Struggling With a Wavering Faith
Turn to Mark 9:23-24
Show Video Clip from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – Leap of Faith - leaping into the unknown.
Well, we’re talking this morning about those times when we need to make that leap of faith. Times when doubts arise and it all doesn’t make sense and my faith seems weak.
And one thing the Bible and history teach us, is that many people, if not all people, have struggled at times in their life with this issue of doubt and faith.
(Note - Much of the research for this sermon came from the Philip Yancey Book - Reaching For the Invisible God.)
Great Christians over the years have often felt anguish over the unknowable, the anguish of a faith that hit low points. The anguish of having doubts regarding God. And that’s an area the church has not always been kind to, and yet it’s an area that hits us all at different times of life.
St. Augustine the North African Scholar in the 4th century who is seen as one of the great minds of the faith, in his confessions said “I wish I could be made just as certain of things I cannot see as I am certain that 7 +3 make 10.” Yet he never found that certainty. He contended with the same issues that plague us today – believing in the invisible and dealing with a nagging area of distrust or doubt.
Martin Luther battled constantly against doubt and depression. He once wrote, “For more than a week, Christ was wholly lost to me. I was shaken by desperation and blasphemy against God.”
A church in Boston refused to allow Dwight L. Moody to join because they said his beliefs seemed so uncertain.
And we certainly see it throughout the pages of the Bible. Adam, Sarah, Jacob, Job, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Jonah, Thomas, Martha, Peter… people who question, falter, doubt and yet in the end remain faithful.
And I think for many of them, and for many of us, the struggle is summed up by the words of a Father in Mark 9:23-24 who has a sick son, and he says to Jesus, do something if you can, and Jesus says “what do you mean “If you can.”
And he goes on to say everything is possible to him who believes.” And immediately the boys father exclaimed, I do believe; help me to overcome my unbelief.”
God we do believe, but it doesn’t mean we don’t struggle at times. And God help us with our unbelief.
Several points the Bible brings out regarding faith.
#1 – A lack of faith, and the opposite of that, great faith, is found in a variety of people.
It’s ironic that in the Scripture, we almost see a reversal of what you would expect in who possessed great faith in God. Often those that should have much faith, had very little, while those that had little reason to have faith, somehow came up with it and wonders resulted.
Example – the Centurion who said to Jesus you don’t even have to come to my house to heal my servant. Just say the word here and he’ll be healed. And Jesus says “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”
Or think of the Canaanite woman who sought Jesus out and he tried to put her off and she was so persistent that she won him over and he says, “Woman, you have great faith.”
Now why would a Centurion and a Canaanite, both of whom lacked Jewish roots, put their trust in a Messiah whose own countrymen had trouble accepting?
And contrast that with those people that should have known better. Jesus’ own neighbors and family who doubted him. John the Baptist, his cousin would question him. Among those closest to him, the 12 disciples, Thomas would doubt him, Peter would curse him, Judas would betray him, and all would abandon him.
Now here’s the exciting thing, the thing that give us hope, is that whatever grain of faith people had or could muster, God could work through that. Whether it was the bold centurian, or doubting Thomas or the distraught father who cried to Jesus, “I believe, help me with my unbelief.” Jesus always embraced faith, no matter how small it may be at the time. But faith, and doubt, finds itself in a variety of people.
A second thing about a lack of faith or what we might call doubt is that:
#2 – Doubt often leads to discovery –
Like the little boy that said to his dad, “dad, why is the sky blue?” I don’t know son. "dad, why is the grass green?" I don’t know son. Dad...etc. Finally the boy said, "Dad, do you mind me asking these questions?" "Why no son, if you don’t ask questions you don’t learn anything.”
Well, questions and even doubts will often lead us to greater faith. That’s why I love the verse we started with. Lord, I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.” I believe it, I don’t understand it all, but I’m willing to learn and hang in there until I do.
We often look back on difficult times with a fond remembrance because we realize we grew the most there. I think faith is very similar. Perhaps we will look back on our life and realize that it was only after a time of question or doubt that we grew in faith and understanding. It motivated us to search and explore and pray and read. And we came away with an even greater faith.
With that said,
#3 – It is the nature of life that THERE ARE THINGS WE CANNOT KNOW.
And while doubt leads to discovery, sometimes that discovery is simply the realization that this in area that has been roped off by God. An area we cannot and will not know in this lifetime.
There’s a book out called “The Encyclopedia of Ignorance” by Ronald Duncan and Miranda Weston-Smith – things we can’t know
They introduce the book this way: The usual encyclopedia states what we know. This one contains papers on what we do not know, on matters which lie on the edge of knowledge.” And one of their conclusions was that the questions don’t end. As we gain more knowledge, it simply brings more questions.
I think it’s that way in our relationship with God. The nature of who he is, means that the more we know, the more we grow, the more we comprehend, simply brings further and deeper questions. And doubt leads us on in that search. But there will always be things that we do not and cannot know.
Deut. 29:29 – The secret things belong to God – you worry about what you do know. I love that. God has secret things.
And that’s okay and that’s to be expected. I mean think about it. He’s God, I’m human – the nature of who he is, means that I will not understand him and his ways completely. If I did, he wouldn’t be much different from me. There are unanswered questions because I am human and perhaps my mind can’t conceive these things.
