Maintaining a strong faith can be a challenge to us all and we can associate with Christine’s (not her real name) story:  

Since my dad passed away, I’ve struggled terribly with my faith. I began to doubt whether the Lord sees and hears people.  

So, I was sitting at home tonight and heard my teenage daughter complaining because she’s alive. She didn’t ask to be here.  

I went to sit with her and told her that the Lord chose her to be here and that she has a purpose on earth.  

When she was 6 weeks old, she suddenly started breathing strangely one day. My Dad took her to Casualty. She had Bronchiolitis and she was admitted immediately. They had to clear the mucus from her lungs, but she didn’t get better.  

After more than a week in hospital, the doctor explained that a germ in her lung was eating a hole in her lung. The hole would get bigger over time. The paediatrician put her on stronger antibiotics, but nothing worked. The doctor said that there was nothing more that could be done. She became weaker and weaker.  

We prayed fervently and many others came to pray for her.  

After 14 days and 8 different types of antibiotics, she was discharged from the hospital in good health, and the germ on her lung completely disappeared. For a few years she had to go back every few months for scans and tests to make sure she was healthy.  

Today, she is an active teenager.  

I then told her that if the Lord didn’t think she belonged on earth, He would have taken her then, but He gave her the strength to fight against the disease.  

And right then I realised that I had begun to doubt. You see, I had prayed so hard for my dad to get well, but he didn’t get well. And then I started doubting whether God still hears us.  

 As I was telling my daughter her story, I realised that I had forgotten what had happened 15 years ago when the Lord had answered our prayers to save my little girl.  

It just showed me that if I start to doubt, I just have to sit down and remember all the times that the Lord has been good to me and has provided for me.  

Without the Lord, we as humans will never be able to make it through life.  

We so easily lose sight of how God held our hands in the past. It’s easy for the devil to use crises in our lives to weaken our faith. So easily he messes up our heads and then our faith weakens. We must strengthen ourselves against this. 9So keep a firm grip on the faith.   

It is human to sometimes doubt and wonder if God is still there and if He still hears. If that happens, just think back to the times when God did show up and trust that He will be there again. Don’t listen to the devil. He is, as the young people say, a loser.   

 Scripture 
1 Peter 5:8-11

Reflection 
Where is your faith being attacked? 
Where shouldn’t you go and play? 
How can you strengthen your faith against the attacks of the devil?  

Prayer 
Father, it is true, sometimes I give in and doubt. Doubt whether You still exist or whether You hear me. Help me to resist the devil. Yes! You exist and You hear me. I pray this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.