By understanding the psychological factors that contribute to why we struggle with faith and doubt, we can bring them into our conscious awareness and deal with them directly. This, in turn, opens our hearts to be able to better accept God’s grace and His gift of faith.

“He presented himself alive to them

by many proofs after he had suffered,

appearing to them during forty days

and speaking about the kingdom of God.”

“When they had gathered together they asked him,

‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’”

“They said, ‘Men of Galilee,

why are you standing there looking at the sky?

This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven

will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.’”

“May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened,

that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call.”

“The eleven disciples went to Galilee,

to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.

When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.”

We see the apostles’ doubt throughout all the readings and the gospels over the last several weeks. It was hard to believe in the resurrection even though Jesus was there with them. Many of us also struggle with doubt today.

Often, there are psychological factors underlying why we struggle with faith and doubt. We need to bring those factors out of the unconscious to the conscious so we can address them.

As a result of original sin, we suffer psychological as well as physical consequences. Because of things like trauma or dissociation, parts of us may not be in union with Christ. Those parts can then breed doubt or intrusive thoughts.

Just like the serpent created doubt in Adam and Eve’s minds in the garden of Eden, he may use our doubt as a hook, which opens us to temptation that can lead to sin. 

Sometimes our doubt may be trying to “protect” us from some perceived danger, which may actually be an underlying problem in our relationship with God. We need to bring these things to the surface so we can work with them in a deliberate and prayerful way. 

Participate in this week’s experiential exercise, which Dr. Peter leads you through at the end of the program, to see if you can uncover any psychological reasons for doubt.