Why Do We Waver in Our Faith?

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, November twenty-fifth. Do you ever wrestle with your faith because you worry about how God will do what He promises? Steady yourself with objective truth as you listen to today's In Touch Podcast. Everybody has faith. The difference is that some people have a great faith, some people have a little faith, and some people just have faith that just wobbles all over the place. They believe it today, they can't believe it tomorrow. And so, if you ask them, well, what is faith? Well, for those of us who believe it's in Jesus Christ, we know that faith is the confident conviction that God will do what He promised. That's what real, genuine faith is, the confident conviction that God will do what He promised. And in spite of that, there are times when situations arise and things arise that we doubt Him.

We look at the situation of what appears to be the facts and we think that can't happen. God's not in that. And oftentimes, that is exactly what He's up to. All of us are going to go through situations and circumstances where our faith is going to be tested, no question about it. And so, we're going to have those times, but just because you question God does not mean it's a sin. Well, I question God, therefore He's not going to answer my question.

No, that's not true. He understands when we struggle with, especially with situations that come upon us without any warning whatsoever. So, ask yourself this question. Would you consider yourself really to be a real, genuine, true believer, not only for your salvation, but you believe God? You believe He's who He says He is? And you have strong convictions about God answering prayer and listening to you and being patient with you and forgiving you of your sin. Where, in other words, are you a doubter or are you a strong believer?

Well, we all need to know where we are. And so, as I've been thinking about that and thinking about why we doubt, and you can be a believer for years and years and years, and once in a while, something will come along and you think, wait a minute, God, I've been trusting You for years and years and years, why this? And so, I want you to think about these. When you're not trusting God and something comes along that's against our human reasoning, we're prone to doubt sometime. And a good biblical example of that is Peter walking on water. Jesus told him to walk and he walked on the water. Then all of a sudden, Scripture says he saw the waves, that he took his eyes off the Lord and he began to sink. Human reasoning says you don't walk on water.

So, when he began to humanly think about it, he began to sink. If you live by human reason, you will miss God's best for your life. You're going to miss His best because there's nothing in the Bible that says everything spiritual will be reasonable. No, indeed.

So, I think one of the primary reasons is the conflict with human reason. The second one is this, it's when we allow our feelings to overcome our faith. If I said to you, next Sunday, I want you to come up and speak for ten minutes about your testimony. Oh, I couldn't possibly do that.

Yes, you can. You won't because you don't believe God. That is, whatever God calls us to do, He is committed to equipping us to do it, whatever that might be. And this whole idea of feeling unworthy and fear of criticism and inadequacies and so forth, you're either going to believe God or you're not going to believe Him. And listen, the Christian life isn't the natural life.

It's the unnatural life. It's holy God working in people who've trusted Him as their Savior and allowing Him to work and to demonstrate His awesome power in your life. And what He may ask you to do is something totally unreasonable. If you believe Him, watch this, you will obey Him. And for somebody to tell me that they believe God and do not obey Him, they're totally deceived. And so, it's a simple thing, but it's the law of God.

And so, if I let my feelings get the best of me, fear of criticism, fear of what'll happen, you know what? We're to live by faith, not by fear. Another reason I think that we have a problem with this is we don't see God in certain circumstances. And I think if you and I learn to believe this simple truth, you're one of His children, He has promised to take care of you.

It may not be the way you want to be taken care of, but God works in every single circumstance. This is why we say the Bible teaches that if you really and truly believe Him, you believe that He will cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who call it according to His purpose. If I don't believe that, I'm going to say, God, what are You up to? And oftentimes, we get angry at God because we don't understand. And so, we doubt that He is in things that are painful and hurtful, but oftentimes He is.

Then, one of the primary reasons and people waver in their faith is this, watch carefully. They still feel guilt over past sins. You see, guilt is a heavy weight. And if you don't know how to deal with guilt, then what happens? Satan just puts it on you.

