When Believing Is Hard

Let’s be honest—there are moments when belief feels impossible.

You might not say it out loud, especially not in church, but you’ve had that thought: “Is this whole Jesus thing really true?”

If you’ve felt that way, you’re not a bad Christian. You’re just a human being trying to make sense of faith in a messy, complicated world. Even the people who saw Jesus face-to-face—who watched Him heal the sick, feed thousands with a boy’s lunch, and walk on water—struggled to believe.

Why They Struggled Then

In John 6, Jesus says something that riled up the crowd: “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
The crowd reacts, “Wait… we know you. You grew up down the road. Your dad was a carpenter. And now you’re saying you came from heaven?”

To first-century Jewish ears, this was blasphemous. God was holy, transcendent, untouchable. The idea that the kid from Nazareth was claiming to be the eternal Son of God was absurd. And politically? They wanted a Messiah to kick Rome out, not one offering “bread of life” talk.

They thought He was too human to be God.
Today, many think He’s too divine to be relevant.

Why People Struggle Now

Fast forward 2,000 years, and Jesus is still controversial.
Say “God,” and most people nod politely. Say “Jesus,” and suddenly the air gets thick. Why? Because Jesus doesn’t leave us room for spiritual fence-sitting. He says things like “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

In a culture built on “live your truth” and “you do you,” that’s a problem. It’s exclusive. It means we can’t just cherry-pick the parts of His teaching that make us feel good and ignore the rest.

And then there’s the elephant in the room: American Christianity itself.
Let’s be real—Christianity’s PR problem isn’t Jesus. It’s what people have done with His name. We’ve got:

Celebrity pastors turning churches into empires.
Political movements hijacking the gospel to justify cruelty.
Congregations more concerned about protecting their comfort than caring for their neighbors.

For some, believing in Jesus is hard because of Jesus’ followers.

The Mystery Problem

Here’s another reason faith feels hard today: We’ve been trained to only trust what we can prove. We worship the scientific method (at least when it suits us) and treat mystery like an inconvenience.

But Jesus never said, “Figure it all out first, then follow me.” He said, “Follow me.”

When He spoke about giving His flesh for the life of the world, it confused even His disciples. Some people walked away. Yet He didn’t water it down. Faith was never meant to be a tidy equation—it’s a relationship built on trust, not total comprehension.

C.S. Lewis nailed it: “If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end. If you look for comfort, you will not get either comfort or truth… and, in the end, despair.”

When Faith Feels Like Work

So what do we do when believing is hard?
When life hits us with suffering we can’t explain?
When the church lets us down?
When our prayers feel like they bounce off the ceiling?

We keep walking with Jesus.
Even if it’s slow.
Even if they’re baby steps.
Even if our faith feels more like hanging on by a thread than soaring on wings.

Because walking away doesn’t lead anywhere better. Peter asks in John 6:68: “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

A Word for American Christianity

If you’re skeptical of Christianity because of Christians—that’s fair. A lot of what passes for “Christianity” in America is more about political power, cultural dominance, or personal comfort than it is about Jesus of Nazareth.

But please don’t confuse the knockoff for the real thing. The real Jesus is still calling people into a life of radical love, justice, and mercy. He’s still offensive to the powerful and still good news to the poor. And yes—He’s still asking us to believe in what we can’t fully see yet.

Final Thought

Belief isn’t the absence of doubt—it’s choosing to trust even when doubt is in the passenger seat. Faith is not pretending we have no questions; it’s walking toward Jesus with those questions in hand.

When believing is hard—and it will be—don’t walk away. Don’t settle for easier answers or more comfortable truths. Stay close to Jesus. Keep trusting Him.

He is the Bread of Life. And He’s enough, even when nothing else is.

Prayer

Lord, We admit that sometimes believing is hard.
Our questions feel heavy, our doubts feel loud,
and the world offers a hundred easier answers.
But today, we choose You.
Give us the courage to keep walking toward You,
even when the road is unclear.
Help us to see past the failures of human religion
and to hold fast to the truth of who You are.
Feed our hearts with the Bread of Life,
and keep us close when we are tempted to wander.
We believe—help our unbelief.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.