#4 - How do I deal with my doubts?
Explore them.
-Example of John the Baptist – are you the one?
God is not threatened by that. The church may be at times.
Sigmond Freud accused the church of only teaching questions that it could answer. I think a lot of churches do that, but God does not.
In the Bible, in books such as Job and Habakkuk and Ecclesiastes, we see that God openly embraces those with honest doubts that are seeking answers.
And what we find is that when we explore them, sometimes we find answers that were not comfortable with. Sometimes we’re confronted with things we didn’t want to think about in the first place. It’s easier for us just to blame God or question God and leave it at that.
I heard on the news recently of a bus crash in Mexico – 36 dead – many children – headed to a religious gathering. And some people say Why God. Why did you do this? And fail to explore the fact that perhaps it happened because there were almost 70 people on a bus built to hold 40. Overcrowded, bad judgement on those that drove and organized…. I don’t know all that, but just saying “Why did you do it God? “ Doesn’t always put the blame in the right spot.
I believe it is easier for many to blame God then to explore their doubts and questions and discover what is really the root behind these things. Exploring our doubts will at times reveal the truth of responsibility.
Philip Yancey, in his book "Reaching for the Invisible God" describes it this way.
"When Princess Diana died in an automobile accident, a minister was interviewed and was asked the question “How can God allow such a terrible tragedy?” And I loved his response. He said, “Could it have had something to do with a drunk driver going ninety miles an hour in a narrow tunnel? Just How, exactly, was God involved.”
In our weakness and wavering faith, God often gets blamed for things. And we need to be careful about that.
Years ago, boxer, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, killed a Korean opponent with a hard right hand to the head. At the press conference after the Korean’s death, Mancini said, “sometimes I wonder why God does the things he does.”
In a letter to Dr. Dobson, a young woman asked this anguished question, “Four years ago, I was dating a man and became pregnant. I was devastated. I asked God, “Why hav eyou allowed this to happen to me?”
Susan Smith, the south Carolina mother a couple years ago who pushed her two sons into a lake to drown and then blamed a fictional car-jacker for the deed, wrote in her confession: “I dropped to the lowest point when I allowed my children to go down that ramp into the water without me. I took off running and screaming, ‘Oh God! Oh God, no! What have I done? Why did you let this happen?”
Now the question remains, exactly what role did God play in a boxer beating his opponent to death, a teenage couple giving into temptation in the back seat of a car, or a mother drowning her children?
Is God responsible for these acts? To the contrary, they are examples of incredible human free will being exercised on a fallen planet. And yet it’s in our nature as mortal, frail, fallen people to lash out at one who is not, that being God." (End of quote)
And so, sometimes exploring our doubts brings us to conclusions we aren’t comfortable with and so for many, they are content to just doubt and leave it at that. I do think we have a responsibility to explore those doubts. But that leads me to the second point in dealing with the doubt.
And that’s to trust God even in those times when it doesn’t make sense.
Job was struggling with so much sickness that he was taking pottery shards a scraping his body with them. It was during this time that he looked for answers. His wife said “curse God and die”.
I’m not sure what school of counseling she went to. But we need to remember that she had suffered much as well. But he was looking for answers. And he turned to God and God’s answer to Job is his answer to us concerning those questions of Why, and those areas of the unknown. And he says two things.
#1 – You are not always in a position to understand. (Job said at the end, surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too great for me to know). That’s us. That’s me. That you. We are a time-bound humans, living in rebellious world, and because of that, we cannot possibly think that we will ever figure it all out. There will be things I don’t know, and I need to understand that.
But the second thing he says to Job is that while you can’t understand it, I can. And trust me to carry you through and to know what is right. You may not understand, there may be much that is hard to believe, but trust in what you do believe. Trust in God and carry on.
We need to get to the place where we can follow the example of Shadrack, Meshack & Abednago. They were threatened to be thrown in the fire. They said, God will save us but even if he doesn’t..He’s still God. Awesome faith.
Well, that leads me to my last point and that’s that we are to carry on in what we do know. There will always be things we do not know. And we could spend our days consumed with the issues of Why? The issues of the unknown. And yet there are so many things we do know and we need to carry on in them.
I think an example of this is seen in the disciples following the resurrection of Jesus.
Matthew 28:16-17- READ - worshipping him and it says, but some doubted.
They doubted but they were still there worshipping. – pray to God to help you with your doubts and to accept the things you cannot know but continue with what you do know.
They didn’t understand it, they couldn’t comprehend it, but he was there before their eyes and so they worshiped. And that’s such good advice. In times of struggle. In times of a faltering faith, carry on, and often you’ll come out the other side with renewed faith, renewed hope, renewed zeal.
And while there are millions of things that we don’t know or don’t understand, the real question is what is it that you do know God would have you do? And why aren’t you doing it?
Is there are decision he would have you to make, something he’s revealed. He’s told you he loves you and he paid the price for your sins. He pledged his life to you and asks you to do the same for him? Have you done that. Have you confessed him as Lord? Have you been immersed in the waters of baptism as a pledge of your life to him?
