What does the Bible say about doubt?

The Bible passages below can be used in sermons, prayers, or pastoral care focused on doubt

• Matthew14:28-31, Jesus asks Peter why he doubted after Jesus had told him to walk on the sea
• Matthew 21:21-22, Jesus tells his disciples that whatever they ask for in prayer with faith, they will receive
• Matthew 28:17, some doubted Jesus
• Luke 24:37-43, after his resurrection, Jesus appears to his disciples and shows them his hands and his sides
• John 20:27, Jesus appears to doubting Thomas, along with the other disciples
• 1 Corinthians 13:12, now we see a dim reflection, but in time we will see face to face
• James 1:5-8, ask for what you need in faith without doubt

Sermon ideas about doubt

Faith and doubt

How can we approach doubt in our sermons? No one in the New Testament assails any and all doubt more forcefully than the always hard-hitting apostle James (see James 1:5-8). For his part, though, James' older brother, Jesus, seemed to go a little easier on his oft-doubting disciples and friends. True, Jesus regularly told the disciples not to doubt and wondered at times why they did let so many doubts creep into their minds. Still, he did not berate those who doubted their own eyes after the resurrection.  

For all we know, Jesus had a smile on his face when he confronted doubting Thomas a week after Easter. And even when in the presence of both worshipful honor and dubious doubt as he gave the Great Commission in Matthew 28, Jesus did not lash out at the doubters among the gathered group of disciples.  

True, if faith were as thick and substantial as it could possibly be, then anyone with such faith could move mountains, Jesus said, and we can believe he meant it. Even so, Jesus never seemed overly surprised that no one did move mountains. In fact, if it's divine astonishment you are looking for in the gospels, Jesus expressed that mostly when he encountered strong faith! 

An element of faith? 

What can our sermons say about the relationship of faith and doubt? The theologian Paul Tillich once asserted that doubt is not the opposite of faith but is in fact an element of faith. Faith's opposite would be agnosticism or outright atheism, but not doubt. This is a doctrinal paradox, but Christian theology contains lots of fruitful paradoxes. People who claim that they never doubt may be in some degree of denial. As many theologians have noted, a faith that is untouched by struggle, that never even pauses over Holocausts and cancers and pogroms of various kinds, may well be turning a blind eye to the most vexing questions ordinary people ask every day: Where is God? Why did God allow this or that to happen? Why do the evil prosper and the faithful suffer?  

"Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving," the theologian Frederick Buechner once wrote. Even where faith clearly has the upper hand in a person's life and is firm and solid and a source of tremendous comfort, there will be moments (and possibly longer seasons) when doubts nag at the edges of faith, forcing the believer to ask hard questions and — like the psalms of lament — ask those questions of God.  

Faith, hope, and doubt 

What can our sermons say about the role of hope in relation to faith and doubt? Faith, as given by the Spirit, knows many things. But it does not know them completely and does not possess the fullness of God's promises yet. That is why we hope for things — but hope would be unnecessary if we could see everything clearly now, as Paul pointed out. Where faith meets hope and where hope encounters the hard questions and circumstances of life in a still-broken world, an element of doubt is always possible, even where faith remains strong. 

Elsewhere, Buechner wrote, "Many of us have faith in God and yet have doubts too, and in the long run perhaps it is just as well that we have them. At least doubts prove that we are in touch with reality, with the things that threaten faith as well as with the things that nourish it. If we are not in touch with reality, then our faith is apt to be blind, fragile, and irrelevant" (The Longing for Home, page 169). 

Excerpts about doubt 

Following are sample excerpts from Zeteosearch sermon resources about doubt: 

"I'd like to suggest, however, that there are different kinds of doubt. Or to put it more clearly, a lot of different sorts of inner experiences may be labeled as doubt or unbelief." Article about Theology by Michael Gillis from Ancient Faith

"If we believe, it is because our doubts are accompanied by hope, because our fears are disputed by holy imagination. We want to believe. Help our unbelief." Scripture Paraphrase by Rachel G. Hackenberg  

"God of truth, fill us with your Spirit and strengthen our faith, so that we may not doubt your love for us. Give us courage to spread your peace throughout the world. Amen." Opening Prayer by CAFOD UK