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Bible Studies Faith & Spiritual Growth
When Faith Gets Hard
Doubt, questions, suffering, trust, and what Scripture says when belief does not feel easy.
Scripture is far more patient with struggling believers than churches often are. This study stays with the passages written for people whose faith is costing them something.
What you’ll explore
- 01 Faith is not the absence of doubt
- 02 “I believe; help my unbelief”
- 03 Lament as a form of faithfulness
- 04 Thomas, and the room Jesus made for him
- 05 When God seems silent
- 06 What Hebrews 11 actually says about faith
- 07 Staying put through a hard season
Faith is not the absence of doubt
Read Psalm 42:1-11
The psalmist asks his own soul why it is cast down, and asks God why he has forgotten him — twice, in the same poem. He also tells himself to hope. Both are in there at once, which is a more accurate picture of belief than either one alone.
“I believe; help my unbelief”
Read Mark 9:14-29
A father brings his son to Jesus and, pressed on whether he believes, gives the answer above. Jesus does not send him away to sort out his convictions first; he heals the boy. The prayer works as a prayer.
Lament as a form of faithfulness
Read Lamentations 3:1-24; Habakkuk 1:2-4
Lamentations spends two and a half chapters on unrelieved grief before it arrives at "his mercies never come to an end". Habakkuk opens by asking how long he must cry for help and get none. Complaint aimed at God is a way of staying in the conversation; walking away is not.
Thomas, and the room Jesus made for him
Read John 20:24-29
Thomas states his terms flatly and Jesus meets them — come, put your finger here. The blessing pronounced on those who believe without seeing is not a rebuke of Thomas, who is standing right there having just been given what he asked for. Jesus is unhurried with him.
When God seems silent
Read Psalm 13:1-2; Job 23:8-10
Job says he goes forward and backward and cannot perceive him — and then says God knows the way that he takes. Scripture records long silences and does not explain most of them. What it does not do is treat the experience as evidence of failure on the believer’s part.
What Hebrews 11 actually says about faith
Read Hebrews 11:1-2, 13, 32-40
The famous chapter is usually quoted for its triumphs and stops before verse 35, where the list turns to those who were tortured, sawn in two, and destitute. Verse 13 says they died not having received what was promised. Faith here is defined by direction and endurance, not by outcome.
Staying put through a hard season
Read Galatians 6:9; Hebrews 10:23-25
Paul says not to grow weary; Hebrews says to hold fast and not neglect meeting together. The most common advice Scripture gives the struggling believer is unglamorous: stay, keep showing up, let other people carry some of it. Faith is often just what is left after you decide not to leave.
Questions to sit with
- Have you told anybody at church that this is hard right now?
- What would it look like to lament instead of going quiet?
- Which of Hebrews 11’s two halves has your faith been measured against?
Every passage in this study
Go deeper
Where this connects
This study sits inside a larger story. Read the passages above in their own books, and follow the thread back through Scripture as a whole.