"Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, 'I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!'"
— Mark 9:24
That might be the most honest prayer in the entire Bible.
Not a polished prayer. Not a confident declaration of faith. Just a broken man standing in front of Jesus saying I want to believe but I'm struggling and I need your help. And you know what Jesus did? He showed up anyway.
I want to talk about doubt today because nobody talks about it honestly.
We sit in church and sing the songs and say the right things and meanwhile there's a part of us that's quietly asking questions we're too afraid to say out loud. Questions like — if God is real, why does this still hurt? If He's in control, why does everything feel so out of control? If He loves me, why do I feel so alone right now?
Those questions don't make you a bad Christian. They make you human.
Some of the greatest figures in scripture wrestled with doubt. David wrote entire psalms crying out to God asking where He was. John the Baptist, the man who baptized Jesus himself, sent messengers from prison asking "Are you really the one or should we look for someone else?" Even Thomas, one of the twelve disciples who walked with Jesus every single day, said he wouldn't believe until he saw it with his own eyes.
And Jesus didn't reject any of them.
He didn't say your doubt disqualifies you. He didn't say come back when you have it all figured out. He met them exactly where they were, in the middle of the mess, in the middle of the questions, and He showed up.
He'll do the same for you.
Doubt is not the opposite of faith. Pretending is. The person who sits in the pew and performs belief they don't actually feel is further from God than the one who falls to their knees and says I'm struggling and I need you to meet me here.
I've had moments in my own walk where I didn't know what I believed. Where the silence felt louder than any answer. Where I prayed and felt like the words just hit the ceiling and stopped. And in those moments the only thing I knew how to do was stay. Keep showing up. Keep talking to Him even when I wasn't sure He was listening.
He was always listening.
If you're in a season of doubt right now, you don't have to pretend. You don't have to perform. Just be honest with Him the way that father was honest — I believe, help my unbelief. That's enough. That's always been enough.
The thorns of doubt are real. But they've never once stopped Him from showing up.
— Austin, Founder of TheRisenKing