What To Do When Your Faith Is Weakened?

Many would be at the pinnacle of uncommon faith while they attend Sunday fellowship where they worship God, hear the Word and testimonies of God’s intervention in other people's lives. But after the service, when you look around and nothing has changed - the situations are still the same, the sickness is still there; such instances can weaken your faith. What would you do then?
Faith weakens during the waiting period. You wait and wait, maybe for days, for months, and even for years; but your prayers go unanswered and startlingly you may get the opposite of what you prayed for. Then your faith is at halt and your intellect begins to function, and they conclude that the waiting period is a wasting period and they decide to do something else. 

Romans 4:16
Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

Romans 4:18-22
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Abraham and Sarah’s bodies were aged and as good as dead. Their reproductive organs were dead and could not produce a child in the natural way, but still they had ‘the promise of God’ for an offspring.

Acts 7:5-8
He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child. God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’  Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

Here, we read of God giving Abraham further promises of descendants possessing the land when the promise of an offspring from God wasn't fulfilled yet.
 You too may have received promises from God one after the other, but you may haven’t yet seen the start of it. What would you do then? As Abraham and Sarah received a great blessing after their waiting period, we too will if we remain in faith. Even their faith weakened in between which led to Ishmael being born. But they strengthened themselves in God’s promise.

Hebrews 11:11-12
And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

Even though they’d passed the age to have children, they continued to believe in God who had given them the promise. 

Genesis 18:13-14
Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

Genesis 21:6-7
Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Though Sarah laughed out of disbelief in the former verse, she later laughed out of joy and named her son, Isaac which means ‘laughter’.

Abraham and Sarah believed in the promise and in the One who gave them the promise. In the course of time even though they wavered in their faith - they restored their faith and in due time possessed their promise.

A person who prays in faith and waits on God is analogous to a farmer who sows seeds and then waits for the harvest. Meanwhile, the seed would need water, sunlight and fertilisers in order to grow and yield fruit. It could be a long waiting period. Some would be ready for harvest in a few weeks, while some may take months, and some may even take years. But the harvest is for sure, since the seed has been sown. Same is the case with the Word of God which is an imperishable seed. When your faith is weakened, hold on to the promise of God and stir up your faith by hearing testimonies, learning from Bible characters who may have faced a situation just as yours, visualise your deliverance and be strengthened in the faith. What God has told about your life shall surely come to pass! His plan is to prosper you and never to harm you.

About The Author:

Dr. Damien Antony
Born and brought up in a Christian family, Dr. Damien Antony possessed an unquenching quest for truth right from his boyhood days and eventually his relentless search led him to the Bible. He is a Revival Preacher, Bible Teacher, Leadership Trainer, Author and a Life Coach. He moves under the anointing for Prophetic, Healing, Deliverance, Inner Healing and Financial Breakthrough. God has also blessed him with an Apostolic Mandate to take the Universal Body of Christ to the next level of revelation and anointing.