Hebrews 11:1 - “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Billy Graham once said, “Most of us do not understand nuclear fission, but we accept it. I don’t understand television, but I accept it. I don’t understand radio, but I accept it. Why is it so easy to accept all these man-made miracles and so difficult to accept the miracles of the Bible?”
Faith is a personal issue and often demands that we give up what we can seefor what we cannot see, but just because we can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Let me share some ways to weaken your doubts and strengthen your faith:
- Read the Bible consistently.
Romans 10:17 “Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God.”
You may have heard the familiar Old Chinese
saying, “There is a good dog and a bad dog fighting within each of us. The one
that is going to win is the one we feed the most.” The same is true when it
comes to faith and doubt. We weaken our doubt by strengthening our faith in God.
The Word of God feeds the new nature God gives us when we surrender our life to
Him. As that new nature grows stronger, the old sinful nature becomes weaker and
as that old nature becomes weaker, faith in God grows. A steady diet of the Word
produces strong faith. Read the bible each day. Memorize a verse of Scripture
each week.
- Turn to God constantly.
Mark 9:14-29 tells of the man who brings his
demon-possessed son to Jesus Christ and pleads, “If you can do anything, take
pit on us and help us.” Jesus responds, “If I can! All things are possible to
him who believes.” The dad exclaimed, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!”
Sounds just like us. We believe but we also doubt.
In those moments, we must be honest enough to cry out to God. Jesus didn’t
punish this man for his doubt. He healed his son. God always responds to
honesty.
- Focus on God continually.
Psalm 34:6 “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.”
We focus on the mountain while crying out to God
for help, wondering if He really will do anything. We need to remember what God
promises and does not promise. God does not promise to remove the mountain or
that we will even understand the mountain. However, God does promise to help us
climb the mountain and He does promise to climb it with us. We must make the
continual choice to fix our gaze on God and our glance on the circumstances.
When doubt comes, refuse it.
- Seek out faith-builders persistently.
Ecclesiastes 4:12 “And one standing alone can be
attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer; three is even
better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.”
We need to look for people who will encourage us
to be faithful instead of constantly looking for ways to undermine our faith.
Did you hear about the farmer that had a brilliant dog? He also had a neighbor
that was negative - no matter what. If it was raining, the farmer would say to
his neighbor, "Boy, look at it rain. God's washing everything clean." The
neighbor said, "Yeah, but if this rain keeps up, it's going to flood." Then the
sun would come out and the neighbor would say, “If it keeps that up, it's going
to burn the crops." The farmer thought, "What am I going to do with this guy?"
He made a plan. The farmer trained his dog to walk on water. He didn't tell his
neighbor - just took him duck hunting. Boom! Boom! They got two ducks. The
farmer said to his dog, "Go get 'em." The dog sprinted across the water, picked
up the ducks and hopped back in the boat, nothing wet, just his paws. With a
confident smile, the farmer asked his doubting neighbor, "What do you think of
that?" The neighbor quickly replied, "He can't swim, can he?" Do you know people
like the neighbor? Run from the doubters in your life. We struggle enough with
doubt on our own and should not compound it by investing time in doubters and
cynics. Look for people who walk in faith, who believe God and study His Word.
They will encourage and build your faith while weakening your doubts.
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