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Norma L. Brumbaugh

Inspirational Writer, Author, and Speaker

PO Box 6432, Chico, CA 95927
nlbrumbaugh@gmail.com

Keep a smile in your heart.

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When a Crisis of Faith Does Good

Faith in Crisis

A crisis of faith gets your attention. The believer hits a brick wall, a difficult time in their spiritual journey. His or her walk of faith is hard, the path unclear. An uneasy battle commences between the believer’s thoughts and feelings, beliefs and questions. Internal conflict wages. Doubt surfaces.

Uncertainty and angst interject in the daily. Fear and dread are a constant. A crisis of faith demands individuals take a look at their beliefs. They may say they’re done, and jump ship. Maybe after some deliberation, or maybe not. They may begin deconstructing their spiritual beliefs. They are figuring out what they will abandon or hold onto regarding their faith journey.

What is almost guaranteed is that the crisis of faith and what it does in their life changes them in their perceptions and understanding of matters of faith, the faith community, and God’s part in it all. The end result sees an altering in the person’s walk of faith. The crisis, when it comes, may be a private matter or it may be public. It may draw the person deeper in their faith, or it may be a dramatic exit from their Christian way of life.

A Crisis Shakes You

Will their faith survive? Will they continue on believing in God and the tenants of the faith, or are they, in fact, done, done? A crisis of faith can come from almost any direction, from both internal and external factors. Serious doubts about the faith community, in God, or His goodness often accompany the crisis.

Maybe it’s you, or it was you. You realize straddling the fence is not an option. You can’t play it like a game. You can’t pretend like your faith is something real when deep inside you’re questioning what you believe. Well, not for long, anyways. You can’t talk the talk and walk the walk if you are not positive your faith is legitimate.

Maybe that’s not it at all. Other set-backs which lead to crises of faith are more like explosions, and less like doubts. Something happens that shakes the person to the core. They might be hurt emotionally, wounded relationally, and frustrated spiritually. The crisis somehow upends them. They’re left reeling from the impact. There’s usually only one way through it: Hang on, go with it, and look for a place to land. No avoiding some things.

A Crisis Stops You

A battle that’s waging can be all over the map; One that’s not very pretty, but one that I would say is necessary to the faith journey. A crisis, one that is real and not an excuse to bail, navigates an unusual path. During the crisis of faith, some face a difficult, complicated situation loaded with fear, angst, anger, and even betrayal–only to find a new day has dawned in the process of dealing with it. Now they know God is enough in the deeper struggle, and that truth, indeed, set them free.

True faith continues to believe on some level even when the crisis comes. This faith expects God to intervene in the situation. Steadfast resolve determines to see the crisis through until answers are found. This requires their self to look at everything with critical discernment and with an air of detachment. They are wise to ask trusted friends to pray for them. We all need support during a crisis.

A Crisis Teaches You

Instead of faith demobilizing and ending in defeat, the person in crisis mode may discover a renewed vision. This comes as the crisis spends itself. God and His ways become clear in the process of devouring His Word, along with time spent searching for answers.

A true, honest, open-ended search for answers involves praying, crying out to God, reading, learning, listening, seeking. Talking with caring, strong people of faith is wise and productive. They have insights coupled with experience. Introspection and honest delving deeper reveals what has not been seen or understood before. For this person, the crisis, when passed, results in his or her spiritual walk revitalizing and becoming stronger.

Best of all, the crisis can open doors to enter into vital relationship with Christ. Peace at the center and sweet fellowship with God become a reality, delighting the soul, the icing on the cake. Father God has come so close that the person now knows the beauty of tender union as a beloved child of God.

A Crisis Brings Clarity

But that reality is not always the case. Some abandon their faith altogether. Their questions and doubts lead to unbelief, a denial of Christ as meaningful in their lives, and a distancing from Christianity. They walk away and leave it all behind, accompanied by bitter feelings. Some do a lot of blaming, bashing, and name-calling.

I hear their voices on social media. I read their stories across the web. Some are angry at those they used to fellowship with. Rightly or wrongly, I’m not privy to know. Some had ministries they’ve abandoned and books they’ve written that refute what they used to believe. The most notable but by no means the only is Joshua Harris of I Kissed Dating Goodbye fame.

A Crisis Provides an Opportunity

Strange as it may sound, I’m not angry with those whom have left the faith. I think they would rather be honest than fake. Some have disbelief and unbelief now. I truly am sad for them. I wish they had found Jesus to be their ‘enough,’ to be their real, personal Jesus. Jesus Christ cares so much for them. He died that they might live. I pray they will give Christ another glance, and that one day they will be restored to faith and full joy.

My own crises of faith have varied. They’ve not been about whether God exists. Mine have been caused by personal circumstances that overwhelmed to the point that my heart and being were negatively affected. Church shifts, problems, and situations have contributed to a crisis or two. The thing happens, the disconnect occurs, the emotions kick in, the examining begins, the thing is considered, a struggle ensues, a spiritual lesson is learned, the thing then aligns in my thinking. Crises of faith have brought about change in me in areas that benefited from them; even in how I view the Church at large.

