By M. Fontaine
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.—Mark 12:301
Even though we may share a collective faith with specific doctrines that we embrace as a community of faith, we should also be personally convinced, and persuaded in our own mind of the beliefs and faith that we hold to as individuals.2—Because we know in our hearts, or have made the choice to embrace them due to personal faith or experience that this is what God wants for us, what’s right for us.
The Lord told us specifically to love God with all our mind.3 He didn’t just refer to our heart and soul, but also to our mind. God gave human beings mental faculties and He created us to be intellectual beings, capable of rational thought, intellectual growth, critical thinking, and reasoning. He also gave us a conscience to guide us in making choices that are morally right.
The Bible says that “whatever is not of faith is sin,”4 so if we don’t have the faith for something, then it can be a sin for us. For this reason, it’s important that we are at liberty to explore our beliefs and determine where our faith lies on issues and points of doctrine, and to build our views accordingly.
God expects us to use the tools and talents that He has given each of us, and there is nothing inherently wrong with developing and using your intellectual abilities. He asks us to glorify Him in the process. Using our mental faculties and being capable of critical and rational thinking are not meant to undermine our faith. Realistically, some people do reason themselves out of their faith. But in other cases, they serve to strengthen people’s faith. It depends on how they are used. Paul, St. Augustine, Martin Luther, C. S. Lewis, and other great Christian thinkers used reasoning and logic to strengthen their and others’ faith and understanding of doctrine and to help to shape the faith and intellectual viewpoints of Christianity of their day.
We can use our intellectual abilities to glorify God and to affirm our faith, just as we can use any other skills and talents He has given us. We can use our minds to better love God, as Jesus commanded us to do. We can also use our intellectual abilities to further our education, our understanding of the world, and for career opportunities. As is the case with all gifts from His hand, He expects us to be faithful stewards of the mental and intellectual abilities He has given us, to invest them wisely, and to allow them to benefit ourselves and others.
Accepting all points of doctrine and believing completely by faith is not a natural approach for everybody in all cases. Just as the Lord made people very different in their personalities and physical makeup, there are also different kinds of faith. Whether your faith is such that you need time and study to reach a place of belief, or whether you embrace concepts with little questioning, the end goal is what counts—a living faith.
It’s not unusual to go through crises of faith and to doubt or question points of doctrine, even foundational Christian principles. The Lord often works through such battles of the mind and spirit and uses them to strengthen us. He can use this process to help us to go back to the foundation of our faith, to reaffirm our belief, and to ensure that we are well grounded in the foundation of our beliefs. It can help us to reach an understanding as to why we believe the doctrines we hold to be true, and the scriptural foundation for them.
Many Christians have experienced crises of faith or grappled with bouts of doubt. Some noteworthy examples, such as Martin Luther, Mother Teresa, and Adoniram Judson, come to mind. Their crises of faith and the battles they fought to reach a place of faith and understanding have been documented. The result of their experiences, however, was a stronger faith, a deeper understanding of God and the intimate relationship He seeks with each of us. Their battles and victories have inspired many. I would venture to say that their struggles also gave them a deeper understanding of the battles people face in affirming their faith and how such battles can be used to ultimately strengthen their faith. I’m sure many of you have had similar experiences.
Rather than looking at doubts and crises of faith as only a potential threat to our faith, to be resisted and pushed out of mind and heart, we can also see these as potential stepping stones to a strong and mature Christian faith. They can serve to help us to go to the foundation of our faith and to affirm it. They can help us to reason and understand our faith both spiritually and intellectually, to research and to discover “whether these things be so,”5 and to reach a place of personal and reasoned faith. A faith built on these premises will not be easily swayed when challenged by contrary arguments or beliefs, or intellectual reasoning from those who are unbelievers. Ultimately, the result can be a stronger and more seasoned faith.
Of course, doubts and skepticism continue to be tests of our faith which, like all tests, can either strengthen or weaken our faith, depending on how we respond to them. Facing doubts is part of being human; it’s how we handle them that makes all the difference. I encourage you to take the steps you need to strengthen your faith when you have questions or doubts about a point of doctrine, so that you can resolve these in your heart and mind. There may be times when the Lord asks you to wrap something up in a bundle of faith. At other times, He may lead you to work through an issue until you reach a place of peace and understanding.
Analyzing, discussing, and debating points of doctrine can be healthy for your faith, as it requires you to research, dig deep, and learn to articulate and defend your views and the scriptural foundation for them. There is also a lot written in the Bible about understanding and accepting and using our minds as a vehicle for our faith. The Lord once said, “Come now, let us reason together.”6 He can strengthen and consolidate our faith through our gaining a greater understanding of its foundations.
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.—2 Corinthians 10:3–57
Originally published September 2010. Adapted and republished February 2014 @tfi.
