Day 1 — Doubt Is Allowed

“‘If You can?’ echoed Jesus. ‘All things are possible to him who believes!’ Immediately the boy’s father cried out, ‘I do believe; help my unbelief!’”

— Mark 9:23–24 (BSB)

It’s late. Everyone else at home is asleep, and you’re lying awake with a thought you’d never say out loud at church: What if none of it is true? Maybe it came from a video someone dropped in the group chat. Maybe a teacher said religion is something people invent to feel better. Maybe it just arrived on its own. And right behind it comes a heavier thought: If I’m doubting, maybe I’m not a real Christian at all.

Start here: doubt is not the opposite of faith. The Bible is full of people with questions, and God didn’t throw any of them out. Even on the mountain where the disciples met the risen Jesus, Matthew says plainly, “they worshiped Him, but some doubted.”

Look at the man in Mark 9. His son had been suffering for years. The disciples had tried to help and failed. By the time he reached Jesus, his hope was worn thin: “If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus picked up on that if. And the father answered with one of the most honest sentences in the whole Bible: “I do believe; help my unbelief!”

He was holding belief and unbelief in the same hand, and he didn’t pretend otherwise. Jesus didn’t tell him to come back when he’d sorted himself out. He healed the boy that same day.

Or think of Thomas. After the resurrection, the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” Thomas wasn’t having it: “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands, and put my finger where the nails have been, and put my hand into His side, I will never believe.” A week later Jesus came back, and He went straight to Thomas. No lecture. He offered Thomas exactly the evidence he’d asked for. And the doubter made the boldest statement of faith in the whole Gospel: “My Lord and my God!”

So there are two kinds of doubt. One kind folds its arms and says, “Nothing could convince me, and I’m not going to look.” The other says, “I want to know what’s true, so I’m going to ask.” The first kind closes a door. The second kind knocks on it. And Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.”

Christianity can handle your questions. It’s built on things that happened in real places to real people, which means it can be examined. Over the next nine days we’ll look at some of the biggest questions there are: whether God exists, whether the Bible can be trusted, whether Jesus really lived and really rose, and why there’s so much suffering. You won’t get slogans. You’ll get reasons.

But notice where the father in Mark 9 took his doubt. He didn’t take it away from Jesus. He took it to Jesus. That’s the move. Your questions don’t have to be a wall between you and God. They can be the very thing you bring to Him.

Think about it: What’s one question about God or the Bible that you’ve wondered about but never said out loud? Who could you safely ask about it?

Try this: Write your biggest question at the top of a fresh page in a notebook or notes app. Over the next ten days, add anything that helps you answer it.

Go deeper: Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton — Chesterton explains that he set out to invent a daring new philosophy of his own, and discovered, with some embarrassment and a lot of joy, that what he had found was the old Christian faith. Start with chapter 2, “Introduction in Defence of Everything Else”.

Lord Jesus, I do believe; help my unbelief. You know the questions I carry, even the ones I’m afraid to say out loud. Thank You that You didn’t turn away Thomas or the father in Mark 9, and that You won’t turn me away either. Lead me into what is true, and give me the courage to keep knocking. In Jesus’ name, Amen.