Visual Journal Prompt: Doubt
Refinement
Many people are comfortable with a simple faith, and that’s beautiful. But for others, deep questions are unavoidable. Asking hard questions is one way we love God with our minds, it’s how we explore the depth of who He is. And I believe God welcomes that exploration. He’s not threatened by our questions. He doesn’t panic when we doubt. He knows real faith can be forged in the fire of honest seeking.
Like a diamond refined under intense pressure, faith shaped through questions and struggle becomes something unshakable, something that reflects light more clearly. God knows that when we seek, we’ll find, because His truth holds up.
To dig. To read. To pray. To seek wisdom from those further along. Each time, you may not come away with perfect clarity, but you will come away with a stronger foundation. Why? Because your faith is no longer borrowed. It has been tested. It has wrestled with God, like Jacob, and though you may walk away limping, you also walk away blessed..
Maybe you’re wondering, Is God real?
If You seek, you will find
God isn’t hiding. He is woven into the fabric of creation and written into every page of Scripture. He invites us to ask, wrestle, and search because He knows that those who truly seek truth will find Him. In the wrestling, He is refining your faith like a diamond, formed under pressure, strengthened through struggle, and made to reflect His light
Doubt, at its core, is an invitation. It stirs a longing for something, or someone, beyond ourselves. If we’re willing to follow it, doubt can lead us to the idea that maybe there is something all-knowing, something steady when we are not. And here’s the promise: if you seek, you will find.
Even the resurrection of Jesus invites doubt. And maybe it should. It’s so unbelievable, so far beyond what we could ever accomplish, that it almost demands we stop and question. But that’s the point, it is beyond us. Only someone greater could do what we never could. So in the end, doubt doesn’t have to drive us away from God. It’s a gift that can lead us straight to Him.
Scripture
James 1:5,
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”
Mark 9:24,
“Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’”
Jude 1:22,
“Be merciful to those who doubt.”
Quote
"Those who believe they believe in God, but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself."
Madeleine L’Engle
Stories
Book of Job (Story of Job)
Job’s honest questioning and suffering didn’t drive him away from God but led him into a deeper, tested faith
Psalm 6. 13,22,69 (David Expressing Both Belief and Unbelief)
These psalms show that faith isn’t the absence of struggle, but the courageous choice to seek God even amid uncertainty
Humanity
Studies by Elizabeth Krumrei-Mancuso and colleagues (Journal of Positive Psychology, 2017) show that people who practice intellectual humility, willingness to admit they don’t know everything, tend to grow in understanding and conviction
Is God Real?
Journal Prompts
What specific doubts or questions about God, faith, or Scripture have been weighing on me lately? Write them out honestly, without trying to filter or fix them. Where did they come from? When did they start?
How have I typically responded to doubt in the past, ignored it, feared it, explored it, or shared it with others? What effect did that response have on my faith?
Can I identify a time when doubt led me to a deeper understanding of God or a stronger faith? What did I learn about God, and about myself, through that process?
What would it look like to bring my current doubts directly to God in prayer?
What might I say to Him if I believed He’s not threatened by my questions, but welcomes them? Where or who might I go to, to explore answers?