This is about you. Don’t be afraid of a crisis of faith. Crises are quite common. Most Christians experience one or more in their walk of faith. A crisis of faith is harder than hard, and you feel all alone. A crisis of faith causes you to examine your faith, beliefs, and most importantly, your ‘why.’ A crisis draws you deeper. Though, if you aren’t prepared for it, serious doubt will try its best to topple you.

A crisis of faith actually frames an opportunity to strengthen your faith.

I wish you well on your spiritual journey. Remember, nothing is wasted in God’s kingdom. Everything has a purpose. Please pray for those who need a refreshing in their faith or a work of God in their lives. Thank you.

God bless you and keep you. May His face shine upon you.

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Why Pray?

Prayer is a Gift

The worship team was practicing on the Saturday evening before Easter Sunday. We had several songs to polish when suddenly our worship leader’s voice became quite hoarse. He could barely speak, and he couldn’t sing. Now we were stymied. I was standing on the platform while others were trying to figure out what to do. I decided to pray. Making no noise about it, I silently prayed that our worship leader’s throat and voice would be restored soon so we could finish our practice session.

Minutes later our leader exclaimed, “My voice is back! I don’t know what happened!” He was astonished. I smiled. I knew God had answered my prayer and said that I’d just prayed for him. That was amazing. Sometimes prayer works that way but you never know exactly how God will answer a prayer. I know for a fact, God answers prayer.

When we were children, one evening my little brother became extremely ill. Dad was away, possibly smudging in the citrus groves a full half hour’s distance away. My brother’s temperature spiked and his eyes rolled back. I believe he even may have hallucinated. Mother held him close and prayed with urgency. We three older sisters, though very young at the time, stood near while she prayed. We lived out in the country where our nearest neighbor was a fair distance away. I remember it being dark and around bedtime. Later that evening my brother’s fever broke and he soon recovered. My mother would say about that incident that she was scared we might lose Paul that night. She believed God had intervened. It was one of those scary mama moments.

It’s always a thrill when something you pray for comes to pass in a direct way. That happened to me on two separate occasions very different from each other in the past two weeks. One involved a friend, the other involved my father. Both were quite important. It could be argued that what I’m attributing to God might have happened anyway. That’s true, but I don’t think so. The answers were too specific to the prayers I had prayed to be random happenings.

Prayer is a great gift to the believer. Prayer provides direct access to the spirit realm, to our heavenly Father. We go to Him with our earthly concerns, our requests, petitions, thanks, gratefulness, confessions and sorrows, hopes and dreams, praises and worship, all said in Jesus’ holy and precious name. God tells us we can ask, and so we ask.

Prayer Unites God’s People

Every Wednesday some of my friends and their friends take an hour or more to pray for America. This hour of prayer is time well spent. We pray spiritual truth for institutions, people, and situations that come to mind. We read the Word to absorb what God has for us. Prayer is God’s work. We believe God hears our prayers. I first mentioned this endeavor on this blog here; A Call to Prayer. This prayer movement has grown and we are blessed with many people praying with us. Please spread the word.

We pray as one together though we live in scattered places across the states. We pray for our country’s leaders, educators, youth, ministers, public institutions, mental-emotional-spiritual-cultural-social needs, for healing and grace in the hearts of all. Lord, how we need it. We need our Father God to infuse, transform, and make us and our countrymen and women anew and afresh. This is a time of great urgency for the hearts of people have grown cold toward things of God.

You can see what sorts of things I pray for and a brief description here; Praying for America that I shared on my Facebook page. We would love to have you join us in praying one hour a week for America. Those who are able can pray with us on Wednesdays from 9:00-10:00 AM, Pacific Time. Thank you to all who are praying with MaryAnn and me.

Prayer Matches God’s Timing

I read the book “What Happens When Women Pray“ when I was a young woman. The author made many strong points. She stated that our prayers may be answered over the course of years or decades, not in days. The answer may not come to pass in our lifetime but will in God’s time. Another concept that stayed with me is that prayers often are answered in increments, a little here, a little there, a little more later on. It is a relief and joyful to know it is up to God to bring it to pass. We learn to deliberately wait with hope and expectation in God. He tells us to ask in faith believing.

Prayer from the Heart

An element I truly enjoy and appreciate in soulful prayer is the open-ended expression. This kind of prayer is prayed without any human solutions or even clarification. In other words, the prayer is an expression of a feeling that just puts it out there. These can be all over the map. It may be praise and adoration, emotion and angst or just a situation you leave in God’s wisdom and grace. Prayer is the embodiment of spiritual living.

3 Takeaways about Prayer

  1. Some prayers are answered in increments: piece-meal.
  2. Some prayers are answered years or decades later.
  3. Ask God to bring it to pass; to prepare the heart or situation; to cause it to happen in a natural way. Then wait and continue to pray until the opportunity to speak arises in a natural way. The way this works out will amaze you. It removes impulsive, preachy actions and reactions.

Of course I could write much more about prayer and have in the past. Effective prayer requires relationship with God through Christ, and then turning toward Him in everything. I leave with you a verse Pastor Pete used to quote in his sermons. He said it so often that it has left an impression in my subconscious. Our prayers coincide with God’s promises. Praying God’s will is part of His promises to us.

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 1:20

God bless you.

Photo by Rod Long, Unsplash