InterVarsity Press

Conversations: How Can I Conquer Doubt?

Kathy:

I have accepted Christ. God helped me understand, but now I feel doubts about Christ and human reasoning setting in that I can't get out of my head. It seems like the more I try to get rid of those doubts the more they haunt me. My one desire is to have an affection for Christ that is personal, but I am my own worst enemy. I feel like maybe I did not do something right or I don't know. The doubts are horrible and I don't want them. I pray all the time, maybe God is testing me. What can I do?

Ruth:

Thank you for writing. I wish I had a simple solution for you in your struggle with doubts. Sometimes doubts just seem to pass away. Other times they come to blend in with belief; that is true for me. My faith is a mixture of doubt and belief.

You say: "It seems like the more I try to get rid of those doubts the more they haunt me." I wonder if you might take some proactive steps in responding to the doubts. For example, you might want to write out all your doubts on a piece of paper and put the paper in an envelop and seal it and set it up on a book shelf. This doesn't deny the doubts but it does symbolically set them aside until such time as you want to contemplate them again. This may seem like a phony trick to you and it may not work but I would encourage you to try it, or try some other symbolical act of setting aside your doubts.

Have you verbalized these doubts to someone? Maybe that would help you move beyond them.

Another proactive response might be to listen to music that focus your mind and heart on God rather than on your doubts.

Also, I personally find the advice of F. W. Robertson helpful:

"But there are hours, and they come to us all at some period of life or other, when . . . you doubt all whether Christianity be true: whether Christ was a man or God or a beautiful fable. . . . In such an hour what remains? I reply, Obedience. Leave those thoughts for the present. Act and be merciful and gentle and honest; force yourself to abound in little services; try to do good to others; be true to the duty that you know. That must be right, whatever else is uncertain." (Walking Away from Faith, pp. 132-133)

Finally, I would encourage you to see your doubts as a part of you that sharpens your faith and your doubts may allow you to reach out to someone else who is struggling in the same way that you are.

I hope you will find something that I've written here helpful as you continue in your pilgrimage of faith. Blessings.