When Your Faith Gets Hungry

For many Christians, doubt causes a lot of anxiety. There are difficult days when even the strongest believers wonder if God really cares about them or if he even exists at all, and they begin to suspect that maybe they are not true Christians at all, that they have no business being called a follower of Christ or worshiping in church.  

The truth is, the only people who never worry about doubt are those who have no faith at all.  

Flannery O’Connor said, “It's hard to believe always but more so in the world we live in now. There are some of us who have to pay for our faith every step of the way and who have to work out dramatically what it would be like without it and if being without it would be ultimately possible or not.” She means that believing is hard work in a world that is full of disbelief. You are constantly having to fight influences who are challenging you to turn your back on what you know to be true. Fighting for your faith is not a sign that you are not a true believer. It is the truest index of a heart that seeks God.

It was Paul who described faith, not as a peaceful arrival, but as a battle to stay on higher ground. “Fight the good fight of the faith,” he told Timothy (1 Tim. 6:12). Also, “wage the good warfare” (1 Tim. 1:18). He wrote the Ephesians, saying, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:10-12). And at the end of his life, he wrote, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7). 

So what do you do when you are plagued with doubt? Jeanne Evans once shared a saying with me that contains some good advice. It was written in the back of her mother’s Bible. Maybe you have heard it before: “Feed your faith, and your doubts will starve to death.” While we live in a world filled with unbelief and evil, our faith will get “hungry.” When that happens, it is important to remember that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). If we continue to feed our faith with the Word of God, we will not give into doubt. We will fight the good fight of faith, and as a result, we will grow stronger.

Drew Kizer