Asking God Questions and Having Childlike Faith
I am a great one for asking God questions. Really, I am like a child sometimes!
“What does this mean?”… “Why did you do that?” … “Why am I not experiencing this?”… and so on…
Having childlike faith is not displeasing to God. In fact, he invites me to come to him and learn from him.
“For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” Matt.18:16b,17
Asking God questions in the pursuit of understanding is not showing a lack of faith, it is showing an interest in who He is and what He says. I genuinely want to grow in faith and wisdom. I also want to shed untruths that I have held on to.
“Unlearning occurs when we engage with God in questions that challenge our relationship with Him regarding fullness of truth and favor. Are we asking the best questions? In unlearning, have we discarded and formally rejected the lie that bound us, or the low level truth that cannot empower us? Are we fully embracing this revelation about our new man in Christ? What is changing in our freedom? What new lens, thoughts and language are now possible?” Graham Cooke, Brilliant Perspectives, The Key to Learning
Asking God questions means that I know that the answers to all life and truth, exist in God.
Asking God questions means that I am interested in the truth and in trying to see things from God’s perspective (as much as I am able to in my limited scope as a human).
Asking God questions means that I trust God enough to ask hard questions and I’m not afraid that he will get mad at me for asking.
Having grown up in a conservative evangelical church environment means that there is always a danger that I have made presumptions or assumptions along the way – too easily accepted the formulaic answers without really understanding the truth. I dislike cliches and I don’t want to be a spiritual lightweight. I want to probe and prod at something until I know more about the One whom I believe and the truth that he offers to me. I want to mine the depths of scripture and experience revelation as much as the Holy Spirit is willing to teach me.
And often, he so wonderfully does just that. Whether understanding comes directly from scripture, or through something that someone else has written, in the quiet stillness of my heart or the words of a song – whether it comes today, tomorrow, or years from now…I hear his voice…and I laugh with childlike delight. How delightful are his words of truth and his understanding and wisdom! No one can comprehend them from the beginning to the end. But just a taste now is enough to fill me with excitement about the full truth and understanding that I will reach later.
Unanswered Questions
But there are many questions that I know that God will not answer, or will only answer in a limited fashion, because his thoughts and ways are so much higher than mine. This does not trouble me at all.
In his song “Could It Be“, Michael Card asks “Could it be that questions tell us more than answers ever do?” There is profound wisdom in that question.
Perhaps the most oft asked question is that regarding the mystery of suffering. The book of Job is full of questions as Job and his friends attempt to explain Job’s sudden decline into great misfortune and tragedy. Indeed, everything is up for grabs, except Job’s life. In the end, it is the questions that God asks of Job – all 70+ of them – all of them without answers – that satisfy Job. Job has been reminded that he is but a man, and that God is greater. Job rests in this truth.
I have experienced the same thing. When I get weary of life and trying to figure things out, I turn to the book of Ecclesiastes and it comforts me. Solomon, in all his wisdom, could not find answers either.
“I realized that no one can discover everything God is doing under the sun. Not even the wisest people discover everything, no matter what they claim.” Ecclesiastes 8:17
Paul said, “Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! Romans 11:33
I have learned to be comfortable with questions: asking, receiving, waiting.
I want to hold on to the mystery of God as a treasure.
I want to have childlike faith that trusts that all the answers to my questions will be found in my heavenly Father.
“The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.” – GK Chesterton
Take a few minutes to listen to the wisdom of the questions posed by Michael Card in “Could It Be”
