What do you do when someone you care about starts doubting the Christian faith?
Someone I know started doubting their faith, and it shook me. This person was a strong Christian leader, and I struggled to know how to defend the Christian faith when talking with them.
But I prayed for wisdom, and God graciously directed my words.
Here are 4 practical things you can do if you know someone doubting the Christian faith:
Read Scripture to them. Scripture is more powerful than any other words out there. It is GOD's word, and it is our weapon of choice when fighting the enemy's lies. I remembered the verse in Hebrews 4:12 that says, "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." The Holy Spirit would convict this person and lead them back to God. My job was to speak the truth to them gently. These are the verses (in order) that I read to this person to lead them back to the faith. And I encourage you to read them out loud to the person struggling with their faith: 1 John 4:19 (which talks about Jesus being our first love) Revelation 2:4-5 (talks about forsaking your first love & to repent) 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (defines what love is; "it always protects" so we, too, must protect our love for God) 2 Timothy 1:14 (talks about guarding what was given to you from God; our faith is holy; it must be guarded from liars & deceivers) 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (refers to our faith as a race and how we have to discipline our body and "make it my slave," not giving in to our desires and deceitful thinking) 2 Timothy 4:7-10 (refers to the faith as a race and finishing it, meaning some won't finish the race because they'll be led astray. We must hold on to our faith so we, too, finish the race and are not led astray.) 1 John 4:1 (refers to testing the spirits to know if they are from God or not because we don't want to listen to deceivers or false teachers) Matthew 4:5-7 (Jesus is talking to Satan in the wilderness and quoting Scripture about not putting God to the test; like the previous verse I mentioned, 1 John 4:1, we are to "test the spirits." However, we are NOT to put God to the test. We are to trust him.)
Ask questions and listen. This person is obviously trying to process some very difficult questions and needs to talk about them with someone. Be that safe person so that they don't turn to others who are leading them astray.
Encourage them to be with other believers. The devil loves to isolate people so he can convince them of his lies. Let this person know that it's normal to process these questions, and the best place to do that is with others who are searching for truth (not those who are searching to serve their own desires).
Encourage them to listen to strong Christian leaders. If they have difficult questions, the best place to go is to believers who are stronger in their faith (not to those who have abandoned the faith). It might be tempting to listen to the skeptics, but when someone is struggling with their faith, that is the last place they should go. Skeptics are always taking truths and spinning them into lies. After all, deception isn't deceiving if it isn't believable. Stay away from the skeptic if you're weak in the faith. Surround yourself with mature believers, pastors, and theologians who aren't afraid of those deep questions.
If you know someone struggling with their faith, I encourage you to read The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It's Destructive, and How to Respond by Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett.
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I pray that you stay strong in your faith and help others who are weak in their faith find their way back to the truth. I hope this post was helpful.
God Bless!
Maryna Doughty