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Hebrews 11:1-2 (NKJV) 
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
These are some scriptures on doubt:
Matthew 21:21 James 1: 6 1 Timothy 2: 8 Jude 1: 22 Mark 11:23 
Matthew 14: 31 Romans 14: 23 Psalm 86: 2 Matthew 28: 17

Faith is belief with strong conviction; firm belief in something for which there may be no tangible proof; complete trust in or devotion to. Faith is the opposite of doubt. Faith is possibly the single-most important element of the Christian life. Hebrews 11:6 states, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." (NIV)

Faith is believing God without a waiver, without doubting and without questioning what He says. It is taking God at His Word and believing that what He has promised He is able to deliver. It is believing not only that He is able, but that He will do it. It is the act of counting those things that "be not as though they were" (Rom. 4:17). Faith is also the absolute conviction that what God has promised and what we have asked according to His Word is already done. It is "the substance of things hoped for" and the first payment on things that we desire from God (Heb. 11:1-3).

Doubt is to be uncertain about something you consider questionable or unlikely, and hesitate to believe. There are many Christians who have doubt or dealing with doubt.

Not only can you be a Christian and still have some doubts, but Doubting is a common experience among Christians. You can hardly be a Christian without doubting at times. After all, if doubting was not possible, faith would not be possible either. 

Doubting does not mean that your faith stops. It means you are trying to understand your faith at a deeper level. Rather than being afraid of doubts, we should allow doubt to take us into a deeper experience of faith and growth in our Christian walk. Doubts about God can enter our Christian life at any time, but that doesn't mean we have a weak relationship with God. 

The problem is that we want something tangible we can see or touch. But
God is spiritual and often so is the work God is doing in our life. No matter how many times God has intervened and rescued us in the past, we quickly forget. Then we want a sign that He's involved in our lives again. That's just the way we are as human beings. Like the apostle Thomas, "seeing is believing" for us.

Doubt is something all Christians experience. When bad things happen to us, we wonder why God isn't there. When people ask us questions about God that we can't answer, doubt rears its ugly head. How do we overcome doubt and believe in what we can't see? 

It's first important to understand what causes us as Christian to doubt. And that would be Satan the primary enemy of God. (Genesis 3:1-6) Just as God, work in a spiritual realm to draw us near to Him, Satan and his demons work to drag us away from God. One of their weapons is doubt and they love to plant seeds of doubt in our mind. When we doubt the existence of God, the power of God, the love of God or the sacrifice of Christ, we give the enemy a foothold in our minds. 

Once Satan has a foothold, he has an invitation to work away at our mind. We've given him permission to do so by agreeing with him that there is cause for doubt. At this point, we have a choice, to go on agreeing and be pulled away from God or to seek help in pulling out the seeds of doubt. We don't give up our feelings of doubt right away; we rescind the invitation that we gave to Satan by our agreement with him. Once we decide to seek the truth, we regain control of our minds and can pursue those things that would reassure us in our faith. 

Related to doubt, but not quite the same is the state of unbelief. Doubt says, "I don't think that can happen." Unbelief says, "No way can that happen." 

Zacharias is an example of unbelief. The angel Gabriel appeared to him and told him that his wife would conceive, even though she was beyond childbearing years. (Luke 1:18-20) He refused to believe even with an angel standing in front of him! Unbelief is what doubt grows into. Somewhere within Zacharias was a preconceived notion that there are limits to what God can do. When confronted with a miracle, the seeds of doubt bloomed in Zacharias' mind. 

This point is important because we never know what God has planned for us. What if He comes to you with a miracle someday and you lose out because your seeds of doubt bloom into unbelief? We must always guard against doubt. All around us is testimony to the power of God. The intricately delicate world that is our habitat and the amazing bodies that we live in testify to a Creator every day. 

Satan is not to be trusted. His warfare is not going to be carried on in an honest, reliable fashion. Satan loves to take advantage of us. He lays snares for us. He uses his wiles, and his devices are very clever.

Active living faith is necessary in order to get answers to prayer. We must learn to use this kind of faith in God. We must learn to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold of God and His Word. We are surrounded by an unbelieving world and we live in an atmosphere of doubts. Demons, fallen angels, and evil men have lived for centuries in unbelief and wickedness creating currents of doubt and mistrust that are very subtle and deceiving to those who desire to have faith. True faith is having complete confidence in Christ at all times no matter what is going on in your life.

2 Corinthians 5:7 (NKJV) 
7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.

Faith causes you to know in your heart before you see with your eyes. "For we walk by faith, not by sight." Faith in Jesus Christ calls for total reliance on Him even when things don't make sense to us. A blind person has to have faith. He must believe that his guide will not lead him into any dangerous situations. He can't see he must depend on whoever leads him. To have faith is to believe in something or someone, to fully trust, to be so confident that you base your actions on what you believe. To have faith is to be fully convinced of the truthfulness and reliability of that in which you believe.

Faith in God is having the kind of trust and confidence in God and in Christ that leads you to commit your whole soul to Him as Saviour (Justifier, Cleanser, Healer, and Deliverer) and Lord (Master, King) of our lives. Faith is a tough thing. Sometimes it's really hard to trust God, but that's what He wants. He asks us to be totally dependent on Him. God is waiting for us to follow the examples in the Bible, acknowledge that we can't do it alone, and put everything in His hands. Easier said than done? Perhaps, Worth it? Always.

You first have to learn how to put complete trust in God, then faith will follow.

God is in control of everything in heaven and on the earth. You must have complete trust and complete faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in the Lord leads to a complete conversion. You have to have faith to be able to face tomorrow with confidence. Confidence that you will get that job that is faith. Sometimes, all we need is to be reminded of what faith really is.

God has given us the ability to choose and decide. Sometimes we are bound to be tested and God again assures us in 1 Cor 10:13 that He will never let us be tempted beyond what we can take. All in all, with the great challenges that we must all undergo, we can be victory and emerge as stronger men and women of God. We never need to go looking for trials and tribulations, they will find us. But when faced with them, God gives us strength to overcome.

Great and motivating faith is based in trusting the Lord Jesus Christ and His ever willing desire to meet our needs. We are called to look to Jesus, the originator and perfecter of our faith, who bears witness to us of the faithfulness of God All who believe (and remain) in Christ will certainly be saved (John 6:37, 40; 10:27, 28; Rom. 8:1).provided, that he does not fall away from God and become apostate. 

True faith will always bring results if one will intelligently seek to know what God says and base his faith upon the Word of God 



I now live in San Bernardino, California, graduated from La Puente high school in 1963 and became a Christian in 1984. From there I went on to do four years of community college. After 20 years of being a Christian, I completed four years of Bible College and earned a Bachelor of Christian Ministry