This morning I was skimming through the conversation on this post and there were several people who seemed to think that to question God is out of line.
Granted, I am no theologian, but I personally disagree.
I think if we don’t question God – if we don’t ask Him why he does the things he does sometimes – we will never come close to understanding the nature of God.
Because why he does what he does reveals His character to us.
I think about some of the things Jesus asked.
“If this cup can be taken from me…”
“Why have you forsaken me?”
Will we find all the answers?
Not in this life.? But I do think it’s important to ask, and to be open to exploring our faith on a much deeper and personal level.? Sometimes, maybe even a desperate level.? Because I truly believe God wants us to discover his character.
What do you think? Should you question God?
Comments
50 responses to “Should You Question God?”
Absolutely. If we don’t ask, we don’t know. When we don’t know, we begin to doubt.
Faith isn’t always blind.
Surely it doesn’t make you a heretical unbeliever if you ask why now and again?? Small children ask their parents why all the time…that’s how they learn. Surely *surely* we should learn by doing the same of God?
Question, Wrestle, Haggle… with the stuff and listen to the whispers of God!
questioning is human nature – God built that into us
bargaining/bartering with God, not so much
but – there are times when we ask why and the answer is clearly written out for us in scripture, or on stage through other’s lives (they took drugs, they destroyed themselves and a family, etc) – we’re kinda waisting our time on those
also, people really really like to use the excuse of “God won’t tell me why or fix me , so it must be OK to keep on sinning” or “since He won’t give me an answer, especially the one that justifies my actions, it must be OK to continue on
listen to Craig Groeschels’ sermon serios ‘trueish” – right Scott?
The big thing here that people need to remember is the ultimate prayer: Our Fathher…and the biggest part of it is YOUR WILL BE DONE (not ours!).
Sometimes that is very hard to swallow, but it’s right there in black and white. I too, have tough times and question, God, but I must always remember (and always, and I mean always) come back to this prayer. The question we should be focusing on is, can you show me why this happened so I can better understand it? Everything has a reason. God knew it was going to happen even before it did.
Make sure you are “listening” for God to show you the Whys. I truly believe if you listen and concentrate on Him, he will reveal the answer to you. (Not audibly, but you will know when you hear/see the answer).
Asking why is definitely good and healthy and we certainly grow and learn by it. I’ve just found that some times in my life, there are no answers that satisfy my logic and I just have to trust God.
Anne, again great question. I take great comfort in Psalms such as Ps 88, where the tone of the writer is much more of questioning than of resolving. In fact, this Psalm ends without any idea that God would ever show up. It comforts me to know that I CAN question God and in that God will draw me to Himself. If intimacy is God’s goal (making an assumption here I know) then questioning could be seen as a high form of praise.
The tone I got from the other post was that God must reveal to us what we think we need when we ask, “Why.” I think when I ask this bold question, I do so knowing that, like Job, I may have to wait for 40 chapters of my life to get anything from God, and even then, it may not be what I ever thought I needed….but the 40 chapters of my life with God will have been worth it.
There are so many significant characters throughout Scripture who openly question God, many of whom God characterizes as righteous (Abraham, Job, Jacob, Gideon, David, Jesus). From an educational philosophy standpoint, asking questions creates disequilibrium, forcing us to rethink our own lives and leading to transformation.
On the other hand, there are moments when questioning God gets people in trouble and doesn’t lead to anything good. This kind of questioning is usually connected to temptation (the serpent and Eve, Satan and Jesus in the wilderness), and is less about seeking the truth and more about finding loopholes.
Perhaps it’s like anything else in life–the motives of your heart make all the difference.
I think questioning God is essential and can be done appropriately. There are plenty of examples in the Bible of people questioning God. Not only are there the two examples that you give, but there can be seen plenty of ‘questioning’ in the Psalms. David questions God a great deal, and he was greatly loved and blessed by the Lord.
Psalm 13 begins: “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?”
Then David demands an answer from God!
I believe that it’s good to cry out to God! He’s well aware of our frailty, and our weakness. But I believe the key is this: Feel free to cry out to God and get it off your chest – then just as David does in Psalm 13, return to the Lord.
