60% of Christians Affected By Doubt
When I created my apologetics assessment, I had the following question on my survey:
Have you ever had a crisis of faith or a period of strong doubt while being a Christian?
60% said yes, I’ve struggled with it in the past, or I still struggle with doubt today.
This made me want to interview some of my Christian friends to see if any of them have ever struggled with doubt themselves. Here’s what they had to say.
Questioning (Allison)
Allison: “I don’t have any moment in time or where I had doubted if God exists. I’ve had a really deep, dark time of struggle and kind of on-again, off-again, going around the same mountain–and a lot of questioning. ‘Why God What are you doing? I don’t get it. Where are you?’ He took me through some really tough stuff, moving all over the country. And I was on my own. And job loss and isolation and huge, life changing moments. I banged my head against this wall. And then I’d go over here and I’d bang my head against that wall. And then I go over here and get punched in the face, over here and I get stabbed in the back over there. And it just felt like I was a spin cycle for years.”
Unanswered Prayers (Gina)
Gina: “In our community, we have a lot of single Christians that have had trauma in relationships and have been on their knees praying for God to bring them a partner in life. And there’s a lot of a lot of struggle and doubt in that area. We also have people in our community that struggle to find and maintain work–and the ups and downs of that and being able to trust God in that process.”
Distractions (Aubrey)
Aubrey: “I would say that even though I didn’t really have so much of a doubt, I did have distractions. I had a ‘getting off track’ and not really seeing the importance of the things I was doing–and the things perhaps of going astray in some areas.”
God, Why Did That Happen? (Rebecca)
Rebecca: “I grew up in the church and kind of dedicated my life to Christ when I was 16. But I think a time that where I’ve felt the most distance from God and felt the most doubtful of my faith is after a motorcycle accident that I had–and how a God who is all powerful, all loving–who could change the circumstances because He has throughout biblical times, you know, change nature, you know, by calming the storm–how that wasn’t something that he prevented from happening. And so I think in those times I was very just hurt, like how could God do that to me?”
Intellectual Doubt (Shawn)
Listening to my friends, I began to think of my own struggle with doubt.
My story goes like this.
As a new Christian, I remember going through a strong period of doubt. And the way that I would describe it is that I would come to God in prayer. And as I’m praying, it was almost like there was a voice in my head telling me, “you don’t really know that God’s there. You don’t know for sure that God exists. Did Jesus really rise from the dead? Is the Bible really the word of God?”
I remember wanting to pray to God but having this this struggle of not really knowing if Christianity was true.
So my doubt was more of an intellectual doubt. And when we compare my story to my friends, it’s clear that Christians don’t all struggle without the same way.
Advice for Those Struggling With Doubt
Aubrey: “I think it’s good to recognize that if you have doubt that to be open and honest with God about it.”
It’s interesting to me that Aubrey mentioned this because that’s exactly what I did. I came to God one day. And I remember praying, “Lord, I have these doubts whether whether you even exist or whether Christianity is true, but I choose to believe in you not having all of the answers.”
Then I put time and energy into finding these answers.
I discovered there’s a whole area called Christian apologetics, which defends the Christian faith. I found out there’s historical evidence for Jesus and His resurrection. And there’s archaeology that shows the Bible is reliable. I also found a radio show where people could ask questions about the Bible. And I discovered there’s creation science organizations that show there’s no conflict between the Bible and science.
So I want to tell you if you’re struggling with with doubt, the answers are out there. There’s books that have been written, there’s videos from apologists that you can watch on YouTube.
And if you’re like me, and you are experiencing doubt, just know that God will lead you into the answers. Ask, seek, knock and you will find. That’s what happened to me!
And Alison had some good advice: “The more I filled up with Him in His Word, the less room there was for doubt, the less room there was for despair. So whoever it is doubting, I would encourage you to don’t give up. On purpose make a choice not to give up. You may not get it, you may not feel it, but trust Him. He will get you there. He is getting you there. He will never let you go and He’s gonna hold on and it’s gonna be super cool on the other side. And it’s you’re going to be a happier healthier person because of it.”