Is it possible doubt and unbelief come from the mind, while faith comes from our heart?...One's belief in Jesus and His Father requires faith, and not doubt...But faith is not perfect...So there is doubt found in faith...Only Jesus had perfect faith...So with faith seems to come doubt...Or at least some doubt...At least it does for me, there are times when I do doubt and struggle with my unbelief...I asked for Jesus to help me overcome my doubts...There are times when a loneliness grabs me and I feel doubt around me...And I also believe that even most, if not all believers, have had one or more times of doubt in their lives...But even in my doubts, I believe that Jesus exists, and His Father is God, and He sent us a Holy Spirit...I believe each of us has a soul and an indwelt Holy Spirit...A Holy Spirit that guides us and makes us want to believe that there is a God...A Holy Spirit that is nudging us and trying to guide us toward the Truth...
So I do not look at doubt as the opposite of faith...I would say that unbelief is not necessarily the opposite of faith in God and His Son...Doubt is are more like uncertainty, than it is like faith...And uncertainly can happen...Unbelief, especially unbelief in God is further from faith, than doubt is...Doubt and continued doubt can lead to the unbelief of God, but our doubts and doubt can also lead us to faith...When we think of one of the great Christian sayings, trust in the LORD, -this trust and trusting are about our faith in the Father and Son...This trust, or our hope, and our belief is more like faith, than they are like certainty...We are trusting in something that we cannot see...Certainty is not the same as faith...Certainty is more like reason, to me...When we reason things out, then we find our truths and our beliefs...Truth, it seems, is where our faith and our reason meet...There is an Ultimate Truth...There are Universal Truths...Faith, and the strength of our faith, is related to the amount of doubt and doubts we have...When we think about these things many things are related, yet doubt, reason, truth and faith do not have the same definitions...Truth and faith are two different words, thus two different things...All these things -doubt, unbelief, uncertainty, certainty, faith, truth, reason come together to give us more faith or less faith, or to give us more doubt or less doubt...But each of these words have different meanings, but let us not forget they are all linked to our faith...Because, it seems to me, that in all of man's faith there has been at times, some doubt -except for Jesus...He kept His faith, in His Father...
C. S. Lewis said this about his doubts in his faith, "Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable; but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable."...
Faith is the antidote to doubt and unbelief...We need faith to help undermine our doubts and our unbelief...Faith gives us a hope for an optimistic future, even after our death...Unbelief and non-belief does no such thing...Our faith needs to be resilient...And as we think about these different things about doubt, doubt becomes more of a complex subject, much like faith...
The author of Hebrews in chapter eleven links faith and certainty...He teaches us that faith is being sure what we hope for...Faith also makes certain of things we cannot see...The author uses the example of God created the universe, and no one was around to see it being created, but we can be certain He created the world because He is God, and it is written about by Moses in the beginning in Genesis...God can create something out of nothing...Something man cannot do...For man to create something, he has to start with something...To believe in God, one must believe and have faith that He was involved in creating and forming the universe...The universe was formed at God's command...God, in the beginning, made everything out of nothing...To believe this takes faith...Faith is the foundation of Christianity...I (and we) can only be called followers of Jesus, if we believe and have faith in Him...
Mark 9:24
24 "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
John 20:24-30
Thomas Doubting
24 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!"
But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."
28 Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
29 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
30 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.
John 11:8-16
Thomas Encouraging
8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Luke 17:5-6
5 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"
6 He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.
John 14:5-7
The Way, The Truth, and The Life
5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
Hebrews 11:1-3
By Faith
1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
These are some of the greatest verses pertaining to faith in the Bible...These verses are about doubt, but yet they are about our own faith...I do believe, but help me overcome the part of me that doesn't believe...It is like I am two men instead of one...I need Jesus and have faith in Him, but a part of me doubts...And on many days the doubt is stronger...Even His disciples asked Him to increase their faith and He was with them at the time...I know Jesus is the Truth...I know He tells us to be perfect, like His Father is perfect...I know we are told by St. Peter to Holy, like God is Holy...But I often feel more like the verses, "I do believe, but help me with my unbelief part" and please LORD "increase my faith"...
