Guidance for When You are Questioning Faith and Your Spiritual Beliefs

The things that we know to be true help us to make sense of our world as we make our way through it. The truths and values that we consider foundational help us to interpret our daily experiences and to make decisions that will hopefully lead to an enjoyable and meaningful life. That is why it can be deeply upsetting and disorienting when our foundations start to crumble, our lives stop making sense like they used to, and we begin questioning our spiritual beliefs.

One of the foundations that people build their lives upon is their faith and the spiritual beliefs that are attached to that faith. Those foundations can be affected by various things, and it is possible to begin questioning that faith.

Why we question our spiritual beliefs

The author C.S. Lewis once wrote that people are not entirely ruled by reason. It is a bad assumption to think that once someone accepts something as true, they will automatically continue regarding it as true until they encounter some compelling reason for reconsidering it. However, we are often ruled by our imagination and our emotions, and these can sway us from what we may know to be true.

Faith, in the Christian sense, is not believing something despite the evidence. Rather, it is placing your trust in God and living like you believe what you have come to know to be true. There are several ways in which one’s spiritual beliefs about what they know to be true can waver. One can question what they believe for many reasons.

A fresh experience

When you encounter something you had not considered before, or you experience a tragedy, it can challenge what you thought you knew. Your belief has not necessarily been proven false. It may just be that you cannot reconcile your recent experience with your faith, or you are struggling to process your crisis. For instance, traumatically losing a loved one can lead you to question faith, God, or life.

Encountering other people who do not view things the way you do can also lead you to question your faith. Sometimes, thorny questions you had not considered come up. Because you cannot find a way to reconcile what you believe with the information or question presented, you begin questioning your faith.

Experiences of failure

When things do not go according to plan, and dreams are shattered, it can be bewildering and confusing. It can be a shock to the system that causes one to question everything, including, perhaps, their faith.

When it gets inconvenient

If you want to do something that you feel strongly about, but the tenets of your faith direct you against it, you can begin questioning your faith. It is not that your faith has been disproven, it is that it has simply become inconvenient in that moment.

Guidance while questioning our faith

Questioning your faith does not mean that you have lost your faith. A Christian from long ago said that “faith seeks understanding,” and it is important to ask genuine questions, pursuing them honestly. You can enhance your seeking by including some important practices in your life.

Firstly, you can refresh your faith through daily practices. C.S. Lewis asserts in Mere Christianity that daily religious discipline is important even to someone who is questioning. He states that practices such as daily prayer, Bible reading, and communing with God’s people is so important because continuing to believe what you know is true is not automatic. We need to be reminded of what we believe and why we believe it to continue to believe it.

Secondly, you can walk alongside someone. You do not have to travel the journey alone. Many Christians throughout history have wrestled with their faith, trying to make sense of God’s ways in the world. They carried the conviction that true, beautiful, and good things are real, and they matter. In their questioning, they continued to genuinely pursue what was true by tossing their questions around with a trusted person.

Reading good books written by Christians who are thinking seriously about the life of faith is another excellent way to explore your own questions. You can also talk with others who have struggled with their own questions. What you will realize is that asking questions is something most Christians who are thoughtful and serious about their faith do. Life under the sun, as the writer of Ecclesiastes puts it, can be perplexing at the best of times.

Sometimes you will need to talk with someone. A Christian counselor in Plano, Texas can walk with you to process things such as grief and loss or distorted and catastrophic thinking, which can disrupt or complicate your experience of faith.

Call us at Plano Christian Counseling in Texas today and we can connect you to a Christian counselor in Plano. Your counselor can help you make use of the resources in the Christian faith to draw meaningful direction and support for your life as you go through difficult times.