1 NIV.
2 Romans 14:5
3 Matthew 22:37.
4 Romans 14:23.
5 Acts 17:11.
6 Isaiah 1:18.
7 NIV.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.—Mark 12:301
Even though we may share a collective faith with specific doctrines that we embrace as a community of faith, we should also be personally convinced, and persuaded in our own mind of the beliefs and faith that we hold to as individuals.2—Because we know in our hearts, or have made the choice to embrace them due to personal faith or experience that this is what God wants for us, what’s right for us.
The Lord told us specifically to love God with all our mind.3 He didn’t just refer to our heart and soul, but also to our mind. God gave human beings mental faculties and He created us to be intellectual beings, capable of rational thought, intellectual growth, critical thinking, and reasoning. He also gave us a conscience to guide us in making choices that are morally right.
The Bible says that “whatever is not of faith is sin,”4 so if we don’t have the faith for something, then it can be a sin for us. For this reason, it’s important that we are at liberty to explore our beliefs and determine where our faith lies on issues and points of doctrine, and to build our views accordingly.
God expects us to use the tools and talents that He has given each of us, and there is nothing inherently wrong with developing and using your intellectual abilities. He asks us to glorify Him in the process. Using our mental faculties and being capable of critical and rational thinking are not meant to undermine our faith. Realistically, some people do reason themselves out of their faith. But in other cases, they serve to strengthen people’s faith. It depends on how they are used. Paul, St. Augustine, Martin Luther, C. S. Lewis, and other great Christian thinkers used reasoning and logic to strengthen their and others’ faith and understanding of doctrine and to help to shape the faith and intellectual viewpoints of Christianity of their day.
We can use our intellectual abilities to glorify God and to affirm our faith, just as we can use any other skills and talents He has given us. We can use our minds to better love God, as Jesus commanded us to do. We can also use our intellectual abilities to further our education, our understanding of the world, and for career opportunities. As is the case with all gifts from His hand, He expects us to be faithful stewards of the mental and intellectual abilities He has given us, to invest them wisely, and to allow them to benefit ourselves and others.
Accepting all points of doctrine and believing completely by faith is not a natural approach for everybody in all cases. Just as the Lord made people very different in their personalities and physical makeup, there are also different kinds of faith. Whether your faith is such that you need time and study to reach a place of belief, or whether you embrace concepts with little questioning, the end goal is what counts—a living faith.
It’s not unusual to go through crises of faith and to doubt or question points of doctrine, even foundational Christian principles. The Lord often works through such battles of the mind and spirit and uses them to strengthen us. He can use this process to help us to go back to the foundation of our faith, to reaffirm our belief, and to ensure that we are well grounded in the foundation of our beliefs. It can help us to reach an understanding as to why we believe the doctrines we hold to be true, and the scriptural foundation for them.
Many Christians have experienced crises of faith or grappled with bouts of doubt. Some noteworthy examples, such as Martin Luther, Mother Teresa, and Adoniram Judson, come to mind. Their crises of faith and the battles they fought to reach a place of faith and understanding have been documented. The result of their experiences, however, was a stronger faith, a deeper understanding of God and the intimate relationship He seeks with each of us. Their battles and victories have inspired many. I would venture to say that their struggles also gave them a deeper understanding of the battles people face in affirming their faith and how such battles can be used to ultimately strengthen their faith. I’m sure many of you have had similar experiences.
Rather than looking at doubts and crises of faith as only a potential threat to our faith, to be resisted and pushed out of mind and heart, we can also see these as potential stepping stones to a strong and mature Christian faith. They can serve to help us to go to the foundation of our faith and to affirm it. They can help us to reason and understand our faith both spiritually and intellectually, to research and to discover “whether these things be so,”5 and to reach a place of personal and reasoned faith. A faith built on these premises will not be easily swayed when challenged by contrary arguments or beliefs, or intellectual reasoning from those who are unbelievers. Ultimately, the result can be a stronger and more seasoned faith.
Of course, doubts and skepticism continue to be tests of our faith which, like all tests, can either strengthen or weaken our faith, depending on how we respond to them. Facing doubts is part of being human; it’s how we handle them that makes all the difference. I encourage you to take the steps you need to strengthen your faith when you have questions or doubts about a point of doctrine, so that you can resolve these in your heart and mind. There may be times when the Lord asks you to wrap something up in a bundle of faith. At other times, He may lead you to work through an issue until you reach a place of peace and understanding.
Analyzing, discussing, and debating points of doctrine can be healthy for your faith, as it requires you to research, dig deep, and learn to articulate and defend your views and the scriptural foundation for them. There is also a lot written in the Bible about understanding and accepting and using our minds as a vehicle for our faith. The Lord once said, “Come now, let us reason together.”6 He can strengthen and consolidate our faith through our gaining a greater understanding of its foundations.
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.—2 Corinthians 10:3–57
Originally published September 2010. Adapted and republished February 2014 @tfi.
1 NIV.
2 Romans 14:5
3 Matthew 22:37.
4 Romans 14:23.
5 Acts 17:11.
6 Isaiah 1:18.
7 NIV.
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