Discipling Teens Through Doubt, Culture, Sex, Identity, & PurposeSample

DOUBT

“It’s not doubt that’s toxic to faith; it’s silence.”

—Dr. Kara Powell, Axis ParentingTeensSummit.com interview

In a time when it feels like all the information in the world is at our fingertips, unanswered questions about God can seem like the nail in the coffin of faith. After all, if your doubts can’t be answered in less than a second by Google, your beliefs must be a fairytale, right?

For those of us who have been around awhile, we know better: Complex questions have complex answers, many of which can’t be contained in a Google Snippet. But for digital natives (i.e. those who can’t remember a world without smartphones), that’s not so self-evident. Yet the Christian faith has withstood many doubters’ questions. So how do we help others, especially teens, navigate their doubts well to build lifelong faith?

As we will see in today’s reading, Jesus provides the clearest model for dealing with doubts. Thomas, despite being one of Jesus’ closest followers and witnessing many of Christ’s miracles, refused to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead unless he personally touched His wounds. Stubborn, amiright?! We’ve all been there.

Jesus’ response is beautiful. He doesn’t ignore Thomas’ doubts, berate him for doubting, or confirm him in his skepticism; instead, He compassionately gives him the evidence he’s looking for, which causes Thomas to soften and fully accept the Truth. Then Jesus calls Thomas out of doubt and into a deeper relationship with Him.

The final statement, that those who believe without seeing are blessed, is an admission that many will not have the chance to see Jesus in the flesh, but there is plenty of other evidence that leads us to believe He is the risen Lord.

So how do we use doubts to cultivate lifelong faith? As Dr. Powell says in her ParentingTeensSummit.com interview, we talk about them and search for truth. We may not have the privilege of seeing Jesus in the flesh, but we can and should seek evidence. If we handle doubts well, those doubts can help refine our faith and make it more substantive and mature.

Discuss as a family:

• Was Thomas wrong for doubting? Why or why not?
• What’s one doubt you wish you had better answers for?

Dig Deeper: Click here to watch this video with Dr. Powell’s key phrase for discipling through doubts and to download the Action Guide for Dr. Powell’s interview.