And there you are, facing it day after day after day. And think about this, living with the burden of guilt, carrying around this emotional, mental load about something that God forgave you for, and then what happens? Not only do you still bear the load, but your attitude toward God gets messed up. Well, I asked God to forgive me, but He hadn't forgiven me yet. Well, what will it take to get you forgiven? Well, I don't know, I've been trying to do this and you don't have to work to be forgiven. You just have to ask sincerely, believing in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross when He died on the cross for your sins and He provided for your forgiveness. God didn't say you had to work for it. By grace are you saved. What happens is we feel guilty and we can't handle our guilt.

We ask Him to forgive us, claim it, and move on in life. That doesn't mean to be careless about sin, because sin has its consequences. And I'm not saying if you sin against God and ask Him to forgive you, there are no consequences. I didn't say that.

You can drink, smoke pot, run around, have affairs, do all these things, gamble, live like you want to, but look what's happening to our society. There are consequences, all right. Does God forgive sin? Yes, He forgives. Does He erase all the consequences? No, He does not. There's no place in the Bible that God says He just eliminates all consequences because He doesn't.

And then one other thing I'd mention about this, and that's this. We have a hard time believing God when we listen to the devil. Somebody says, well, I don't believe in the devil. Well, if you'll read the eighth chapter of John, then you will either believe in the devil and you don't believe Jesus and you don't believe the Bible.

The devil's real and the devil lies. You can't do that. In other words, that won't ever happen. You can just lay that hope down.

You can just let that gold die and your life's not going to happen. Satan speaks his ugly, horrible language, and he never speaks the language of faith, but doubt and fear, destruction, and all kind of things. So, the question is, what causes these doubts? And I think these are some of the reasons. Now, the question is, we could talk about the consequences, but we all know what the consequences are. The question is, how do we deal with them? How do we deal with these things that pop up in our lives or things we bring upon ourselves? And I think the number of things you ask yourself, you ask yourself seven questions.

This is simple, but it's true. Well, what's the first question? Where do these doubts come from? If I'm doubting God, where do these doubts come from?

Do they come from the truth of God's Word or do they come as a result of how I feel or what somebody else has said? The second question is this, has God ever failed me in the past? God hasn't failed you.

He's never failed any of His children. So, I'm asking my, if I'm doubting, I'm asking myself the question, has God ever failed me in the past? The third is this, did not God promise to meet all my needs?

Yes, He did. And most folks would, if they read the Word of God, believe what Paul said, my God shall supply what? All my needs according to what? According to, listen, His grace and love and sufficiency for us. He makes the promise. So, if you have a need that God has not answered, it's probably one of two reasons. Number one, you're out of His will and He's not going to answer your prayer as long as you're out of His will. Or you're asking for something that absolutely is not His will.

Or you may be asking for it at a time, He's not ready to give it. So, you ask yourself the question, God, what's going on in my life? You haven't failed me. So, did He say He would meet all of our needs? Yes, that's who God is. He will meet our needs and all through the Scriptures, for example, over and over and over again. Multitudes of example of God meeting needs and all of us probably could give some testimonies about how He's met big needs in our life. Yes, He will.

The next question is this. Did He give me the Holy Spirit in order to enable me to believe Him and to be able to do whatever He's required of me? Yes, He has. When you trust that Jesus Christ is your Savior, the Bible says the, watch this, the Holy Spirit, third person of the Trinity, came into your life and sealed you as a child of God until the day He called you home. Sealed, watch, sealed by the Holy Spirit.

Not sealed by somebody, not some stamp. He sealed you with what? With the presence of the Holy Spirit. Every single one of us who is a believer is sealed until the day we die when God calls us home to be with Him.

Sealed by the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. That's His promise. And so, therefore, that being true, I have the Holy Spirit to look to as He says in His Word in John that He's our teacher, He's our guide, He's the one who comforts us and leads us. He will show us the way. He will guide us in the right way, guide us in answering our prayers, guide us to know how to pray. That's the promise we have if we'll trust Him, if we'll believe Him. And then, another question is this. Did He not promise to be with me at all times?

Yes, He did. What does He say? I will not sometimes never leave you nor forsake you.

Never, never, never. Once you trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, watch this, you couldn't be alone if you wanted to. You may get lonely, but you won't be alone. And here's the reason. Living inside of you is the presence of Almighty God, the Holy Spirit.

