Family Of God Lutheran Church

Are you looking for a church that has all the answers or one who will help you live with your questions and equip you with tools to support you when you doubt?......

Without a doubt!

(How to deal with our doubts and questions of faith)

     Do you ever wish you could have been there walking around with Jesus like the disciples who were able to see him and hear his voice and know for certain, without a doubt that Jesus is the son of God?  Doesn’t it seem like faith would be much easier with first hand experience of Jesus.  Yet, as you read the Bible, especially the gospels that tell about Jesus life, you get a different picture of the disciples.  None of them believe after the resurrection that Jesus is really alive…until they see him and even then they are still mystified as to what to make of it.  The most famous disciple for questioning the fact that Jesus had been resurrected was Thomas.  The truth is none of the disciples believed in the resurrection until Jesus himself appears to them later that evening when they are all together in the upper room.  Thomas just happens to miss out.  He is not there to see Jesus, so he asks for what the others got: Proof!  He wanted to see Jesus himself- and touch him!  Who can blame Thomas?  Because of this he has been dubbed the patron saint of doubters.

     Thomas is in a long line of Christians who have been faithful, inspiring and saintly types, who have also struggled with doubts.  Among them: Martin Luther, MLK Jr., Mother Teresa and Billy Graham.  Yes, these giants of the faith, all at one time or another expressed their own personal doubts and struggles with faith in the risen Christ.  I don’t know about you, but I find that comforting to know that my doubts and questions are not that unusual, and perhaps are part of the process to grow and mature in faith.   

How to deal with doubts

1.     Don’t be caught off guard. Doubts are going to come. Do accept this as part of the faith journey.  See this as an opportunity to grow. If your faith is never challenged how do you grow?  As one person shares:

 “Doubt has undoubtedly played a role in a walk of faith throughout my life.  Sometimes I have been overcome with uncertainty.  I repeatedly reaffirm that I have choices, the most significant being either  "to believe or not to believe".  I sometimes pray for God to heal my skepticism.  I think of faith as a gift that He instills.  God is faithful to me, He knows and accepts me!  Doubt can be one of the very weaknesses that draw me closer to Jesus as my Savior and Lord.”    (Anonymous- in response to Question of the week. *)

2.     Don’t despair, Doubts are not the opposite of faith and do not mean you no longer have faith or have lost it.

 Do hope and find comfort in the fact that often folks who have struggled with doubt, and we all do, come out on the other side with a stronger faith. 

     In the end the faith that we have is not a faith without doubt, one that never struggles with doubt or the opposite of doubt but a faith that lives with the questions and with doubts and yet still finds a way to believe.  We can only come to believe through the gift of faith given to us through the power of the Holy Spirit and supported by the community of faith.

3.     Don’t go it alone- Do share your doubts with someone you trust.

When doubts come, share them with your community- small group, friends. Don’t keep them to yourself, thinking that you are all alone. Often if you express the doubt or question, you will find there are others who have had the same doubts and questions.  Just as Thomas, expressed his doubt boldly to the other disciples and didn’t keep it to himself.  Perhaps there is a lesson there for us.  Sometimes it takes a village to help us through our doubts, we need those whom we can trust to talk to and a community who will surround us with faith.  We need to find a place where it is safe to share our faith struggles.

We all are in need of a faith community to support us especially when we have questions and doubts. 

4.      Don’t doubt- in the dark what you believed in the light. 

     Our doubts can come to us strongest when we are “in the dark”, during hard times and times of crisis.   Which can push us straight into the arms of Christ, who invites us to see the nail prints in his hands and put our hands in his side.  He is there with us and for us, even when we doubt it…perhaps, especially then.  Jesus didn’t come to take away all of our problems or our doubts but to help us to live with them, even to believe despite them.  Jesus said to Thomas,  “Put your finger here and see my hands.  Put your hand into the wound in my side.  Don’t be faithless any longer.  Believe!”  John 20:27

Jesus did not condemn Thomas for his doubt; instead he encourages him towards belief and then leaves a message for us:

 “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe ” John 20:29

That would be us!  Jesus is sending us a direct message and blessing us for believing even though we have not directly seen him!  John ends his gospel with the punch line in the next verses: 

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.  But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of God and that through believing you may have life in his name.”  John 20: 30-31

Without a doubt!

Pastor Sigi

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