“But I trust in your unfailing love”
Of course there will soon be a book on the subject – http://www.amazon.com/Sacredness-Questioning-Everything-David-Dark/dp/0310286182/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232978499&sr=8-1
When you are “questioning God” i think some people become offended because they take the question as a challenge to their “authority” on Godly subject matter. Anyone who poses as the voice of God better be very comfortable with being questioned and challenged. The days of giving someone a pass just because they claim to be a man or woman of God are numbered.
I am just an “average” child of God, living life, trying to do what is right, grow in my walk with God…you get the picture. I think that it is okay to question God. We have to be willing to accept whatever the answer is…yes, no, wait, it may even feel like God isn’t even listening and our questions are bouncing off the walls. It is all part of our growth. What we do after that is what counts. There are times when we may be better at it than others. We don’t like going through rough times. But, oh, to look back at the rough times we have been through and see how God stood by us or picked us up and carried us…Great is His faithfulness.
Surely God is big enough to handle our doubts. Also, the truth is never afraid of a question.
Funny thought. Don’t question God. But the “man after God’s own heart” did so all the time.
Questioning is natural. The danger is when we get lost in the question and never move on. I see way too many people stuck wondering “Why?” and they become (in their minds) victims of God. As was mentioned regarding Psalm 13, we can ask, but we must also move to “But I will trust…”
Instead of just asking “Why are things the way they are?” we need to say, “OK, because things are the way they are, how does God want me to respond?”
Jesus’ “Why?” didn’t keep him lost in the garden.
I think it depends how we do it and what motivates us. It is like a teenager. If they come question their parents with sincerity and humility, most parents will explain their decision and, while they might not change their minds, a conversation insues that may inform future interaction on the parts of both child and parent. But, when the kid comes in like a maniac, full of arrogance and disrespect, the parent shuts it down and the conversation either doesn’t happen or is postponed until the child “knows his or her place.” I believe if we come to God from our place, we can ask him anything. If, like Job, we start to give him attitude, he’ll remind us who we are and who he is. The cool part is, even if we do it wrong the first time, we can repent of our arrogance, be forgiven and get to try again — just like the parents of the teenager.
i think with any relationship… there’s push/pull. If we don’t question God or wrestle with God–I don’t think that is truly a relationship. No relationship is perfect. And I think He expects us to ask the question “why?” from time to time.
And we ask “why?” in order for Him to show us how to find the answers. If even He doesn’t answer back the way we think He should.
Questioning God is fine – asking questions in general is how we learn/grow. I think we should be careful we don’t use our question time with God to avoid doing what He is asking us to do.
I can’t help thinking about an almost daily exchange with my kids.
Me: “Nathan, can you clean up this room please….”
Nathan: “It’s not fair! Noah never helps me! Why do I have to do it?”
Me: “Nathan, just do it!”
Has God ever given you the “Just do it!” or “Because I said so” response? :-)
Perhaps the difference is between, “asking” God, and “questioning” God.
I am a teacher in a public high school, and I probably should have never discussed this topic in class… but I did some months back. I was teaching tenth grade English, and we were discussing the Puritan writings. The topic of whether or not it is right to question God came up, and before the conversation was over, I had brought one girl to tears.
She was convinced that the question God was wrong, but she couldn’t explain why she felt that way other than, “That’s just what I was taught!”
Later that afternoon, she and I talked. I asked her if there was any better example for us to follow than that of Jesus Himself. When she agreed that He was and is the example to follow, I reminded her that on the cross, Jesus called out to His Father and asked, “Why have you forsaken Me?”
Jesus knew the plan, He knew what was happening. He was God incarnate… but He still questioned.
If He did, how can we not?
I don’t think it’s wrong to question God. However I think its wrong to question his authority.
The biggie here is that we do not fear God. I’m talking about the Church. I’, talking about myself. God turns his back to sin, He turned His back to Jesus on the Cross as He took on the sin of the World. We are flippant about sin and we think He’s Ok with that.
I think we mostly worship a God we have created (idolatry) than the God off the Bible.
I recently explored a similar question on my own blog–How do you respond when God doesn’t show up? Check it here:
http://tinyurl.com/d6bwn3
I think honestly questioning God is an essential aspect of authentic faith. How else do you explain all of David’s psalms in which he questions God, or Abraham’s convo with God prior to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, or pretty much the entire book of Job?
