Doubting God and Having Faith

Doubting God and Having Faith Written by Robyn Scott It started with such a small thing. One day, I couldn’t find the pop socket that attaches to the back of my phone. I looked everywhere, multiple times. I couldn’t find it anywhere. I prayed what seemed like a simple but legitimate prayer: Lord, please help me find this silly thing. But it didn’t turn up, and I still couldn’t find it, no matter how hard I looked. Didn’t Jesus care about the smallest details of our lives? Didn’t He want us to come to Him for help, no matter how big or small our request? I couldn’t understand why He wouldn’t just let this little item appear somewhere. I’m sure the seed of doubt was planted well before I lost my pop socket. But Satan definitely used that experience to crack open the door to my growing doubt issue. I talked to God and let Him know how I was feeling. I began asking– why is it so hard to just know you’re there? I remember getting so frustrated after hearing a podcast one day where the author said we can talk to God all day – whether we are washing dishes or driving the car, we can pray and talk to God anytime. I thought to myself, “How silly do I look, praying all day to God, when he never talks back to me? He obviously knows I’m here and that I exist, so why can’t I just have some confirmation that HE exists?!” So, I started asking God to send me some supernatural sign to confirm he’s there. Something I couldn’t confuse with my mind’s own voice or a coincidence. Well, that didn’t happen, either. Now I was getting really frustrated. First, he wouldn’t help me find a small object that I’d lost, and now he wouldn’t give me just one sign, so I’d know without a doubt he’s there! I found myself doubting – even big, fundamental concepts: if there are so many other religions out there, where did they come from if Christianity is correct? How do I know I’ve got it right? Does God really exist? How do I know the voices that I think are God aren’t really just from my own mind? People can make a convincing argument about pretty much anything these days. I didn’t feel comfortable seeking out answers from other people. I also didn’t fully trust myself to find these answers. When I was praying to God about these things, I started to feel like maybe God was saying, “You don’t turn to yourself – you turn to me.” The more I thought about it, the more I realized that my beliefs needed a solid foundation. I’m not a research scientist or theologian with in-depth knowledge, so I had to build that foundation from somewhere, whether it was science, the Bible, or something else. But I wanted to build my foundation on him. Despite my doubts, I continued to read the Bible. As I read, God came alongside me to reveal a few keys that helped me build a foundation of faith.