“Be merciful to those who doubt.”

–Jude 1:22

Haver you ever shared with someone a worry or anxiety that’s been plaguing you and their response was essentially, “Well, just stop worrying!”?

When I was newly married, I would frequently commit this cardinal sin that many husbands carry out. Allie would share a problem or worry and instead of listening or validating, I would rush to solve the problem–to “fix it.”

Sound familiar?

The funniest example of this common marital dilemma can be found in a short YouTube video about a woman with a construction nail stuck in her forehead.

It opens with the young woman complaining about a “constant pressure” and her concern that it won’t go away. “I like can literally feel it in my head,” she shares. Over and over, her exasperated male counterpart recommends having the giant nail in her forehead removed. And over and over, the young woman explains it’s not about the nail and how she wishes he would “just listen.”

People living in a Christian context who struggle with continuing to believe in God, or maintaining a robust faith, can probably relate to the young woman.

You Gotta’ Have Faith!

The solution frequently shared by one Christian to another struggling with doubt is often to JUST BELIEVE MORE. It may not be articulated quite like that, but that’s the implication anyway.

“Well, you just gotta trust that God has a plan.”

“God is in control–you just need to let go and let God.”

“God works in mysterious ways.”

And so on…

If only it were that easy.

As someone who has struggled with doubt, telling me to “believe more” when I’ve run low on faith is like telling someone whose car is out of gas to simply press harder on the accelerator. There’s nothing left in the tank and trying to push harder isn’t going to do the trick.

What’s needed is a deeper diagnosis of the issue and a legitimate fuel source to get the engine running again.

In this blog, we’ll examine how you can properly understand and diagnose deeper causes of doubt; and in the next installment, we’ll dive into how we can tap into a proper fuel source.

Going Deeper on Faith and Doubt

If you regularly struggle with doubt like I once did, start by spending some time reflecting on what sits below the surface of our faith and doubt.

What do I mean?

Understand your faith is undergirded by emotions, desires, fears, and a host of experiences that inform how you exercise trust. If you grew up in an unstable home, struggle with control issues, or have other things in your background that make it hard for you to trust, then it’s going to take time to work through your doubts. It’s going to take time to build trust with God.

I once had a pastor who said when he met with college students struggling with doubt, one of the first questions he would ask was, “Are you sleeping with your girlfriend or using porn?”

Whoa–a little personal, eh?!

Maybe, but the point is this: if someone is willingly engaging in behaviors that are detrimental to the soul, it’s going to impact their spiritual life (namely, their faith).

For you, reflect on the following and ask the Holy Spirit how it might be impacting your trust in God:

1. Is there a pattern of sin (hatred, bitterness, unforgiveness, sexual immorality, jealousy, etc.) that you’ve let go on for some time? Ask the Lord to show you how that’s impacted your trust in Him and others.
2. Is there a moment in your past where you expected God to come through and you feel He didn’t somehow? Talk about it with the Lord.
3. Is there something you need or deeply desire in your life that you haven’t received; do you feel like God is holding out on you? Be honest with the Lord; and wait to see what He brings to mind through His Spirit or Scriptures.

Getting to the root of what underpins your trust in God–or trust in general–is critical to dealing with doubt. We are holistic humans; and that means our past, desires, decisions, emotions, and faith are all connected.

Next week, we’ll look at how we can get a life-giving fuel source to turn over the engine of our faith once again.