And All the Doubters Prayed, “Help My Unbelief!”
The Believer’s Guide to Seasons of Doubt
by Adelaide Mitchell
“Mom, what if there is no God?”
My almost-teenaged son seems to save the heaviest questions for my nighttime routine of kissing him good night.
You might think my reaction would be one of sorrow, disappointment, or even fear. Rather, it was one of resonance; I have swum around in the deep, inky depths of doubt more than once.
The first thing I wanted my son to know is that asking these questions does not make him a “bad Christian.” Doubts can spring from our very human brains that crave answers and conclusions.
In fact, Charles Spurgeon, one of the greatest preachers of the modern world, delivered a sermon in which he identified doubt as a very reasonable response to the gospel itself: “I think, when a man says, ‘I never doubt,’ it is quite time for us to doubt him, it is quite time for us to begin to say, ‘Ah, poor soul, I am afraid you are not on the road at all, for if you were, you would see . . . so much glory in Christ more than you deserve, that you would be so much ashamed of yourself, as even to say, ‘It is too good to be true.’”*
Something as radically generous as eternal glory for sinners is illogical to humans in this broken world.
Another source of doubt is the enemy. Let us not forget that inciting doubt was the enemy’s first tactic in trying to sway humans to his side: “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1, emphasis added). The evil one is well-versed in making us question God.
And if you were the enemy, wouldn’t you target the ones making great strides for the kingdom? So it should not surprise us that Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation, was stricken with a spell of crippling doubt. He recounts his struggle: “I was close to the gates of death and hell. I trembled in all my members. Christ was wholly lost. I was shaken by desperation and blasphemy of God.”** Yes, the enemy hooked his fangs into the man who nailed his ninety-five theses to the doors of the Catholic Church.
Inciting doubt was the enemy’s first tactic in making us question God.
Luther goes on to remind us of the powerful first step in the face of intense doubt: “No one should be alone when he opposes Satan. The church and the ministry of the Word were instituted for this purpose, that hands may be joined together and one may help another. If the prayer of one doesn’t help, the prayer of another will.”*** Luther urges us to ask for prayers from other believers when we are on a shaky foundation.
It should not be surprising that prayer is one of the most effective eradicators of doubt. Let us heed the example of prayer found in the story of the seizing boy in Mark 9:14–27. A desperate father brings his sick child to Jesus with the request, “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us” (v. 22). Jesus points out the irony of a request preceded by a doubt. The man cries out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (v. 24), to which Jesus responds by healing the boy on the spot.
Notice this: Jesus helps the man treading the line between belief and unbelief. His paradoxical prayer is worth noting too: “I believe; help my unbelief!” This example indicates we have permission to ask God for help with doubts, and Jesus’s response tells us that help will come.
Prayer is one of the most effective and powerful eradicators of doubt.
While doubts are unwelcome, a careful exploration of our doubts is a way to wrestle out a more mature faith from the one handed to us in our youth; this may be what is happening to my son. Recently, his faith has been challenged by someone close to his age, and he is not sure how to respond.
I encouraged my son to explore this topic with his brain, but to not forget to use his heart as well; some truths are felt rather than reasoned. We can permit doubts to pass through our minds but should hold them lightly as we consider their origin and purpose.
The heart is where I return when I tire of holding doubts. I set aside my doubts and imagine Jesus reaching out his hand, pulling me into his embrace, reminding me that I don’t need to have all of the answers. It is okay to let him hold some mysteries on the other side of heaven.
I pray that my son’s experience with doubt will eventually lead him to a deeper place of faith. Maybe his journey will someday help others who are nonbelievers find a way out of the inky depths of unbelief.
Adelaide Mitchell is a writer, boy mom, thrift shopper, and iced tea enthusiast. @thestoneandtheoak
*Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “The Desire of the Soul in Spiritual Darkness,” New Park Street Pulpit 1, June 24, 1855, https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/the-desire-of-the-soul-in-spiritual-darkness/.
**Quoted in M. Vernon Begalke, “Luther’s Anfechtungen: An Important Clue to His Pastoral Theology,” Consensus 8, no. 3 (July 1, 1982): 6, https://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol8/iss3/1.
***Ibid., 8.