Have you ever struggled with doubt? If you answer honestly, most likely yes.
Doubt affects the lives of many believers. The reality is that no one has perfect faith in this life. That also includes you. But, if your faith is not perfect, this means that it can grow and be stronger today than it was yesterday.
I like to think of doubt as the gap between our present faith and perfect faith. If this is the case, we all doubt.
Not only this, but there is nothing that Christians cannot doubt. Sometimes we doubt our salvation; other times we doubt the love of God. Many times we will even doubt the reliability of Scripture, the existence of God, and the identity of Christ. Even John the Baptist, whom Christ called the greatest man ever born (Mt. 11:11), once expressed doubt about the very identity of Christ (Mt.11:3).
Here are seven principles to consider when dealing with doubt.
1. Have compassion on those who doubt.
Jude 22 tells us: “Have mercy on some who doubt.” It is easy to judge, condemn, and dismiss doubters as second-rate Christians. But to have compassion on those who doubt is to be there for them, comforting and building them up.
Many times, it’s not just a one-night struggle with self-doubt that ends after a good night’s rest. Some doubt for a lifetime. Even if this doesn’t come naturally to you, you need to learn to have mercy on them (and on yourself). You may have to answer the same questions over and over again. That’s fine. And it is an opportunity for you to learn patience.
2. Having doubts is often an indication of deeper faith.
Many of us became believers at a young age, with a faith that we received through our parents, whom we implicitly trusted. As we grow, our faith is tested through difficult situations, temptations, and suffering (Job; Lk 8: 5-15; Ro. 5:3-4; James 1:3).
This is why our most significant doubts often come when we are in our twenties and thirties. But this is not a bad thing. We all need to consider that the truths we stand for might be wrong, in order to embrace our faith more deeply. Such doubt often results in stronger faith.
3. Learn to live with the mystery.
Sometimes we want all the answers. We want to fully understand things before committing ourselves to God.
Even though God has revealed many things to us and there is much that we can understand, there are “secret” things that only belong to him (Deut. 29:29). We will never be able to fully understand the Trinity, or how God created everything out of nothing. But what we can understand is enough to rest in God when mysteries arise.
4. Make the main things the main things.
Paul told the Corinthians that he gave them things “first” (1 Cor. 15:3). He then goes on to speak of the atoning death and claimed resurrection of Christ as central to the faith.
Many of us doubt secondary questions such as when and how God created the world, or the details of Christ’s return. There are many issues in the Christian faith on which there have been legitimate disagreements for centuries. All of Orthodox Christianity, however, has always been in unity about who Christ is and what he did.
So when you start to doubt what you were taught about secondary issues, don’t worry too much. Many of us are still trying to understand those issues.
5. Live according to the faith you already have.
Doubt is not disbelief. Once again, doubt is the bridge that unites present faith with perfect faith. And that bridge will remain until our death or the return of Christ. However, naturally, when we go through a crisis of faith, we do not see things this way. Once doubt enters and infects our lives on a conscious level, we can interpret it as outright disbelief. We just don’t know how else to process it. We believe that we are on an inevitable path to complete disbelief.
Unfortunately, since we think this way, and since others may treat us like we have a plague, we begin to live as unbelievers. If sin was not the instigating problem before, it now becomes the chronic problem. It is important that those who struggle with doubt do not allow it to influence their lives in such a way that they begin to live as unbelievers. Encourage doubters to continue to live as Christians, to repent, and to believe in the gospel, even if they don’t always feel like Christians.
6. Doubt your doubts.
Why give your doubt a courtesy that you don’t give your faith? Is your doubt so compelling that it cannot be challenged?
When we go through moments of doubt, we need to make sure that we are critical of our doubts as well. Doubt does not usually offer a better solution; Just criticize what we already have. We Christians can be sure that the central truths of our faith will never be overcome by our doubt. Harassed, yes. But when we learn to doubt our doubts, our faith should never be overthrown.
7. Fight to overcome sin in your life.
I intentionally saved this for last. Often this is the first where Christians turn someone they love in their crisis of faith, largely because it helps us put doubt in a discernible place. This also helps us to find a quick solution. “Oh, are you doubting your faith? So stop sinning! What other problems do you have? Obviously, doubt is often more complicated.
But it must be recognized that personal sin absorbs the vitality of faith. Disobedience to God will cause significant damage to your faith.
We are all sinners, but some sins cause unique damage to our mind and worldview, especially if we try to justify them. For example, struggling with same-sex attraction is one thing; actively embracing homosexuality and trying to justify it biblically is another thing entirely. The damage here is not only moral, social, and physical; it also corrupts the mind. The effort to reinterpret the Bible in a more homosexual-friendly way is not going to remain isolated in this category; sooner or later, the mental paradigm you built to make your sin acceptable is going to corrupt everything else.
In short, if there is something you know you should do and you are not doing it, doubt will soon set in and your crisis of faith will be difficult to overcome. We need to kindly ask these kinds of questions when the time is right. But simply accusing people of some deep-seated personal sin without much opportunity for defense can be judgmental and embarrassing. Ask if there is any sin that might be causing the person’s doubt. If the answer is no and you can’t easily identify something as the cause, don’t force the issue.
region and country
I have discovered that there are mainly two types of doubters. The first are walking away from God and believe they are finding freedom. The latter feel that they are walking away from their faith and are deeply disturbed by it. The difference with the second type of people who doubt is that they always go to God, shouting with outstretched arms for help. Fortunately, in most cases, the doubters eventually come back to faith.
You may always, to some degree, live in the region of doubt. However, it is possible that your region of doubt is still within the country of faith. Doubting your faith doesn’t mean you don’t have faith. Jude 22 says that we should have compassion on those who doubt, whether the doubt is in ourselves or in others. Let’s do that.
Originally posted on . Translated by Roman González.