105: Walking Through Doubt and Growing in Your Faith (Part 1) with Robin Dance

Robin Dance is a wife, mother, longtime blogger for In(courage) and other sites, and author of the new book For All Who Wander: Why Knowing God is Better Than Knowing it All. Today we’re talking all about experiencing doubt and growing in your faith.

What We Chat about in Today’s Episode:

~Robin’s new book, #forallwhowander, what led her to write it, and what readers can expect

~Robin’s own journey of going from a life-long church girl to experiencing doubt and coming close to walking away from her faith and back again

~Asking God the hard questions

~The balance between never voicing our doubts and wallowing in them; the importance of working through our questions and doubts but also knowing that we don’t have to and shouldn’t stay there forever

~Seeing little “God-winks” along the way

~Some of the myths, stereotypes, categorizations, and misunderstandings surrounding the topic of doubt

~Idols in our hearts

~The trap that perfectionism, competition, and comparison can be when we all keep up these facades of never struggling and never doubting; the isolation and debilitating fear and struggle that come with this

~Condemnation vs. Conviction

~The vulnerability that has to be present if we are going to bear one another’s burdens as we ought

~The good God can bring from our asking questions

~What Robin would say to anyone currently battling doubt or knows someone who is; the importance of extending grace

~Reframing our questions as a bridge that can bring us closer to God rather than a wedge to drive us further away

~Looking to one safe, trusted person and telling them about our struggles with doubt

~The crucial importance of keeping our eyes fixed on Christ and His truth rather than the culture and its teachings

~God’s faithfulness to bring good out of everything

~And more!

Resources Mentioned

Offer for a free audiobook and 30 day trial membership from Audible: www.audibletrial.com/HomeandHearth

For All Who Wander: Why Knowing God is Better Than Knowing it All by Robin Dance

For All Who Wander Journey Guide by Robin Dance

In(Courage)

Inspiring Quotes to Remember:

“It is reasonable and realistic to sometimes ask those hard questions of God.”

“You can be doing good things for the Lord and it be an idol. Your fitness goals, your work, your children can all be idols. Anything that causes you to not keep your eyes fixed on Christ is an idol.”

“This life is so temporary, but we have a future that will last forever. The spiritual battle is surrounding our focusing so much on the here and now that we don’t focus on Christ.”

“I had the wrong idea that if I asked some of these hard questions that maybe I didn’t actually believe. It felt like a sin in the church to have doubts and questions. That was terribly isolating. That is exactly what the enemy wanted me to believe – that I was alone and could not voice the questions and struggles I was facing.”

“Our God is not a God Who heaps condemnation over us. He is ultimately a God of hope, healing, restoration, goodness, love, and grace.”

“God’s dependence does not depend on my faithfulness. And understanding that made all the difference.”

“Sometimes I was looking for God and sometimes I wasn’t, but He always revealed Himself to me. He pursued me.”

“Our feelings are such little liars. Faith is not a feeling.”

“We need people. Our God Himself is a triune God Who operates in community.”

“Asking these hard questions has been the thorn in my side that has led me closer to Christ.”

“We are bullies to ourselves. Sometimes we communicate that to others, as well. We must extend grace.”

“God does not wait for us to clean up our act before He will come close and forgive us. He died for us while we were yet sinners.”

“We can’t just check the temperature in the room, look to culture for answers, or even just look to church for answers. We absolutely must look to God and seek Him and His truth, knowing that He will reveal Himself to us.”

“We become like what we behold, so we must keep our eyes fixed on Christ.”

“Sometimes we are too focused on things about and for Christ – like service – rather than on Christ Himself.”

“Our growth is not automatic; it requires our intention. We sometimes confuse our salvation with our sanctification. Our salvation is a one moment, one time thing, but our sanctification is an ongoing process.”

“God is not going to let your struggles go to waste in your life. He will bring good from them. You will not be sitting in those struggles forever.”

“We should never minimize the small things God is doing in our lives everyday.”

Where You Can Find Robin Online:

Website – Robin Dance

Instagram – @robindance.me

Facebook – Robin Dance, Author

To Leave a Rating and Review on iTunes

Have you been encouraged or inspired by today’s episode? If so, could I ask a little favor? If you could leave the podcast a rating and review in iTunes, that would be amazing! The more ratings and reviews a podcast receives, the more iTunes shows that podcast to other folks searching for shows to listen to, so by leaving me a rating and review, you truly are partnering with me in this podcast ministry to encourage and help as many women as we possibly can. Thank you so much for taking the time to do that! Here’s how:

If you’re on your computer:

Access iTunes on your desktop and type Home and Hearth in the search box on the upper right hand corner.
Click on the podcast photo when it comes up
Click on “Ratings and Reviews” beneath the podcast title
Under “Customer Reviews”, click on “Write a Review”
Click on how many stars you want to rate the podcast and then write out your review and click submit
You’re done! Thank you so much!!

If you’re on your phone:

Open the podcasts app
Click the search button on the bottom righthand corner (the magnifying glass) and type in Home and Hearth in the search box that will appear at the top of your screen
Click on the podcast photo when it pops up
Click on the reviews button near the top middle of the screen
Scroll down a bit, if needed, until you see “Write a Review” and click on that
Click on how many starts your want to rate the podcast, write out your review, and click “send” when finished
You’re done! Thank you so much!!