What To Do When Faith Seems Lost?

The cliff climber puts all of his/her faith in a rope, holster and hooks... why is it so difficult to put our faith in the Lord?

There are many reasons why someone loses their faith. Let’s face it, life can be very challenging. Having faith is a free gift that can only be given by God, and by God, I mean the three persons in the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Scripture describes faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the convictions of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). In other words, faith is trusting not in something but in someone, namely God, and the belief that He exists, even though you can’t prove it.  
 
There are two aspects of faith. One is an assent of the intellect, while the other is trust (an act of the will). In regards to the intellect, I can say that I know that there is a God. This is the gift of faith. It is impossible to deny this “truth” to myself, although I can live my life as though I do not know. By an act of my will I choose ‘something over someone.’ I believe when we put our trust in the things that we can see rather than, the One we cannot see, faith is certainly weakened and potentially lost.

I surely understand when times get hard. After a death of a love one, for instance, our faith is challenged and at times it can be challenged to a point of losing faith, we give up. These moments are precisely when God has allowed, in his preeminence, certain circumstances to take place so that we can exercise our faith. Through exercise, faith becomes stronger. If we refuse to despair/give up, we will trust in God more than before and our faith will strengthen.

​I think there are times when we feel overburdened by what is happening or not happening around us; at times we lose hope and become desperate. Everything seems to be spiraling downward; we become tormented in our agony. What must we do?
 
How would someone regain your trust? First, we need to spend time with them and permit them to work on rebuilding the relationship. In time if they are shown to be trustworthy, our trust will be restored. If we can do this with a human being, who has the potential to break the bond again, we most certainly can give God another chance. But here is the kicker, God will never do us harm, he can always be trusted…unlike a friend. God has never broken a promise; we simply turn away before he fulfills it. Sometimes we can be impatient, untrusting, faithless creatures.
 
In the event you lose your faith, do not linger in a ‘faithless’ state too long for the God of all mercy awaits you. Go to him as you are, where you are and ask for forgiveness, He WILL NOT refuse you; your trust and hope will be restored. God Loves You!   ​