106: Walking Through Doubt and Growing in Your Faith (Part 2) 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 she’s back on the show for the second part of our conversation talking all about experiencing doubt and growing in your faith.

What We Chat about in Today’s Episode:

~The issue with playing the victim and having a victim mentality; understanding our identity in Christ as being victors and more than conquerors

~The enemy’s attack on our minds and the importance of taking every thought captive

~Looking to the Word rather than the world to define us

~The identity language found in Ephesians and Romans that help us understand the truth about ourselves in light of Christ

~How having the freedom to doubt, wrestle, and ask questions actually built Robin’s faith; the encouragement this brings to us as moms who are often fearful at the thought of our children ever expressing or experiencing doubt

~Robin’s advice for any mom whose children are experiencing doubt

~The good that comes from our children expressing questions and building a strong and real faith of their own; the reality that the day will come when our children will need to be able to stand on their own two feet and not depend on our faith

~The problem with legalism and a performance-based faith

~The reality of many well-known faith leaders walking away from what they had believed; the issue of deconstructionism and how that differs from walking through doubt

~The difference between what the church looked like in the 80s and 90s versus what it looks like today

~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

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

Everything is Yours: How Giving God Your Whole Heart Changes Your Whole Life by Kris Camealy

Inspiring Quotes to Remember:

“So many of our battles are in our heads. The enemy is only ever against us and interested in thwarting us and getting us weak and forgetful of who we are in Christ.”

“The truth is that we cannot believe our feelings, and cannot believe those convincing lies from the enemy.”

“It is so important to listen to who God says we are, as opposed to how the world defines us.”

“To know who we are, we do have to go straight to Scripture.”

“It is easy to have a knee-jerk reaction as a believing parent whose child is experiencing doubt. That can be frightening. But God is not a God of fear, but of power. Instead, extend your children grace and affirm the fact that their questions are proof that they are thinking critically.”

“We don’t want our children to just blindly believe because we believe. We want them to detach from whatever baggage or extrabiblical beliefs we may have and to attach themselves to the truths of God’s Word for themselves. We want them to be able to find the answers to their questions in Scripture on their own. Our kids need room to wrestle through their questions. And we need to be diligent to not preach, but to point them to Jesus naturally.”

“What we mustn’t do is operate from a defensive posture and try to force them to believe. We don’t want our children to just say they believe because they know that’s what we want, when they really don’t believe. We want to know where our children’s hearts are and pray them through that journey.”

“Remember that God is an all-powerful God and can use our child’s doubts to build in them a stronger faith than they ever could have had otherwise. Rejoice as they begin to take ownership of their own real faith journey with God. That can help diffuse your fear as a parent.”

“Operating out of a performance-based faith is a result of not keeping our eyes fixed on Christ.”

“Deconstructing your faith and experiencing doubt are not necessarily one and the same. You can deconstruct the wrong or man-made or cultural aspects of the Christianity you had that were not true in light of the gospel without ever experiencing doubt.”

“It is healthy to examine your faith and get rid of the things that are either extrabiblical or downright unbiblical. Our plumb-line is the truth of God’s Word, the gospel, and that is what we must build our faith upon – not upon all the cultural extras.”

“God’s faithfulness is not dependent upon our faithfulness. He is not threatened or angered over our struggle right now in our doubts. He knows we will struggle, and He intercedes on our behalf.”

“None of what you are experiencing is ever wasted.”

Where You Can Find Robin Online:

Website – Robin Dance

Instagram – @robindance.me

Facebook – Robin Dance, Author

To Leave a Rating and Review on iTunes

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