How to keep your faith when you have doubts is possible and you can actually grow in your faith through your doubts.
My name is Joy, I have been in ministry for over twenty years. I’ve lived in missions in multiple countries and ran a justice ministry in the United States combatting human trafficking. I grew up as a Preacher’s kid and then studied at the University of the Nations, where I began my life in missions.
Through all of it, I have seen firsthand the goodness of God and the evil in humanity.
In recent years, I’ve been challenged by watching leaders in churches and ministries get caught in webs of lies. Some of them built their ministries on the hardship of others.
I have also been on mission trips that wrecked me both physically (being poisoned by the water) and emotionally by seeing the injustice that so many suffer.
But there is hope.
You can keep your faith when you have doubts.
Table of Contents
Understanding Doubt: Where doubts are coming from
- Identify where the doubts started.
- Types of doubt
- Doubters in the Bible
Practical Strategies for Strengthening Your Faith:
- Give yourself grace in the process.
- Daily time with God: Bible study and journaling
- Prayer: Pray through the challenges and doubts.
- Remember, God is Sovereign
- Think about what Jesus has done for you
You can get past the doubts that are challenging your faith.
The first way is too,
Discover where the doubts started.
What event might have happened? Sickness, a person’s passing, or loss of a job or career.
Did you face a challenge recently in your life?
Did someone you love have something happen to them? Or did you experience Christian leaders fail and use their power to abuse others?
In recent years, the truth about different leaders abusing their positions has affected me. I also went to a church where a lie about the Pastor was exposed and wrecked the church.
This is why I asked you to start with where the doubts are coming from.
When did your doubts start?
You might know right away where they started to creep in, or you might need to think and pray through the process.
When I found out that the Pastor of the church I went to for years had lived and deceived so many people-it shook my faith in the church. Not in God but in the church itself.
As I processed this event, I started to doubt so much of the time I went to that church.
I doubted my decision to go there. My faith in the church. My volunteering at the church.
I’d left before the scandal came out because I didn’t like the direction the church was going and their total exclusion of children who were differently able into the children’s ministry.
Now, as I processed the questions and where the doubts started, I saw there were so many signs that the church wasn’t healthy.
Then, the question came to my mind.
Did I follow a man, or did I follow God?
Many of my doubts about the church didn’t start because I followed God but because I was looking for a pastor of the church to help me grow in my faith.
When we decide to go to a church or a ministry so many times, we are following a man. In American culture, this is how we choose a church or ministry.
We look to people to bring us closer to God when we should be looking to Jesus to bring us closer to God.
So, it’s always a good place to start when asking where your doubts came from if it was the failure of a person that caused these doubts.
And if it was then,
Follow God and not a Person.
Look to the Bible
If you have doubts about things in your faith, then you have company. And you are not a bad Christian.
Biblical examples of people who doubted.
Sarah and Abraham in Genesis 17:17-22
Sarah doubted God’s ability to help her have a baby because it was physically impossible. Even though she doubted God’s word, she had a baby.
Our doubts don’t stop God’s blessings.
Another example in the Bible is Thomas. He doubted it was really Jesus and couldn’t believe it until he saw it for himself.
“Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
A week later, his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” —
John 20:24-29 (NIV)
As we read the examples of people in the Bible who have doubted we can remember that God still blessed, loved and cared for then even through the doubts.
Just like God cares for you.
Practical Strategies:
The next thing to remember to keep the faith when you have doubts is
Give yourself grace
It’s okay to have questions, doubt things, and seek God. You are not God, and you don’t have to have all the answers.
I sometimes think as Christian women, we feel like we shouldn’t have any emotions, fears, or doubts that we aren’t supposed to show weakness or have struggles.
Because unfortunately, I’m sure some of you have been told, “You haven’t prayed enough,” or “You need to believe for more.”
You have felt judged because you were judged. If someone has judged, belittled, or put you down in the ministry or church. I am sorry.
As a leader, I ask your forgiveness.
In some churches, small groups or Bible studies we are totally shamed if we have a doubt or fear.
But so many people in the Bible did have emotions, fears and doubts. Some examples in the Bible were the worst. But God still spoke to them, loved them and gave us all Jesus.
Not having doubts about anything is just an unrealistic way to live as a Christian. I am not saying to live bitterly or resentfully or lose your faith in Christ. I am saying it’s okay to have times in your Christian life when you struggle with doubts.
How do you give yourself grace?
- Accept yourself
- Give yourself compassion
- Try to replace negative thoughts with hopeful thoughts. (Example would be: I am never going to get through this! Or I can get through this struggle)
- Acknowledge it might take time.
The next practical strategy you can do to keep your faith when you have doubts is,
Have daily time with God.
Read your Bible and journal what you are going through
As I mentioned above, many times in the Christian church, we are looking for a person to build our relationship with God.
Spending time daily in the Bible and journalling will help you to grow in your faith and process through the doubt you are feeling.
Don’t get me wrong, I like hearing something from leaders that brings me closer to God. It’s always good to learn and listen but don’t let that be replaced with growing in a relationship to God.
Pray: set aside time to pray through
Life gets busy, and things happen to distract us from prayer. But when you are going through doubts and struggles, this is the time to pray.
When you pray, be honest and vulnerable about what is going on and why you doubt it. If you doubt the existence of God, then spend time in prayer and ask God to reveal His glory.
If you are struggling like I was to those in leadership and want to know why they were given power. Then, spend time in prayer, asking God to show you.
You do not have to know the answers or be perfect or withiout doubts to pray. Jonah, in the Bible, was mad at God for showing mercy even though God gave him mercy. Yet when he spoke (talked and prayed) to God, Jonah was completely honest, and you can read the whole story here.
The next thing to keep your faith when you have doubts,
Trust God is Sovereign
As you walk through the process of dealing with doubts from the first step I mention until now it might take time. But here is where your relationship and belief in God can make or break when you have doubts.
If you trust that God is sovereign, then you can and will be able to make it past your doubts. If you doubt this, it will be hard for you. So, if you’re doubting God’s sovereignty, then ask yourself why.
“And Joshua said, “Alas, Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan!”
Joshua 7:7
Joshua was a great man of faith, and at this point, he had doubts about God bringing the people of Israel to this point. Yet even in Joshua’s doubts, he knew God was Sovereign.
In how to keep your faith when you have doubts, an important part of moving past the doubts is to,
Think about what Jesus has done for you
Think about your own life and what Jesus has done for you. Recently, when I struggled with doubts, I remembered how I was miraculously healed from asthma. I have medical proof that I was healed.
Remembering the seven years of struggling to breathe and then being healed. Taking time to think about this gave me the strength to trust God when I had doubts. It also helped me to remember all the miracles and blessings God has given me.
Recap of how to keep your faith when you have doubts:
- Seek where the doubt comes from
- Look to the Bible
- Give yourself the grace to work through the questions
- Daily Bible Study
- Set aside time to pray
- Trust in God as Sovereign
- Remember all the Jesus has done for you.
- Doubts are part of life and can strengthen our growth in faith as Christian women.
I pray that as you work through your doubts that you will know Jesus in a deeper way and feel the love of the Father. And through it all your faith will become stronger.
I would like to hear in the comments about how you grow in faith when you have doubts.
You can also check out these articles as well.
“The ultimate summer bucket list for growing in faith”
“First mission trip: A woman’s guide to prepare spiritually”
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