Faith: Part 3/Conclusion

Faith: Part 3/Conclusion

Your faith in Christ doesn’t exempt you from having giants or maybe monsters interrupt your life. Like the disciple Peter in Faith: Part 1 (Matthew 14:22-33) and the father of the sick son (Mark 9:14-24) in Faith: Part 2, you also encounter failure, brokenness, storms, and hardship. When your life is going well and is going as planned, your faith isn’t challenged. Your faith is not in activation mode. When your faith finds itself at a crossroads (facing a giant or monster), faith must be activated while probably also encountering doubt. Your past experiences with previous giants or monsters have taught us that God will see us through failures, brokenness, storms, and hardships. He helped you through them in the past, so He will help you through the one you are currently facing…right? Your faith moves you forward, and is still hampered by a little bit of doubt.

Doubt invades your life when you are unable to find answers to your questions, when your situations are outside of your control, or when solutions seem impossible. Doubt reminds you that you are human, and it helps you know you can’t fight the battle without God’s Spirit leading the way.

Michael W. Smith penned a song, “Surrounded...I Fight My Battles.” The chorus: This is how I fight my battles…this is how I fight my battles…I’m surrounded…I’m surrounded…I’m surrounded by you. You are often surrounded by the enemy, by pessimism, by uncertainty, by doubt, by the unknown, by an uncertain future. You fight a desperate war of believing versus unbelieving, trusting versus not trusting, building your faith on the rock and yet on the sand. And then your faith reminds you that you are surrounded by God’s Spirit. You can fight the battle because greater is He that is in you (if you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ) than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).

Ever found yourself at the crossroads? Faith versus Doubt? Ever had the giants and monsters come at you with their relentless attacks? Ever had doubts about whether your faith will get you through whatever failure, brokenness, storm, or hardship you are facing? Have you beaten yourself up because you allowed fear of the unknown to overwhelm your faith? If so, you aren’t alone. Throughout scripture there are patriarchs, stalwarts, and heroes of the faith such as Abraham and Sarah (God promised a son named Isaiah but Abraham and Sarah doubted it because of their age in Genesis 17:17 and Genesis 18:11-14), the Israelites (doubted God was delivering them from their enemies as they complained in Exodus 16-2-3), Gideon (needed God to prove Himself in Judges 6:36-40), John the Baptist (wondered if Jesus really was the Messiah in Matthew 11:2-3), Peter (Jesus asks why Peter doubted Him in Matthew 14:31), Thomas (needed to see the holes in Jesus hands to believe He had resurrected (John 20:25, 27), the 11 disciples (met Jesus when Jesus was ascending to heaven and some doubted in Matthew 28:17), Martha (doubted Jesus since Lazarus was already in the grave in John 11:21 and Martha’s sister Mary doubted in John 11:32), and the father of the sick son admitted (“I believe…help my unbelief” in Mark 9:24) had doubts...and that’s just naming a few. There are biblical eyewitness accounts of their struggles with faithful doubting and how they were able to respond favorably to their failures, brokenness, storms, and hardships. Hebrews 11 then helps us see that all of the biblical heroes of the faith mentioned above were able to overcome their doubts and died believing what God promised, even though they hadn’t seen the promise fulfilled (11:13).

What do you do when you encounter a health crisis, an overwhelming medical diagnosis, a financial crash, a broken promise, a frazzled, disintegrating relationship, fallout in your family, a lost job, the death of a spouse, family member, or friend, or one of so many other life interruptions that challenge your faith? Do you decide to fight, freeze in place, retreat, or perhaps your response is a little bit of all three? Certainly, all normal, human responses. Essentially, though, our only response can be to create a battle plan.

Hebrews 11:1 (NLT) says, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.” Your battle plan begins and ends with hope. You know all things are possible as long as you believe, and while it may not be certain, it’s possible. You pray and ask others to do the same. You call upon the church to pray. You spend time focusing on and internalizing scripture and biblical truth (Luke 1:37; Romans 10:17). Work on your faith. As struggles come your way, rather than wait until they pass, walk through them to the other side so your faith deepens. Each time you go through the fire, your faith matures and increases a little more, so you are better prepared and more equipped to engage with the next fire that invades your life. Perhaps the most difficult part of the battle plan is to give the giant or monster to God and trust Him to help you experience a miracle. Giving up control and trusting God with control of your situation is a huge step in increasing your faith and being faithful. Is any of this simple when you are neck deep in crisis? On a scale of 1 - 10, with 1 being the easiest and 10 being the most difficult, at the beginning of your faith formation, it may feel like a 10 most of the time, but as your faith increases, you become more in tune with God’s Spirit and more seasoned for whatever the enemy throws at you. James 1:1-17 says, “Consider it all joy, brothers and sisters, when you encounter troubles (1:2) and when your faith is tested (1:4).” The goal for you and me is to endure testing and temptation (1:12) so you and I can become perfect and complete.

Faith is a lifelong adventure with many obstacles along the way. Each obstacle is a challenge designed to help you deepen your faith and grow in your relationship with Christ. In the moments when the obstacle becomes overwhelming, know it is normal and human to doubt, be okay with crying out, “I believe...help my unbelief,” but then be ready to engage with the enemy, rise up, walk through the fire, and implement your battle plan. No matter what battle you find yourself fighting, you have God surrounding you. What an incredible promise. When I have to fight my battles, there isn’t anyone I would rather have fight for me than God. How about you?

This completes “The Faith Series” of Blogs

WAM

10/22/2025