Are You Struggling With Your Faith – Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional – I’ve been a Christian for many years. I love my church family, I teach Bible study, and I love God – but that doesn’t mean that I never struggle with my faith. I think if we’re honest we all struggle with our faith at times. Over the twenty plus years that I’ve been a Christian there have been times I’ve experienced doubt creeping in- it usually happens when I begin to question God’s goodness because of the pain and suffering I see in the world and those I know who love God.

I think it’s normal to question our faith and the God of creation (I think we can admit, creation and eternal life is hard to wrap our minds around). We will always have questions, but there’s nothing wrong with having questions. It’s no different than when we were children or when our own children asked the infamous question “why?” I can remember my kids asking why so many times a day that I would try to give the simplest answer I could hoping to avoid another why.

But what is more concerning is when parents dismiss the why’s with a rote answer like “just because that’s the way it is”. When the curiosity of the child fades and they simply stop asking.

One of the healthiest things we can do is to ask why and then seek to find the answer. Curiosity is good. Our God is big enough and capable of answering our questions, as long as we’re willing to ask, seek and knock, He will answer, we will find our way, and Jesus will open the door.

The tragedy is when we don’t ask, and we don’t seek, or knock. When we’re indifferent or apathetic and settle for “just because that’s the way it is”, and we stop asking and seeking.

“Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” Mark 9 v24

To increase our faith we need to ask, like the father of the son who needed deliverance in Mark 9:24 who cried out to Jesus, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” On one hand, he declared he believed but in the same breath he asked Jesus to help him with his unbelief.  We need to be honest with God and ask Jesus to help us with our doubts and pray that He would increase our faith.

In my journey of faith, I’ve come to recognize that the things I hope for and the things I cannot see but can feel like His peace and joy in the midst of pain and difficult circumstances can overcome the doubt and unbelief. I know one thing for sure without a doubt, my life with Christ is better than my life before Christ! So I’ll accept some doubt and continue to ask why in exchange for a life with Jesus.

Faith is deciding to accept something without all the answers, because on this side of heaven there are things we will never understand, but in faith we will begin to see the evidence manifest in our lives because faith is the substance of hope and the evidence of things we’re not able to see with our eyes. So keep your hope on and keep asking, seeking and knocking and you will find.

Carol Doyel is the Founder of LivingBetter50.com. She is a graduate and ordained minister of The Full Gospel Bible Institute and has a passion for women’s ministries, issues, and lives. She and her husband of 30+ years have three grown children and four grandchildren.  Her heart is to encourage women to live better physically, emotionally, financially, and spiritually.