Even Jesus disciples, at times, had some doubt...Jesus appeared to the disciples after He was resurrected...Thomas was not with the disciples when Jesus appeared...The other disciples told Thomas they had seen the LORD...When one or your friends you completely trust tell you a truth, would you believe him or her?...Would you believe ten other people that you had been very close to for three years (who were taught honesty and not to lie, by our Messiah)?...
Thomas, who had been with Jesus for three years, did not believe or trust the other ten disciples about seeing Jesus...Thomas not only doubted Jesus was alive, he doubted his friends and disciples...He did not believe in them -that they were telling the truth...After all this time with Jesus bringing the good news about our Father, teaching love for all, Thomas still does not believe the ones he trusted the most...
Thomas would go a week without seeing Jesus, after the other disciples had seen Him (a week earlier)...The others would have been ecstatic (for this weekly period)...Thomas would have watched the others in disbelief, and would have been wondering many things...Was Thomas' faith wavering during this week?...He might be thinking am I the weakest of the disciples?...Am I the disciple with the weakest faith?...Many more things probably went through this head...What did they see, why was His tomb empty, who took the body, are the others playing a joke on me, why wasn't I there when He appeared, am I the only one who will not get to see Him?...Why can't I believe them?...Why cannot I believe in the One who was sent?...Why can't I just believe?...Am I like the Pharisees?...Yet, earlier on there way to see Lazarus, Thomas was strong and said he would die with the LORD...Our faith can be and is stronger on different days...It was for Thomas in these two very different settings...
Jesus knows which ones of us are unbelieving, with little faith, and the one's without faith...He knows which one of us is and are doubting...In Thomas' case Jesus' chooses to allow Thomas to see Him...When Jesus appears, He tells Thomas to stop doubting and believe...Thomas then recognizes that Jesus and says "My LORD and My God"...
We are not know told why Jesus came back to appear to Thomas (and the others)...He may have felt that Thomas needed this one last extra something to push him through his doubt, so he (Thomas) could later spread the good news unfettered with full belief...Because after seeing Him and touching His glorious wounds, how now could he not believe?...Jesus may have chosen Thomas (as His disciple) and the doubting Thomas story, because so many of us can relate to this kind of doubt, at times in our lives...
Jesus teaches us that even a small amount of faith is powerful...Faith is not about things we know...Faith is not about things we understand...Faith is about believing in something you cannot see or hear, and knowing it is certain (Hebrews 11:1)...But like Thomas we cannot always have great faith, and some days we will have doubts...But if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can do many great things...
We know that doubt happens...We know that Jesus knows, when we doubt...We also know how hard it is to always believe each and everyday...If someone, as faithful as Thomas, cannot get the doubt out of his mind after three years with the Master, how hard is it for us to not have some doubt, on some days of our lives...
Thomas had hope...We almost feel Thomas being ashamed and embarrassed, when he sees Jesus and says "My LORD and my God"...
All we know it was part of God's plan for Thomas to see Jesus and His glorious wounds...Thomas had one week of being with the Twelve (minus Judas) and still would not stop doubting and believe...He doubted for one week...
We are reminded about doubt in Mark 9:22-24, where a father asks Jesus to heal his son...The father asks Jesus if He can heal the boy...But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us..."'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes..."Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
John the Baptist, the great messenger sent ahead of Jesus even asks (in Matthew 11:2), "Are you the One who was to come or should we expect Someone else"?...One goal in our faith, is to keep the faith...We will or may have some periods of doubt...Know there may be days or periods of doubt, like John the Baptist had, and St. Thomas had...
We can have belief and doubt at the same time...Doubt is not the opposite of faith...Faith and doubt in life can co-exist...We as believers may be weak, doubtful, slow...Our faith may grow only one a drip at a time, but we are given hope, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed...