I don’t think God is looking for automatons. I think he’s looking for real relationship.
I think it is more than ok to question God. In fact the bible is full of people questioning God. The Psalms are full of it.
I would type a long response, but Anne, you got it covered! I agree that God I believes asks us to asks. He doesn’t expect us to walk blindly without any question when life hits us with reality.
I think that those who have a good relationship with God question God during those times because only those that truly want to have an answer to their question would ask and in that asking, it brings us closer to understanding why God’s love is the way it is.
Job did it.
Habakkuk did it.
The answer is yes. (But try to question God when you are angry more like Habakkuk did, IMHO).
I absolutely think we are “allowed” to question God. And I bet He likes it too.
First off – I personally wouldn’t ask questions of someone I didn’t believe existed – so that has to make Him happy.
And I am a questioner by nature – and digging through His word and asking questions of it – questioning God throughout it – heck that is the biggest thing that has grown me in my relationship with Christ. I also find as my relationship with Him grows stronger I don’t feel the need or want to question Him quite as much.
Some questions I have of God I don’t think my earthly human mind could process His answers though.
For example – we received a referral for our son in Ethiopia. We were happy. We rejoiced. He got sick and we prayed and prayed and prayed for him. He passed away the next day at 76 days old. We were sad. We cried.
Then we recieved a referral for our daughter in Ethiopia. We were happy. We rejoiced. She got sick and we prayed and prayed and prayed for her. She got better – we went and got her and we came home as a family. We were happy.
My question to God is – whats up? Did we pray ineffectively? Did you grow us in some way through Brighton’s 76 days? Why us? Why Brighton?
I question – but I don’t think I can realize the answer…
The Bible says we wrestle against principalities…..I always want Him to wrestle with me, so I ASK him. When I question Him, I feel better because He’s on target!!!
I love what Rob Bell says on this subject,
“Central to the Christian experience is the art of questioning God. Not belligerent, arrogant questions that have no respect for our maker, but naked, honest, vulnerable, raw questions, arising out of the awe that comes from engaging the living God.”
Before I became a Christian, it was all so mysterious to me. I needed to question and have some of them answered so that I could get to know God. Some, of course, I still don’t have answered and that is where trusting God as soveriegn comes in. I don’t have to have it all figured out because he is God and he does.
Asking questions sends me to my bible, to pastors, to friends that are walking in faith and most importantly to prayer. That helps me know God better. Isn’t that what a relationship is about?
Commonly in the scriptures when people were complaining against God they were told to not “test” the Lord. But 1 Thessalonians 5:21 and 1 John 4:1 are clear that we are to test the “spirits”. God is a spiritual being, we are spiritual beings. How else are we going to know what is permissible and what is not?
@Kenyon – there was Gideon and the fleece.
I grew up as a kid with loads of questions. Well we all grew up asking questions. We ask questions to know the answer, just for the sake of conversation, to get clarifications of to get attention. Without questions there won’t be a point of having a conversation.
I believe Moses asked God some darn hard questions. Habakkuk did that too. He didn’t understand why God would use the Babylonians as agents to punish the Jews. Because of that he questioned God.
Peter questioned Jesus (his was in a harsh manner…he rebuked Jesus). Jesus rebuked him back and ‘called’ him Satan! But we don’t find here Jesus giving the other disciples a lecture on questioning them that day.
And Who else than our Messiah himself, the anointed one who is God and knew his death was nearing and he also knew he would rise up again but yet asked God if it was possible that the ‘cup’ be taken from him. It is also baffling that Jesus who knew all this to question God in the most doubt laden sentence “why have you forsaken me?”
In fact our questioning reveals a conversation going on…it reveals that we are actually believing that God willing enough to hear our probing questions.
I didn’t read through the comments but I wanted to put in some thoughts – questioning God is natural – learning to trust Him completely is the hard part; its where we fail and where our questioning becomes sin.
It is also the hardest part of my current stage of life.
Marching to the drumbeat of okay – I’ll continue… when all I want to do is rant and run.
Seasons. Seasons of life. I grew up as an atheist and stayed there until 27. Became a believer because I was sure I would never have to see my crazy mother again. Had no trust in God for the next 15 years then a weird experience( I felt God’s physical hand on my head , saying it would stay there until I fully believed He was who he said He was).
