Praying Through Pain: Moving From Grief to Praise a 10 - Day Plan by Kathy-Ann C. Hernandez, Ph.d.Sample

Day 5

Questioning Our Way Into Faith

“Can you doubt your way into faith?” In graduate school, one of my professors posed this question to our class. He provoked us to think more deeply about how we exercise our faith. Too often, we equate questioning with doubting or see faith as the uncontaminated opposite of doubt. But can faith and doubt co-exist in believers?

I will confess that in the face of difficult life circumstances which God allowed me to experience, there have been many times when my faith was shaky; it was mingled with doubt. I had questions for God that seemed improper to ask. I wanted to fully express my pain, frustration, and even anger to Him and seek clarity about what had happened and why? But I was afraid to do so. Here’s why. That is not how I had been taught to pray. It was certainly not the prayers I had seen modeled for me in my church setting. If we listen to prayers from most pulpits, we might think of those prayers as representing the standard prayer template; we might view any deviation from this template as inappropriate.

However, when we look at the experiences of some of the champions of faith as recorded in the Bible, we see individuals who spoke to God with a level of relational intimacy that is both comforting and liberating. For example, Abraham repeatedly questioned God over the terms for the destruction of Sodom. Job also questioned God in his suffering, as did David in many psalms. These prayers show us that God is not offended by the questioning of His children. He is not easily put off by our feeble attempts to exercise our faith.

We can find great encouragement in reflecting on the experience of the father who brought his demon-possessed son to Jesus. This man wanted to believe that Jesus could indeed heal his son. However, after seeing the disciples fail in this task, he was a bit unsure that Jesus could do it. The man recognized his inability to strengthen his faith. In desperation, he cried out: “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24, NIV). Like this man, we too can bring our questions to God. We can bring our watery faith to a heavenly father who understands and can help our unbelief.

Reflect

What questions do you have for God about current or past difficult life situations you have faced? How prepared are you to enter into an earnest conversation with him about the pain?