Have you ever found yourself lying awake at night, wrestling with questions? 

Have you ever found yourself lying awake at night, wrestling with questions about God or the Bible? 

Maybe you’ve sat in church and wondered if anyone else was struggling with the same thoughts. 

Maybe you’ve felt guilty for questioning at all. 

For many of us, doubt feels dangerous — like a crack in the foundation of our faith that could cause everything to collapse. We’re often told that strong Christians don’t question God and that faith means being sure of everything we believe. 

But what if doubt isn’t a sign of weakness? What if it’s a part of growing in faith? 

There’s a scene in the movie, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” based on C.S. Lewis’s bestselling novel of the same name, when Lucy tries to convince her siblings that Narnia is real. She has seen it, walked through the snowy woods, and met Mr. Tumnus, but Peter and Susan struggle to believe her. They turn to the wise Professor Kirke, expecting him to dismiss Lucy’s story. Instead, he challenges them: “If she’s not mad and she’s not lying, then logically, she must be telling the truth.” 

This scene captures the tension many Christians feel when they begin questioning their faith. We assume doubt means losing our faith. But what if doubt isn’t the opposite of faith? What if it’s actually evidence that we’re taking our faith seriously? 

Doubt: Losing Faith or Growing in It?

Many of us grew up thinking that a “strong” faith means having all the right answers and defending them with confidence. But that’s not real faith — it’s certainty, which doesn’t require trust. Faith, on the other hand, is not the absence of doubt; it’s the choice to trust God even when we have questions. 

If we never ask questions about what we’ve been taught, how do we know if our faith is really ours? Many of us inherit beliefs from our parents, churches, or communities, but at some point, we must wrestle with them individually. We have to ask:

• Do I believe this because I’ve experienced God or because I was raised this way?
• Does this align with what Scripture teaches or is it cultural tradition?
• Is my faith rooted in Jesus, or is it tied to a particular leader, church, or movement? 

These questions aren’t signs of a weak faith, but signs of a growing faith. The goal of asking questions isn’t to tear everything down and walk away. It’s to strip away anything false so what remains is real. 

Faith, Like a Muscle, Grows Through Resistance

If you’ve ever tried working out, you know that building muscle doesn’t happen overnight. To grow stronger, muscle fibers must first tear under resistance. That tearing may feel like weakness, but it’s actually a necessary step for growth. As the body repairs and rebuilds those fibers, the muscle becomes stronger than before.

Faith works the same way.

Doubt is like the resistance we experience in a workout. It exposes weak or unhealthy beliefs, forcing us to examine what we’ve been taught and whether it holds up. When we wrestle with hard questions, we may feel like our faith is breaking, but what’s really happening is tearing down what was weak to build something stronger in its place.

Jesus Himself described this kind of growth process when He talked about pruning: “He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more” (John 15:2). 

Just as a plant must be trimmed to grow, or a muscle must be stretched to gain strength, faith grows when it is tested and rebuilt on a solid foundation. 

If we never question our beliefs, they remain shallow and fragile — easily shaken when life gets hard. But when we allow doubt to challenge us, when we seek real answers rather than clinging to false certainty, our faith becomes something resilient and unshakable.

Thomas: From Doubt to Worship

Doubt is nothing new. Some of the main characters of Scripture questioned God, wrestled with their beliefs, and came out stronger on the other side. Take Thomas, for example, someone who walked with Jesus for years. 

Being one of Jesus’ original 12 disciples, Thomas is often remembered as “Doubting Thomas.” But here’s the thing — Jesus never called him that. We do. 

In John 20:24-29, Thomas wasn’t present when Jesus first appeared to the other disciples after the resurrection. When they told him they had seen the Lord, he refused to believe unless he could see and touch Jesus’ wounds himself.

Jesus appeared again eight days later, this time while Thomas was present. Rather than rebuking or shaming him, Jesus met Thomas in his doubt: 

“Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe” (John 20:27, NIV). 

Thomas’ response, John 20:28, is one of the most profound declarations of faith recorded in Scripture: “My Lord and my God!” 

Jesus didn’t label Thomas a doubter. Instead, He invited him closer. Instead of rejecting Thomas for his questions, Jesus gave him what he needed to believe. Yet history remembers Thomas for his moment of doubt rather than his moment of faith. We call him “Doubting Thomas,” but Jesus simply called him by name.

Thomas’ story reminds us that doubt doesn’t disqualify us. Jesus is not threatened by our questions. Instead, He meets us in them, inviting us to see for ourselves and believe.

Faith Isn’t Blind — It’s Trusting in What We Cannot See

The opposite of faith isn’t doubt — it’s certainty, but also fear. When we fear that questioning will unravel our belief, we hold onto certainty like a security blanket. But certainty is brittle. It can’t withstand life’s storms.

Faith, on the other hand, is resilient. It’s like a tree that bends in the wind but doesn’t break. 

Hebrews 11:1 (ESV) tells us: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Saint Augustine put it this way: “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”

Faith invites us to trust in what we can’t fully grasp, and yet, in time, that trust reveals deeper truths to us. We don’t wait until we have all the answers to believe; rather, by stepping out in faith, we begin to see the reality of God’s presence in unexpected ways.

Faith isn’t about having everything neatly figured out. It’s about learning to trust God in the unknown, believing that He is guiding us even when the path isn’t clear.

A Safe Place to Wrestle

If we never wrestle with our faith, we risk making Christianity a cultural identity rather than a personal relationship with Jesus. That’s why it’s so important to find safe spaces to ask challenging questions.

• Read widely. Engage with Scripture deeply but read perspectives that challenge you to think critically about your faith. Wrestling with different ideas can strengthen your understanding and help you build a faith that is truly your own.
• Seek community. Find a church or small group that welcomes honest discussion rather than shutting it down. Surround yourself with people who encourage seeking truth, not just easy answers.
• Pray honestly. God already knows your doubts. You don’t have to pretend. Bring them to Him, just as we find so many characters in the story of the Bible doing the same thing: Abraham, Sarah, Naomi, Job, John the Baptist, Elijah, Thomas, Martha, David, etc. 

Doubt isn’t something to be ashamed of. It’s an opportunity to seek deeper truth. The key is to bring our doubts to God rather than letting them drive us away from Him. When we do, we’ll find that He’s not afraid of our questions. Instead, He welcomes them.

God is Not Afraid of Your Questions

At the end of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” Aslan (the Christ figure) disappears after defeating the White Witch. Lucy and her siblings long for Him to stay, but Mr. Beaver reminds them: “He’ll be coming and going … He’s not a tame lion. But he is good.” 

God is not tame, predictable, or confined to our understanding. But He is good. He can handle our doubts, fears, and questions. He invites us to wrestle with Him, to seek Him, and to trust that even when we don’t have all the answers, He does.

So, if you find yourself questioning what you believe, don’t panic. You’re not losing your faith — you’re growing in it.

This article was originally titled “Finding Faith Through Doubt” in the November 2025 issue of Peer Magazine.