Many people give up on God because of two things.
1. His people let them down
2. Life circumstances appear to contradict that God loves them and is in control.

Why is it that some people go through things like this and come out stronger, with more faith as a result whilst others renounce God for ever?

Let us look for a minute on what faith is based on.
I think many people assume that faith is the absence or the opposite of doubt. I disagree. I think it is often a synonym!

The thing is, if we knew the answers to everything we would not need to live by faith. We would live by certainty. Our faith makes room for our doubt. It fills the gaps at it were.
Our doubts are a healthy expression of our humanity. They are often our way back to God and our way back to faith.

Doubt is not always a negative. It can lead us, like Thomas to incredible outbursts of “My Lord and my God!”

Last year, someone let me down dreadfully. For a while I wondered whether I would spiritually survive. I was challenged to handle it alone and to share my feelings with God. I learnt a huge amount of grit and determination through this period. This has definitely strengthened my faith. But my journey to get there was to doubt along the way.

As part of that experience, I was also confused about whether or not God had allowed something to happen to me or turned His back on me. (That can sometimes look the same to human eyes, after all.)

All I can say is that I am much, much stronger. I can take no credit for it. Faith is a gift, not something we can call our own possession. But we can certainly cherish it, polish it and nourish it.

So however you feel at the start of today, whether full of faith, or riddled with doubt, know this: God is at work in you. He doesn’t just choose the sanitised, sorted, safe bits of you to work in. He goes for the messy, illogical, improbable, impassable, ugly, dirty, doubtful parts of your life too.

Take it from one who knows.