You can't ever be alone, never. And so, it all boils down to practical faith. Do I believe what He said or do I not believe it? If I believe it, then I'm going to write down each of these things and say, thank You, Lord, thank You. Is it, another question is, is anything too hard for God?

Anything? He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and He's there. Waiting for you to ask. Waiting and watching if you're willing to be obedient to Him so He can grant you the petition of your heart, the need of your life when He wants to give it, when He knows you're ready for it, and He knows the way you can accept it. God loves you, but He's not going to force it upon you. So, when I think about questions, this is a question and I want to give you a brief illustration. Is this one of those forks in the road in which my unbelief could cost me a lifetime of regret?

Write it down. Is this one of those forks in the road when I'm trying to find out what I should do? Lord, what do You want me to do?

Not asking my friends, asking God, what do You want me to do? Is this one of those forks in the road and my answer's going to affect me the rest of my life? And I have looked back many years and I was a pastor at this time in Miami, so I was in my twenties. And I'd been wrestling with God about something that He'd told me to do that I was scared to do. I felt too ignorant to do it. I felt I would be embarrassed.

I felt that I would fail. I gave God all of these reasons. And several months went by and I'm still asking God about this. No. Is God saying anything?

No, no, no, no. I had two or three days at that point before I had to make a decision and it was a big time vital decision. So, my wife had taken the kids to school that morning and I'm lying down in the sunroom in Miami and talking to God. And I knew in my heart, I think I knew in my heart what was going on, but I'd been fudging.

You know what fudging is. You just keep putting it off and trying to convince God that He had the wrong person. And I was lying there just talking to the Lord and He made this crystal clear. He said it so strongly, I have never forgotten it.

He said, here's your choice. You can do what I'm telling you to do and see how I'll bless you and see what I'll do in your life. Or, you can disobey me, refuse to obey me, and spend the rest of your life wondering what I would have done with you had you obeyed me. That's all I needed. I thought, God, if I'm the biggest failure, it doesn't make any difference.

I'm not going that route. I'm going to trust You no matter what. Thank God, by His grace and love and mercy, He confronted me with a life question. And you think about it, we all come to those forks in the road and there's some forks, there's no turning back. It's either do what's right or spend the rest of your life with the consequences. You say, well, that's just you know, that's a principle. There are times, there are seasons, there are forks in the road in everybody's life.

It may be a big fork or a little fork, but it's a fork. And your decision will determine your destiny and what happens in your life. To doubt God, keep on doubting God is a sin. It's not just a sin, it's a disaster. And you may be saying, well, I guess I blew it back yonder somewhere. Would you not agree that you've paid the price? That there are consequences that you wish you'd never had to experience? Yes, that's true. Will God forgive you?

Yes. Well, what'll happen if He forgives me? Here's what'll happen. No matter who you are, where you are, what your age, what you may have missed, He'll take you right where you are. He'll forgive your sin, cleanse you, write your name in the Lamb's Book of Life, if you've never been saved. Or if you've been saved and you've lived in disobedience all those years, will He forgive you? Yes. Will He make it possible for you to get all that back?

No. There are consequences to sin, but which there is no retrieving. Forgiven, yes.

Consequences, they're still there. If you're wise, you'll trust Jesus Christ as your Savior right now. My prayer for you is simply this, that you ask Him to forgive you of your sin and to save you, that you're surrendering your life to Him and you want Him to govern your life all the days of your life.

And He'll start immediately if you ask Him. And Father, how grateful we are for love that's beyond our comprehension. Make our faith solid, immovable, unchangeable, unwavering, fully connected to You. And we know that that takes time to develop it, but here we are, Lord. I pray the Holy Spirit will make it simple. I pray the Holy Spirit will make it easy for us to live a life that's full of joy, compassion, repentance, turning away from a life of sin and surrendering to Christ. That's the best way, the only way to experience eternal life. Happiness and joy and peace, even in the midst of trials in this life, in Jesus's name, amen. Visit our 24-7 web radio station at InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.