We all live by faith.
And we all live by doubt and questioning.

Many of us are involved in risk assessment in our business. We have to ask hard questions before making the investment or closing the deal. Healthy doubt is the route to healthy trust.

Business Alpha respects our need for open questioning around the tables. In other situations like this, I have always welcomed the honest atheist. He keeps our feet on the ground.

It has been said: "Doubt is an invitation to faith".
We invite you on that journey from doubt to faith.

On the other hand, unhealthy doubt leads to paranoia!
Trust is deeply undermined in our society today.
Somebody once asked me: "How would you make it almost impossible for people to believe in God?"
The answer might be: "Destroy the most significant relationships as early as possible so that trust is undermined early. That way trust in God is unthinkable".

Some of us may have been there. I want to respect that pain.
How can we, with that experience, be sure of anyone or anything - let alone God?

The Wall
Let me tell you about an episode in my life about 10 years ago.
I had been through a hard time in my work - financial cutbacks had meant a cut in my staff and my own job had been threatened. I believed deeply in my work and went into a downward spiral till I did not know what I believed. I was still in ministry, but every day was a struggle. God was very remote.

Then a friend told me I was at "the wall". He told me of research by a psychologist and theologian about spiritual journeys. They all followed a similar pattern: discovery, belonging, working, and then questioning. At that point we hit the "wall". His word of hope was that there was life on the other side of the wall.

If I am right, that we all live by faith, I want to suggest that all of us hit the wall at some time. We have committed ourselves to a set of values and commitments - say, to make money or to be successful - and then we hit the wall and question where we place our faith.

That point of questioning and doubt can be the beginning of making a new discovery about God beyond the wall.

What is it that helps us travel the journey from doubt to faith?

1. Christians believe that God is not silent but communicates.
Many find God in the wonder of the creation around us.
Recently I was on the island of Lindisfarne, walking around 10 pm. I had forgotten what a night sky looks like once you have left the city. The stars were amazing.

David Block, the South African astronomer, came to faith through studying the universe and noticing what he called "the anthropic (= human) principle" - that while the universe expands, it does so in such a way as to allow life on this planet to continue. He concluded there is a benevolent God behind it all.

Some people find God through the Bible and its story.
The Biblical story is an account of many people over many years who believed that God had spoken to them or through them.

Christians have found that God addresses them personally through the words of the Bible and that becomes the basis of their trust in God.

Back in 1966 I sat in a church in Glasgow and heard words from a prophet called Jeremiah about God "breaking and uprooting, building and planting". Those words described the battle of doubt and faith that was raging in me at the time. I could see God dismantling old ideas and planting new ideas in my life. It was a significant occasion for me. I responded to God at that time.

I am going to suggest an experiment.
God communicates the most important things in single syllables - for instance, "Fear not, for I am with you." Do you know that the phrase "Fear not..." appear 366 times in the Bible - once for every day of the year including a leap year!

Try a very simple experiment. In situations where you are anxious or afraid, imagine God addressing you: "Fear not, for I am with you."
Try it out. See if it works.

2. Christians believe that God is not hidden, but reveals himself
Christians find personal access to God in the person of Jesus Christ.
One sentence to ponder: "He that has seen me has seen the Father" - a statement made by Jesus. Here is the WYSWIG principle: "What you see is what you get". Put another way: "God is like Jesus and there is nothing un-Jesus like about God."

I think of a woman who could not believe in God as Father. As we talked it was clear that her own father had been hard and cold and distant. The notion of God as a Father awakened painful responses.

We began to think of equating Jesus with the Father. We thought of scenarios in her life and asked: "But if Jesus had been there, what would have happened?" Her life changed. She learned to trust God the Father who was like Jesus.
Another experiment for somebody?…

And then there is the Cross.
Monday of this week was, you may know, "Forgiveness Day". Radio 4 interviewed Professor Perle, the father of the young American journalist who was beheaded by the Taliban in Afghanistan. He was arguing against forgiveness as a "reckless ideology" unless people showed remorse and readiness to change.

In the Cross, Christians see the recklessness of a God who declares us forgiven and then calls us to be honest and be changed.

We want to believe "because of" good evidence, do we not?
The Cross is where I am helped to keep on believing "in spite of" the evidence.
I can trust in a God who is with us and for us even when life seems to be against us.

3. Christians believe God is not distant, but is present among us
God comes to make himself real to us.
God comes to give us a new life.
God comes to change us to be more like Jesus Christ.
God comes to change the world for the better, to his kind of society.

Christians describe this activity of God as being the work of the Holy Spirit - God in the present tense, God at work today.

This is best described in the stories of the people round your table. Ask each other where we have seen God at work in our lives. Most of us will have some story to tell.

Personally, as I look back over the years, I would say that I have been aware of God in the "directedness" of my life. A steady unfolding purpose. Your experience will maybe be different, but just as unique.

One of the key roles of the Holy Spirit is to put a spotlight on Jesus Christ - to make him a reality to us.

So I have another experiment for you. I invite you to say a short prayer daily to this God: "God, if you are real, make yourself real to me in a way I can understand." Wait for him to turn up!

The Trapeze
A final picture of faith. Imagine a trapeze. You are swinging on one bar. The other bar is coming towards you with the "catcher".
We can all feel some anxiety or doubt rising in us!
Faith is when we let go the swing and trust the Catcher.