Recently there have been several high profile Christians that have come out publicly saying that they no longer believe in Christ, and are walking away from their faith.
As Christians, we all go through periods of doubting our faith – Thomas in the Bible was a classic example of this, and Peter denied Jesus three times. While most use these periods of doubt to get deeper into God’s Word, spending time in prayer and searching out answers to doubts, how do we make sure that doubts don’t lead to walking away from God?
Pastor Ben Windle spoke with Robbo and Becci on Vision Christian Radio’s Rise & Shine about what to do when faith doubts arise both in own journey and in the lives of those around us.
“I stand by the people that are asking questions, and have a lot of grace for people that are going through that. I don’t see it as a Christian issue or church issue; I see it as a human issue.”
“Everybody has questions about life, and those questions will sometimes lead to clarity where we find compelling answers. Other times those questions will lead to doubts, where we find grey areas and uncertainties. I think that is a normal part of the human experience.”
Even when people struggling with doubts turn to God’s Word for answers, they can still find themselves wrestling to find answers to satisfy their inner doubts.
“If you are a person of faith, it doesn’t make you immune from that,” Ben continues. “I was raised in a Christian family and absolutely have had my doubts. If you hold the zoom lens over certain Bible characters, we don’t know what their inner monologue was. Are we totally convinced that Joseph never had any doubts at all when he was thrown in a pit by his brothers?”
“The greater challenge we have today is social media that takes a snapshot of that moment. We know that Peter, who was one of Jesus’ personal recruits, was mentored by Jesus and a personal friend of Jesus – yet even he denied Jesus three times.”
“If we took a snapshot of Peter’s life right there, blogs would be written where he would be criticised and questions asked about how could he turn his back on Jesus.”
“And yet we know that Peter went on to be the founder of the New Testament Church. That’s why I stand by the people who may be prominent, and have expressed some of their feelings and emotions.”
“It can be real easy for people to point the finger and say ‘how could they?’ but again to me it’s part of the human experience. And I know I can’t be one of those because I’ve had doubts in my own journey and I’ve had to wrestle with those myself.”
Continue listening to Ben sharing how to deal with doubts in the podcast below.
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