Doubt can stop us...Doubt sometimes hinders us from doing things...Doubt may stop us from doing many things that we should do and should try...God gave us curious minds...A child's mind is innocent and curious...We must be like children to enter the kingdom of God...We must continue to learn and to keep up our curiosity and our learning going and growing...God is Infinite...The more we study and learn about Jesus, the less doubt we should have...But there may always be some doubt, like Thomas had...Jesus wants us to do the right things and seek the right things...He wants us to search and to seek the right things in life...That is why He tells us to love God with all our hearts, our souls, but also with all our minds...He wants us to use our minds...He wants us to be persistent in seeking Him...In His parable about the Persistent Widow, He teaches us to be persistent in our prayers, our faith, and in our search for the Truth...
Doubt and unbelief can stop us from believing...· Unbelief sometimes makes us question that God's Word is Truth, and that truthfulness of God’s promise itself....Unbelief sometimes makes us question that this is a new thing and therefore it cannot be true...Unbelief can make us question that even if God does do a miracle, it suddenly becomes not enough...Unbelief sometimes makes us believe that this just happened and therefore it cannot be true...Unbelief sometimes makes us think that there is no way I can do this even with God's help...Unbelief sometimes makes us think that there is only one way God can work and do something and we therefore have to understand how He is doing what He just did or is going to do...
St. Paul teaches on doubt, life, and contentment...Doubt does get in many of our daily lives circumstances...St. Paul learned to be content whatever the circumstance...All and every circumstance would include those days of doubt...St. Paul said I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty...I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength (Philippians 4:11-13)...
Let us remember that doubt and unbelief are more like uncertainty, than they are like faith, hope, and love...Trust in the LORD...Trust and belief are more like faith, hope, and love, than they are like certainty...When Jesus tells Thomas blessed are those that believe and have not seen me, He is telling us these and future believers will not always have complete certainty, but they do have faith, the hope, the trust that He teaches...
So when you have one of those days (or more) when your faith is doubting and weak, think of St. Thomas, later nicknamed the Doubting Thomas...He is one of our Great Saints and yet was one of great doubt...
Jesus ask the question, where I go you know the Way...Thomas was the disciple that questioned Jesus and ask I do not know where You are going (John 14:4)...When Jesus tells Thomas and the other disciples that He is the way, the truth, and the life- this Truth is where faith and reason meet...And even though Thomas (who is a devoted disciple) and was the one who ask Jesus the question He still had questions and some doubts about His teacher...Doubt can and does get in the way of our faith...Doubt can block the connection between our faith and reason, and can block the truth...There will be days we have doubts about our faith...St. Thomas was with Jesus for three years and he still had some doubts...When we are down in our faith, let us think of St. Thomas, who also doubted...Let us pray, to hold on to our mustard seed faith...
Doubt and uncertainty for me seem to be a part of my faith...Maybe accepting that helps me in my faith...The greatest thing in the universe is God...Yet, God cannot be proven...Why would that be?...Why can't we explain the greatest things in the universe?...Is it because God is Spirit and we are flesh?...Does mankind truly understand Spirit, and that God is Spirit...If God could be proven, everyone would believe in Him...So, this it seems, is the way He wants it, or He would and could easily prove Himself to everyone...So, I think, He expects us to live with a certain amount of doubt in our lives and in our faith...He knows there are times when are faith will be uncertain and be tested...The eternal things that Jesus teaches us, also cannot be proven...Yet, He existed and walked the earth, and is the Greatest Teacher of all time...So, if one thinks that doubt is a dark side to our faith, let us take heart and look at it another way...Let us see the Great Light and think about the Light, when our doubts come...Our connection to God and His Son is faith, even though this connection at times might have some doubt...Let us hold fast to our faith, and learn to better quickly let go of our doubts...Let our faith grow and mature to become more resilient...