Our Adult Sunday School class, Jesus and Java, just wrapped up Adam Hamilton’s “Wrestling with Doubt Finding Faith”. We asked questions and explored what it means to have a faith with doubts. There were no easy answers, but we were able to explore ideas and share the doubts we feel. There were six questions we examined:
· Is There a God?
· The Good Book? Wrestling with the Bible
· Are All Non-Christians Going to Hell?
· Is Heaven Real?
· When Prayers Go Unanswered?
· Why do the Innocent Suffer?
I think it’s fair to say we all struggle in some way with these doubts. As I started writing this, I was thinking my struggle is with “When Prayers Go Unanswered”, but really, I wonder about all of these in one way or another. I consider my faith strong, but I know I question my life and my understanding of God at times. “God, are you really there? Do you really love me?” “Is the Bible true? Is it inerrant or is it a collection of essays written by fallible humans?” “Are there limits to God’s love? Do we really go to Hell if we don’t believe specific things?” “Why is there suffering in the world? If God is omnipotent, why does He allow such pain in the world?” There’s a meme on Facebook going around. Man: “God why do you allow things like hate, famine, war, suffering, disease, crime, homelessness, despair, etc. to exist in our world?” Jesus responds, “Interesting that you should ask because I was about to ask you the exact same question.”
We talk about having faith in God. I think that means we strive to trust Him without having all the answers. God’s love is limitless. He is stronger than our doubts. He is strong enough to handle our questions. Just as a small child asks mom or dad a million questions, we can sit with our heavenly Father and ask all the questions on our heart. We are safe with Him. We are secure with Him. We are loved by Him.
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
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