InterVarsity Press

Conversations: Struggling with Newfound Faith

Vanessa:

I am struggling with my newfound faith and I just want to have a conversation with someone who may be going through the same problems that I am.

Ruth:

I resonate with what you are saying about struggling with your faith—whether it is "newfound" or decades old. I think sometimes we are led to believe that the Christian life is a wonderful road to happiness. That's a modern-day heresy. The Bible doesn't say that. In fact, quite the contrary.

Last Sunday night I was preaching at a church in South Carolina, and I chose the first chapter of Ruth as my text. To a modern-day evangelical, it may seem shocking that Naomi, the long-time believer, tells her daughters-in-law, who are following her back to Judah, to go back to Moab. And then to top that off, she complains that "the Lord's hand has gone out against" her. I suggested that this was only truth in advertising and reminded the congregation that Jesus often spoke of taking up the cross to follow him—telling people to leave behind family and to let the dead bury the dead.

So, I think we should expect struggles in our Christian lives.

What is the solution? You answer that yourself, saying that you want to have a conversation with someone who may be going through the same problems. It is so critically important to be in a community of Christian fellowship. If you can't find that in a local church, perhaps you will find someone online. And perhaps someone who is reading this will be able to correspond more fully with you. If your struggles are with doubt and unbelief, know for sure that you aren't alone.

Shalom.