Asking hard questions about our faith is not only an okay thing to do, it’s crucial to our Christian growth. If we don’t ask questions and seek answers, we become susceptible to accepting any teaching that’s presented to us as “Christian”. In this post, I’m going to list five challenging questions we can ask ourselves about our faith that will ultimately help us grow stronger faith.
If we are to spread the good news, we cannot do that without being at least somewhat prepared for some of the not-so-fun questions that come along with it. Furthermore, we need to have thought through some of the tough things ourselves and tackled those things internally. Otherwise, we might run into someone that shakes our faith and causes us to truly doubt God.
This is definitely important as mothers. Our kids turn to us for answers most of their younger years. And when they reach that age of “why”, or when they reach those teenage years and start really thinking things through, we want to be ready.
Dealing with our doubts and questions can be scary and even make us feel like we’re not true believers, or that we are somehow disrespecting God. But it’s necessary that we tackle these questions head-on instead of suppressing them and pretending they’re not there. Because the truth is, if you do have doubt or untackled questions that you haven’t come to peace with, those things can resurface and cause you to stumble later.
It’s so much better to get those things out on the table and discuss them with God immediately. You can even discuss these things with a pastor, or a mature Christian in your life for help. But we cannot pretend they are not there because that is very dangerous.
5 Faith Questions to Ask Yourself
Below are 5 reflection questions to ask yourself about faith. The Christian faith is under threat. And unless we begin to stand firm and be ready to fire back (with love) and Truth, it will only continue to get worse. The point of these questions is to force us to look inwardly and really make sure our foundation is strong.
1. Are you ready to give a defense for your faith?
The Bible tells us to always be ready to give a defense.
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man who asketh you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.
1 Peter 3:15
But are we realistically ready? I’ll be honest, although I know in my heart why I believe, it can be very difficult to articulate to someone else who just either doesn’t get it, thinks your belief is complete bologna, or is super combative and resistant.
It can be difficult and even intimidating. And what I’ve discovered is that it takes practice. It takes courage. It takes studying and spending time in prayer asking God to allow the Holy Spirit to give you boldness.
And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the Word of God with boldness.
Acts 4:31
Unfortunately, what we seem to be witnessing today is a weak body of Christ. A body of Christians who lack the skills to tackle this new generation’s questions and objections.
In general, we are just not prepared.
There is an element of relying on the Holy Spirit, but we also have to do the work. In order for God to use us, we have to act.
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Mathew 7:24
I use the word WE intentionally because I’m guilty of it too. I’m guilty of getting lazy when it comes to defending the faith. But we have to stop being lazy and be intentional about learning to defend the Bible and our faith.
For example, do you have friends or family that don’t believe in the validity of the Bible? Start there. Study your butt off to learn as much as you can about Bible history and origin so that the next time it comes up in conversation, you’re ready.
If you have a friend who doesn’t believe Jesus died and was risen, go out and get some facts on why his existence is supported. A good book for this, by the way, is “The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus“. I haven’t completely finished the book yet, but it has a lot of really good information. It outlines a lot of the common and not-so-common objections to the truth of Jesus and gives the reader actual answers they can use in discussion.
We don’t have to have all the answers, or memorize lengthy paragraphs of complicated, uninteresting Biblical facts. But, we should be at least making a genuine effort to growing our knowledge base so when asked a question, we know a little something about something.
You can read my post “6 Tips to Make Studying Apologetics Less Intimidating” about how to study Apologetics if you’re a bit nervous to start that journey.
2. What areas of faith do you struggle with?
This is a really good question to ask yourself. Because if you’re struggling with certain aspects of your faith but yet trying to tell others about the Gospel, you might be susceptible to getting shaken when someone tackles that area.
It’s totally fine to have questions and struggle with a particular faith question. However, we have to be honest with ourselves about it and go into prayer about it.
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Mathew 7:7
We should be diligently and proactively seeking answers. Not passively waiting for God to download the answer into our brains. If we have questions about why something happened the way it did in the Bible, fast and pray until God answers or gives you peace about it.
But ignoring the struggle can create a weak spot in your faith. I know in the past this has happened to me. And as soon as someone hits that button, I started questioning everything I believed. Not good.
3. Do you have any doubts about your faith?
This question piggybacks off of the last question. But if there are areas of doubt, tackle them ASAP. Talk to a trusted, mature Christian, a pastor, and most importantly, pray and fast to God. Doubts can turn into disbelief.
The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!
Mark 9:24
Let’s all strive to have a strong, unshakable faith. A faith that makes unbelievers uncomfortable, but in a good way. The type of unshakable faith that has them questioning their worldview, not the other way around. Questions about faith and doubt should be embraced and addressed, not suppressed.
Don’t be afraid to disappoint God with doubts. My guess is He would be overjoyed to help you overcome these doubts so that you can have stronger faith in Him.
4. Are you prepared to tackle contradictions in the Bible?
Oh, the world famous Bible contradictions conundrum. Are there contradictions in the Bible? Do you know the answer to that question? Are you aware of any specific examples, and can you point out why they are not contradictions?
Atheists have a full list of “contradictions” in the Bible. And there is no way that we can or should be expected to know or memorize them all. You can practically make a contradiction out of anything if you try hard enough. But, it doesn’t hurt to be aware of a handful. And even more importantly, be in the Bible enough to know how to recognize the error in a contradiction if it’s brought up to us.
In my post “5 Contradictions in the Bible…That Are Not Contradictions“, I tackle 5 Biblical “contradictions” that atheists try to use to debunk the validity of the Bible.
5. Do you know how to address the issue of suffering under a good God?
This is perhaps one of the toughest questions to tackle in Christianity. And one that keeps a lot of people from believing in God. But it’s important that we as Christians know how to address it, even if we don’t know the full answer. With so much suffering in the world, we cannot afford to simply ignore this one or brush it off.
It can be hard to have this particular conversation with someone, but being at least somewhat prepared to address this if asked could make a world of difference for someone.
Here is an article from crossexamined.org that outlines how evil and suffering are actually evidence that God exists. This could be a good starting point for how to tackle this question. Crossexamined.org also has tons of other excellent posts dealing with the topic of evil and suffering. If this topic interests you, I highly suggest you browse their site.
In Conclusion
It’s crucial that we ask ourselves deep questions about Christianity. If we want the secular world to understand our faith and why we believe, we first have to understand it ourselves. It can be very uncomfortable to tackle our own doubts or questions.
But God already knows your heart and He knows if you’re experiencing doubts or are struggling. Why try to hide that from Him? Be open with God and ask Him to help you work through those things so that you can come out on the other side with stronger faith.
You might also like:
Are You Worried About Your Kid’s Salvation?
5 Contradictions in the Bible…That Are Not Contradictions
6 Tips to Make Studying Apologetics Less Intimidating
