Question: Dear Greg,

I have accepted Christ and been baptized, but I worry one day something might affect my faith. I do not have enough faith whenever I face difficulties in life. I question why God allows difficulties to happen in our lives. Will I lose my salvation if I have so many doubts about God when I face difficulties? I am only 28 years old. How can I be certain that God is always with me and I am his child?

Yours faithfully,

Chieh

Answer: Dear Chieh,

Thanks for sending us this note – and for giving us a chance to help. Here are several points to keep in mind:

1. God is not mad at you. God loves you today as much as he did yesterday and he will still love you that much tomorrow. He will never love you more than he does right now. He is in the business of saving us, not destroying us. He is not mad at or with you.
2. No human has "enough" faith – not ever. Our faith is imperfect, fickle and inadequate. That’s why we need, and why we are offered, the faith of Jesus Christ. He will fill us with his faith as he lives his life within us (Galatians 2:20).
3. You will not lose your salvation because you have doubts, or because you are depressed. God does not give us eternal life only to take it away when we "fail to please him" – he does not give only to take away.
4. It is difficult for humans to be convinced – to be certain – that God is always with us and that our status as one of his children is un-changed. We live in a world of conditional love and acceptance. We understand that others will like us, accept us and love us when we do things that please them. But God is not a human and he does not treat us in a conditional manner. His love is unconditional – and because we are humans that kind of love is hard to understand.

it is not real. A cow may not understand how to use a computer, but that does not mean that the computer is not real. We worship and revere and love God because he is bigger, better, superior, greater, more loving, just and merciful than we are. We worship God because he is not like we are! And we can thank him and be forever grateful that he is not like us!