Why People Lose Faith

Lately, I have been thinking about the reason why certain people who were once Christians before suddenly fall out from their faith and stop believing.

I have also noticed that there are those who did not believe before but because God opened their minds to the truth and revealed Himself to them, they started believing.

They were able to understand more about God and how real He is and how much He deeply loves and cares about us.

I think this is quite a concern for many Christians nowadays.

Perhaps, the reason why certain people turn their backs away from their faith may be in part because of us, the community of believers and in part because of what people expect from being a Christian or living for Jesus.

I believe that faith is simply the act of letting go of our worries and fears due to uncertainty, placing our trust and submitting to the will and plan of God for our lives, and obeying God's commands through the leading of the Holy Spirit or as He reveals it through the Bible.

Faith also means that we give the control of our lives to God by putting Him first above all things and including Him through every decision that we make in our lives. I think many people are still quite confused with the subject of letting God control our lives.

Recently, I learned about the paradox of divine sovereignty and human will. We know that God is in control of everything and He has a reason for what happens in our lives but this does not mean that we will just wait for something to happen.

It is true that God is in control but we still have responsibilities. We still have to act but we act in submission to God's will which means we have to be sensitive to His voice and we can do that through prayer, fasting, and reading the Bible and meditating on it daily.

We need to be aware of God's will for our lives and know the desires of His heart.We will be able to recognize these things and learn them as we continue to follow Jesus and listen to the Holy Spirit and as we serve the Lord faithfully each day.

As we immerse ourselves in God's Word and in prayer and as we seek for the Holy Spirit's guidance and wisdom, we will soon understand what God has in store for us and how He wants to use us for His glory. But these things require time, effort, and focus so that we do not easily get distracted by other things.

Going back to why people lose faith, I think there are many contributing factors but from my perspective, I think the most common is that people want a certain materialization of their faith or some manifestation of their faith.

Under this category, we can include those who are demanding proof or those who expect some kind of response from God that needs to be given immediately and the reasoning behind this is since He is God and can do this or that, then He must prove it so that one can believe.

But this is foolish because who are we to command God and test Him to do such and such for us to believe? He is not forcing us to believe. He will show Himself to those who believe even if they have not seen Him because that is faith.

I guess it would be quite paradoxical to say that the remedy for those who are losing faith is to have faith but I think that is why God uses many people to testify about Him.

There are times when we have personal encounters with God and that strengthens our belief and faith in Him even more but there are times when God shows Himself to a friend or an acquaintance and uses them to share their experience to those who still have doubts or are having difficulty in putting their faith in Him.

God works through many people and touches hearts and minds. We do not have the power to change people so we have no right to force people to believe but it is our duty to share Jesus to them and to testify about God.

We have been given the command to love one another, to love our enemies, and to love even those who do not believe or believe differently.

Therefore, we must do so out of love not simply because we were commanded, but because we care about them and we want to share God's love to them. After we have done all that, the rest is up to God but you can still continue praying for those people and sharing to them.

Faith is something that we initiate. It is not our reaction to what we see God is doing or has done. It is not our reaction to the miracles or blessings that come our way. Rather, miracles can happen after we put our faith in God.

But we always have to keep our hearts and motives in check because above all, we must put God and His will first before ours. Sometimes, God may allow certain struggles to come into our lives so that we may grow in character and in faith.

All the same, in all things, whether there is a blessing in store or not, we should put our faith in God because He is trustworthy and He knows what is best. We should put our faith in God not expecting for something to happen but because we know He is true and faithful. Let us always humble ourselves and never be ahead of or fall behind God but walk beside Him.