Message Follow Up | Context: Part 3 – The Wisdom Books
By Matt Dawson
I’m on a mission. It’s deeply personal to me. It’s one of the things I feel God calling me to engage in more and more as I’ve served in the church.
I’m on a mission to help people know – It’s OKAY to ask Questions!
Yesterday, I shared in our Context series that the Wisdom/Poetry books (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecc, and Song of Solomon) help display the LOVE OF GOD and the INTIMACY AVAILABLE TO US.
The primary example I used was Job’s encounter with God in Job 38-42. This is a hard encounter to read if we don’t understand the beauty of the closeness Job experiences when God reveals Himself to him. It seems harsh, but it was just a reminder to Job WHO HE WAS and WHO GOD IS.
THIS CLOSE ENCOUNTER with GOD… started with questions.
Job was asking WHY? He was doubting the reasoning that his wife and friends were bringing to him as to ‘why’ God was allowing the hardship in his life. His trust remained in God, but he DID QUESTION why God was doing it – what he gained from it – what were the reasons – did he deserve it?
Please understand: THESE QUESTIONS ARE COMPLETELY NATURAL. We are NOT God – we don’t understand it all. We cannot comprehend all that God is doing and because of this – we have NO CHOICE but to form questions in our minds. God understands this – He made us. He knows what’s in our minds even before we have the chance to voice it. (Psalm 139:3-4)
I have spent many years counseling and coaching Christians on their spiritual journey and I am convinced that somewhere along the way in the last 30 years of Christendom – SOMEONE convinced us that WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO QUESTION GOD!??!? I don’t know where this came from, but NOTHING could be further from the truth.
Now . . . we are not to TEST God. We are not to DEMEAN God with our attitudes. We are not to approach Him with disrespect or arrogance. (Job 40:2) BUT WE CAN ASK OUR QUESTIONS! God expects us to – HE KNOWS we don’t have the answers and HE WANTS US TO SEEK THEM FROM HIM.
Questions are often the doorway that God uses to draw us closer to Him. – @dawsonTVClick To Tweet
I believe many wayward followers were derailed in their faith when someone tried to convince them that God was not interested in their questions. That He didn’t care – or that He would be MAD if you questioned Him about anything. I’ve even had people tell me they don’t really think they can be a Christian because of the questions they have. This does not align with what we read in scripture.
Many saints of old grew in their faith because of their questions to God. The disciples were FILLED with questions – and Jesus was always patient to help them, teach them, work with them to help them understand. His CLOSEST followers (the inner 3) had questions even after His resurrection!
Please, bring your questions to God. DON’T STOP following Him because you don’t understand something or question something. He wants to talk. He wants to hear from you. He wants to help you along the way. He wants to DRAW YOU CLOSE through your questions.
Just think about it: The questions that you have and are not asking God – could be the very doorway to the breakthrough in your faith that you’ve been longing for!
Don’t wait, bring your questions to God TODAY!