Do you ever wonder about something God is doing (or isn’t doing)? Do times of doubt come? Are you sometimes uncertain about what He expects and why He expects it? What do you do with such thoughts? Probably feel a little guilty about having them and just ignore them, hoping they’ll go away. Maybe they will but maybe they won’t. Did you know the Bible never said we can’t doubt or question God? That’s right. God not only allows us to question Him, He encourages it! However, like with other things, there is a right and a wrong way to do it. Let’s set some groundwork about how to question God.
QUESTIONING GOD IS ALLOWED. It’s not a sin to question His will, His ways or His plans. We are made in His image with a free will, so He understands when we use our free will to make good choices and decisions, including who to trust and follow. We don’t innately understand all He does. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” The word translated as “higher” is the Hebrew “gabah”, meaning exalted, towering, or lofty. Naturally we don’t understand all He does so it is OK to wonder as long as we know we will never know all He knows or see the future as He sees it.
The Bible contains a number of examples of people who questioned God. For example, Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin. When the angel Gabriel told her she would conceive and give birth to the savior, she asked, “How will this be … since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34). God told Abraham his elderly wife would bear his son. She would become the mother of many nations (Genesis 17:16), Abraham fell on his face laughing as he wondered, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” (v. 17). God wasn’t offended by their questions. He even answered them with love and patience. God knows we don’t understand, and, like a good parent, understands our lack of comprehension.
HOWEVER (you knew a “however” was coming, didn’t you?), there is a difference between a genuine question out of ignorance designed to aid comprehension and a demanding, arrogant, borderline disrespectful statement spoken as a question. For example, in Luke 1, we’re told both Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Zechariah, the mother of John, had questions about the miracle births that would arise. Mary, a virgin, was told she would give birth and asked how this would be, meaning how it would come about (Luke 1:34). Her question was one rooted in awe and curiosity. How would everything happen, she wanted to know.
Contrast that with Zechariah, an elderly priest married to Elizabeth, who was past the age of childbearing. He also asked, “How?” Only, his “how” was a bit different. He asked the angel who delivered the news, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years” (Luke 1:18). He asked for confirmation and a sign, as if seeking proof, something far less respectful and far more offensive than Mary’s honest wondering. His was rooted in disbelief. As a result, the angel took away Zechariah’s ability to speak until the child was born because the angel said, “You did not believe my words” (v. 20).
Job also had many questions for God and did not hesitate to ask them. A good, righteous man who suddenly lost all of his children, wealth, and physical health, Job was distraught and lamented the misfortune that had befallen him. “Why did I not perish at birth and die as I came from the womb?” he asked in Job 3:11. Later, he asked, “How many wrongs and sins have I committed? Show me my offense and my sin. Why do you hide your face from me and consider me your enemy?” (Job 13:23-24). Still, these questions acknowledged that God was God, and Job, as a human, truly did not understand. His questions came from a place of humility. A parent knows the difference between when a child needs more clarification and when he is challenging the words of a parent. So does God. (Continued in next blog)
Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Do you have any questions or doubts you need to talk to God about? He knows your heart and your thoughts anyway, so be honest with Him. Spend some time now talking to Him and then sit and listen carefully for His answer.
cto Rev. Dr. JERRY SCHMOYER
Christian Training Organization
Jerry@ChristianTrainingOrganization.org
(India Outreach, Spiritual Warfare, Family Ministries, Counseling, World View)
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