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There are many Christians who would not be Christians
today if they had not asked some questions. Is there a God? Could
Jesus really have risen from the dead?
What do I need to do to have a close relationship with Jesus? These are excellent questions that lead
us towards the truth, and the questions don't need to stop once we have
been saved. If you have a question
that’s on your mind, ask God, think about it, wonder and ponder. It might just be His way of leading you
towards new insight.
But not all questions are asked in such a way to
bring us closer to God. I'm afraid
that most of my questions, or the way I asked most of my questions, weren't
really helping me grow as a Christian.
Or perhaps they were, because somewhere along the way I learned
better ways of asking questions.
Here are a few of the things I have learnt.
1. Focus on the important questions. We all ask
questions that aren't important sometimes, but I used to spend days asking
God, my husband and myself questions that weren't really important at
all. Things like “Should I cut my
hair?” Honestly, I have done
this! I have since learned to
direction my energy towards questions that are important.
2. Know when I can't figure out the answer
myself. Some questions, like “What
should we have for dinner tonight?” should be answered by me. But some questions like “Which Church
should I attend?” really need to be answered by God. There’s no point in spending a lot of
time trying to figure out the answers to questions, when the answer really
needs to come from God.
3. Ask the right people. First of all, ask God!
Then, if you need to ask someone else, talk to people who are
qualified to give you answers. In
High School, I had a friend who once rang me up asking what a certain boy’s
comments meant. Of course, I had no
idea, but I gave her my opinion anyway.
When I got to school the next day, I found out that she had rung
every single one of my friends in turn, asking them the same question, and
we all had a different opinion. She
never found any answers that night because she was asking the wrong people.
4. Don't let a question take control of your
life. It does happen. We want to know something so bad, that
we are always asking the question, and trying to figure out the
answer. Nothing is to be gained by
focusing all our attention on one question or a series of questions. In fact, it might make us miss out on
the answer.
5. Wait for the answer. Answers don't always come straight away, particularly if
you're asking God the question. Be
prepared to wait. He does and will
answer you, even if it’s not straight away. I can think of many instances in my life when I ask God a
question over and over again, only to find the answer was already on the
way.
6. Try not to get frustrated or angry. When we really want to know the answer
to something, and the answer seems far away, it can be tempting to get
frustrated or angry. We might feel
like yelling out to God, “Why won't you answer me?” And I've been there and I have yelled
that very question at God! But then
I realized that getting angry at God wasn't going to make me feel any
better, and I also began to find out that while I was yelling, sometimes
God’s answer was already on the way.
7. Accept the fact that sometimes there won't be an
answer. We all have a couple of
“big” questions, and perhaps a common one is “What will it be like in
Heaven?”. I'd love to know! But I'm not going to find out until I
die, and neither is anyone else.
Rather than continue to ask a question which can't be answered yet,
I need to accept that this is just one thing I won't know until I've passed
on to the next life.
But I guess the main thing I have learnt is that
asking questions isn't necessarily a bad thing. I think Sesame Street is right. I have found out a lot of things by asking questions. I might like to change their little
saying a bit, though. How about
“Asking questions is a good way of hearing God’s answers.”
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