Doubt is something that nearly all Christians face. Even Christ’s followers doubted after the resurrection and in the context of receiving the Great commission (Matthew 28:18-20). Sometimes, doubt can totally overwhelm. One of the first things to realize about a deep night of the soul is that you are not the first to experience it. The below links offer encouragement in reference to a crisis of faith.
Jon Bloom:
“Spatial disorientation” is what a pilot experiences when he’s flying in weather conditions that prevent him from being able to see the horizon or the ground. Points of reference that guide his senses disappear. His perceptions become unreliable. He can no longer be sure which way is up or down. It can be deadly — it killed John Kennedy, Jr.1
The only way a pilot can overcome spatial disorientation is to trust his cockpit instruments more than his intuitive senses to tell him what is real. That’s why flight instructors force student pilots to learn to fly planes by the instruments alone.
There is a spiritual parallel. I’ve experienced it. On a spring day in May 1997, I flew into a spiritual storm.
The details are too lengthy, but essentially I had a crisis of faith. I entered a tempest of doubt like nothing I had experienced before. God, who I had known and loved since late childhood, suddenly became clouded from my spiritual sight. I couldn’t see him anywhere. It got very dark in my soul and swirling winds of fear blew with gale force. The turbulence of hopelessness was violent. Not knowing which way was up or down, I found myself in spiritual spatial disorientation.
I was panicky at first. I swerved back and forth desperately trying to get my bearings. . . .
Read the rest here.
Steve Brandon, pastor of Rock Valley Bible Church:
Most Christians, as I can tell, go through a crisis of faith in their lives. By this, I simply mean a time in which they really question the reality of God or of His working in their lives. Sometimes it occurs when people are in their teens. At other times it occurs later in life. The result of these times is either an abandoning of the faith or a strengthened resolve to the realities of the faith.
The Biblical writers are no strangers to such feelings. More than a dozen times, we read the Psalmists expressing their doubts to the Lord saying, “How long?”
Read the rest of Steve Brandon’s, The Crisis of Faith.
See also:
Excellent article. I know that I was in a spiritual fog for many years. It’s only been recently that I have gotten out of the fog. The author encourages us to continue the spiritual disciplines even in the storm and I think that is great advice. I did continue going to church but I stopped praying and reading the Bible. I think the storm would have been easier if I had not stopped doing those things. Keep reading the instruments. That is why having a relationship with Jesus is a daily commitment. You must make the decision even on the stormy day’s, weeks, months, or years.
That’s a good summary Rebecca. It doesn’t mean it will be easy. But we do need to stay with the spiritual disciplines.
I too was in a storm of doubt and miserable. One day, while working part time at a Christian bookstore, a customer, who apparently had also been through doubting times, suggested reading the book of James. So I read it – again and again and again. I read it every day for about a month and soon found myself out of the darkness and the misery I was in was dissipating. The Word of God – living and powerful.
Tom, that is one of the wisest comments I have seen on my blog. I think there is something about just taking the same book of the Bible and reading it, prayerfully, over and over again.