How to Overcome Challenges to Faith

​George McDonald once wrote, “A man’s real belief is that which he lives by.”  One of the best measurements of a person’s faith is to observe how that person responds to adversity.  Here are twelve steps that I believe make all the difference in overcoming challenges to our faith.

1.  Don’t Focus on the Problem. The prophet Daniel modeled faith when his life was threatened (Daniel 2:12-14; 6:17). Rather than panic, or flee, he submitted himself to God’s protection. Focus on God and the problem fades into the background.

2.  Recognize that Jesus is with You in the Boat! Mark 4:37-41 illustrates this. As a child did you experience the loss of electricity in a storm and the ensuing darkness?  How comforting was it to hold the hand of your parent and hear the calming assurance that everything would be all right!  

3.  Have Patience and Persevere.  Life is like a marathon.  There are times we run joyfully (my apologies to those who despise running).  There are times when the rain and wind whip against us and we want to quit. Romans 8:24-25--“Now in this hope we were saved, yet hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.”

4.  Refuse Worry and Fear. The Bible in 119 verses tells us not to fear or be anxious or worry.   God does not suggest that we live without fear He commands, “Do not fear!”  If we engage faith we disengage fear. If we feed faith we starve fear.  Faith is like spinach. Fear is like candy.  One makes us healthy the other is addicting and gives us cancer.

5.  Trust In God’s Promises. Oswald Chambers wrote in The Pilgrim’s Song Book:
It is not our trust that keeps us, but the God in whom we trust who keeps us.  We are always in danger of trusting in our trust, believing our belief, having faith in our faith.  All these things can be shaken; we have to base our faith on those things which cannot be shaken.

6.  Don’t be Afraid to Cry out!  Mark 10:47,48—“When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out, ‘Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!’ Many people told him to keep quiet, but he was crying out all the more, ‘Have mercy on me, Son of David!’” Bartimaeus wanted to see! Had he listened to the people admonishing him to shush, he would have remained blind.   Pray!

7.  Swallow your Pride.  One of the things keeping us from crying out for help is our pride.  Pride prevents us fromsubmitting to God’s will and from seeking His assistance. 

8.  Ask God for Discernment.  Matthew 14:17—“‘But we only have five loaves and two fish here,” they said to Him.”  We see the obvious and miss that God can do anything with our something.

9.  Cling to Godly Values. Former U.S. President Dwight David Eisenhower said, “A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.”  Godly values like love, patience, integrity, the willingness to forgive, humility etc., help us surpass evil people or dire circumstances that threaten our faith. 

10.  Take the Offensive.  We see how to do this in 2 Corinthians 10:4,5:
Since the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ.

11.  Embrace Suffering. Hebrews 10:34,35—“For you sympathized with the prisoners and accepted with joy the confiscation of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves have a better and enduring possession. So don’t throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.”  Faith stands strong if what we are suffering is rightly understood.  

12.  Don’t Trust in your Own Thinking.  There are those who walk by faith and there are those who walk by reason.  There are those who trust in God and those who trust their thinking.  Faith is the ability to look beyond reason to believe what we cannot yet see.   Study Scripture as it is packed with faith-building instruction.
 
©2019 Daniel York  ARR.  Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)