Help My Unbelief: How to Overcome Doubt and Increase FaithSample

Day 2: Believing in God vs. Believing God

Accepting Jesus’ Sacrifice and the message of the Gospel is one thing, but trusting God in your daily walk and taking Him at His Word is another. We can choose to adopt Biblical principles in our lives easily, but maybe struggle believing Him for specific details in our lives. For example, in areas like relationships, health, dreams, goals, and finances.

Believing God is not believing that He will answer all I am praying for. It’s believing that when He does not answer as I would like, His love, sovereignty, Word, and attributes continue being real and that what He does, or allows to be done to us, can work together for our good (Rom.8:28); that He is powerful enough to keep the world spinning and personal enough to hear even my sighs.

How Do We Reflect We Are Not Believing God?

This unbelief, be it hidden or expressed, can permeate and alter areas of our life if it goes unaddressed. How I live, my reactions to situations and problems, and my decisions are all an external expression of what I believe about God and whether or not I believe Him.

If I know Scripture says that obedience is more important to Him than sacrifice (1 Sam.15:22), yet I choose to continue living in sin in any area of my life, I am showing that, in essence, I don’t believe God’s Word is true, that His Commands are for my well-being and that I will, in fact, reap what I sow.

I can go to church as much as I want, but if that does not affect my decision-making and my obedience, I demonstrate that deep down, I don’t believe God is a jealous God, or that He knows what is best for me, and that I have not decided to follow Him come what may.

In my life, when I find myself in the pit of “this will never change,” my unbelief comes floating right up! It shows me that I am not believing God is a Good Father because I am expecting nothing from Him, almost like He would abruptly decide, “I’ve had enough of her. She can figure life out for herself.” Something that I, as a flawed, imperfect mother can’t imagine feeling towards my own children, yet somehow think God, who is LOVE, could feel towards me.

When someone does me wrong and I succumb to fear, am I forgetting that “No weapon forged against me will prosper” (Is.54:17)? Am I truly believing His Word for my life? If I am honest, I am not. And therein lies my struggle. I need to not only read Scripture but internalize it and make it part of my constant thinking. Paul said we must be “transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-His good, pleasing and perfect will” (Rom.12:2).

If I don’t know what God says in Scripture, how can that shape my belief? If I don’t know what His Promises are, how can I pray them over my life? The truth is, I must first know His Words, then apply them in order to live a life that is not marked by despair, unbelief, and defeat.

Where else can we find that? Whose words have the power to transform us so? No one’s! Only His Words are Living and Powerful, and that should be reason enough for me to desire them. Yet, my human nature tends towards laziness, towards relying only on what I hear in a sermon at church on Sunday, or the verse of the day in an app.

But to experience the transforming power of His Words in our lives, we must spend time reading and memorizing Scripture. This also fuels our belief in Him. Not knowing His Word is one of the main reasons we doubt, but certainly not the only one.

Tomorrow we’ll look at other reasons why we might experience unbelief.

Meditate

• Do some of my actions reveal I am not believing God, despite believing in God?
• Am I studying Scripture frequently?
• Am I spending time meditating on His Words and applying them to my daily life?
• Do I believe God wants to bless me, or do I think He wants to bless others, just not me?

Prayer

Father, thank You for Your Words. Thank you that they lead us to all Truth and help us battle against the lies of this world and the enemy. I ask that You create a thirst in me for Your Word; that I desire to know it and that it becomes a Light for my path and life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.