those far from God. If that’s what Christian “fellowship” looks like, you don’t want any part.
We must admit, too, that sometimes we’re hurt by the church, but the church is right. The church is making a decision based on God’s Word. It’s just that we don’t like that part of God’s Word. We’re wounded, but we are in the wrong. Still, doubt can start to set in.
This brings us to the fact that sin can also produce doubt. We want to live a certain way, but the Bible says differently. We don’t want to bend our lifestyle or desire to the Bible; we want to bend the Bible to our will and our way of thinking. So, we start to doubt the authority of the Bible in our lives.
There are many more causes of doubt for the believer, but again, if you’re in a season of doubt, you’re not alone. Even Peter doubted. Remember when he stepped out of a boat and walked on water? He took his eyes off Jesus and started to sink.
Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31)
The question is, when we experience doubt, what can we do? What are some action steps we can take to get out of this? How can we overcome doubt? We talked about ways to grow our faith here, and to those thoughts, I’ll add these.
1. Admit Our Doubts — The first step is admitting we have doubts. When we’re physically sick, before we can start healing, we have to admit that something’s wrong. The same is true when we’re spiritually sick. Before we can take action to overcome our doubt and strengthen our faith, we have to admit to ourselves that something isn’t right.
That’s when we need this reminder — our doubts will never stop God from loving us (Romans 8:38-39). Never.
This is a good time to note that there’s a big difference between doubt and unbelief. Unbelief is when we know what God wants and choose to believe otherwise. Doubt is when we don’t know what God wants; our faith is under attack and wavering. But the strongest faith sometimes comes out of honest doubt. So start by admitting the doubt. Then…
2. Doubt Your Doubts — When we’re in a season of doubt, somehow we believe our doubts but doubt our beliefs. What we need to do is make the conscious decision to cling to our beliefs but doubt our doubts. Despite your circumstances, people standing against you, and your pain brought on by Christians, despite all that, decide in your head that the doubts are wrong. You have all the help you need in doing this:
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God… (Romans 8:16)
As a believer, you have the Holy Spirit within you. He’s there, reminding you that God is your Father, reminding you that he loves you and that you are his. The Holy Spirit is inside you, assuring you of your salvation. When you decide to doubt your doubts, ask the Spirit for his help in following through with that decision.
3. Remember — Look back at all the times God has come through for you. Remind yourself that you can trust him because he’s always been trustworthy. Look around at all you have, and remember that all of it was given to you by your Heavenly Father.
4. Do the Things You Know to Do — This is the perfect time to cling to the disciplines you’ve built into your life. That’s why it’s important to develop these now, so when tough times come, you won’t skip on them. They’ve become habits. You’re hard-wired to do them.
Stay in your Bible – It’s a must for believers to make reading and meditating on God’s Word part of our lives. When you experience doubt, keep up this discipline. Even when it’s hard, or especially when it’s hard, keep reading your Bible. This is one way you can attack your doubts.
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)
Our faith grows through constant exposure to God’s living Word. Through the Bible, the Holy Spirit will work on both your mind and your heart and keep them aligned with God.
Pray – You can also fight your doubt with prayer. Ask God to remove your doubts and strengthen your faith. Pray this, and keep on praying this.
“Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7 AMP)
Pour out your heart to God in prayer constantly, and don’t stop asking. He will respond in his own time. Stay close to him by reading the Bible and talking to him in prayer. Don’t close yourself off from the Spirit by shutting down communication with him. Praying is one of the most amazing gifts God has provided, and now isn’t the time to turn away from it.
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15)
Knowing that God hears us is enough because the goal of prayer is not to get all our requests. The goal of prayer is communion with our Father, which deepens our relationship and grows our faith. And remember that whatever we pray “according to his will,” with the attitude of “not my will but your will,” he will provide.
Obey – Even in times of doubt, keep following the teachings of Scripture. Don’t allow sin to hurt your fellowship with God and make things worse. Now’s not the time to turn away from God. It’s time to cling to him in Bible reading, prayer, and obedience. Obeying God is one way we gain assurance of our relationship with him.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life…We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. (1 John 5:13, 18)
Keep on obeying God, even when you don’t feel like it, even when it feels like it’s useless. Your surrender to God will strengthen your faith.
5. One last thing — Don’t go through this season of doubt alone. Don’t be embarrassed to admit to someone that you’re struggling. Talk to your small group or someone in your small group. Talk to your minister and mature believers who have experienced the Christian life and may have even gone through doubt. Ask for prayer. Let others join you in praying for your doubts to disappear and your faith to grow. We need each other. That’s how God designed us. And when you’re over this season of doubt, and you will be, remember to pay it forward by helping someone else who’s going through what you’re experiencing now.
Doubt is not a reason to despair. You are a child of God. His love for you is so great that he sent his Son to die on your behalf. He is with you. He will never leave you.
Your Father is in control of everything that happens to you. Your doubt is not an accident. It hasn’t taken God by surprise, and it isn’t out of his control. If you’re experiencing doubt, it’s because God has allowed it.
He has purposed your doubt so that you can examine your faith and see your weak spots. He’s inviting you to a deeper walk with him.
You will come out of your doubt.
When you do, your faith will be stronger than ever before.