My natural default is not to blame God . Somewhere I decided to put off my right to know until heaven. While I don’t understand a lot of why horrible things happen, I accept them as part of life, this side of heaven. It’s not denial but more of any acceptance. I don’t want to spend valuable time asking why, or trying to explain why things are the way they are. It is like they all go into a file marked, Someday and I leave it at that. maybe I am weird but it works for me.
Abraham in Sodom….how many times did he push back on God?? Abut 5 or 6 times? He wasn’t just questioning, he was pushing, cajoling, almost arguing. The dude had guts!!
Yes…I think God is interested in us and I think He desires us to be interested in Him…so I ask.
He knows my thoughts, so why not verbalize the questions His way?
I believe it’s ok to question God. He wants us to seek Him and come to Him with everything, so if we hide our questions from Him (which He already knows we have) then we aren’t really doing what He wants to begin with. Asking questions, in my opinion, draws us closer to God because He can teach us so much through them. He can answer them in so many ways. He can teach us patience by making us wait for an answer. He can teach us to trust by sending us His answer using people. etc. My last blog post (An Open Letter To God…) was full of questions, and I think it’s ok. I’ve definitely gotten closer to God by writing that letter to God and praying about it and He sent me answers to questions I had, which is pulling me even closer to Him. Talking to Him about what’s bothering me and questioning things lets me know that He is here with me, desires a relationship with me, and that our relationship isn’t a one way relationship! I believe questioning Him creates a more intimate relationship between us and God.
Anne, I think so many people think questioning God is wrong because they think it means we have doubts about God. Again the question is, “Is that a bad thing.” My personal experience & what I see in scripture suggests to me that our greatest opportunities for growth in our faith are born out of doubt(s). When we’re afraid to doubt & to question, we inadvertantly move into a place of stagnant faith.
@Alastair Yes you are so right and I have also thought of Malachi 3:10 where God commands the isrealists (and us) to test him when it comes to our finances…yuh yuh!!! Nothing like some good ol’ scripture to bring some TRUTH. Oh and exactly what is a test? A series of questions that explores our knowledge on a particular topic or matter…
I ask God why. I don’t necessarily expect an answer from Him, but I think He honors the question. Gen. 3:8 tells us that God walked with man in the garden in the cool of the day. We were created to have relationship with God, to have a discussion with Him. Asking Him why, even if He never answers, keeps that relationship with Him open. It keeps the door open between us. The sin is never asking the question, it’s daring to believe that we’re in a position to judge Him… When we stand in judgement of God, that’s where we stumble into sin. But to ask the question, to continue the discussion… that’s the nature of relationship, that’s the nature of who we were created to be with Him.
I think it’s OK to question as long as we are aware that there may not be an answer available to us this side of heaven.
Questioning God is part of human nature, and therefore, since no one is perfect questioning God is natural. God is big enough to handle our questions, and He can handle our doubts too. Since He knows all about us why should we hide doubts, questions, or confusion? God is God and I am not so therefore I cannot claim to understand everything. Questioning God does not reduce your faith in Him.
I think that asking questions is a necessary part of our relationship with God. Asking questions allows us to be honest with God, and I’ve found that sometimes by asking those questions, some of the answers become clearer, when directed to God.
I am currently walking through a very dark valley in my life, and I have asked many questions. A friend once told me she was praying for the Lord to take away my “why’s”. I told her that I believe He wants us to ask why, because when we ask why, we seek for answers and seeking for answers takes us into deeper relationship with Him. The psalms are full of questions and lament. My prayer is not that I won’t question God as I face treatment for this cancer, it’s that I will be faithful to go to Him with those questions and we will walk through them together. He and I.
Its already been said Habakkuk certainly questioned God. He understood that God’s people were in a bad state but could not believe that he was going to use a worse lot of people to “punish” them.
You have however to be willing to listen to God’s answer. Thats the hard part. Habakkuk’s journey took him from confused and fear to a place of faith even though he never saw the restoration of God’s people in his lifetime. God however did a huge work in him.
Young children ask questions. They’re curious. They wonder about the how’s and why’s of life. They ask. Why would we as children of God not be allowed to ask questions? Ooops… sorry, that’s a question.
I do believe it’s wise to ask questions in a community of faith. Outside of that, it’s easy to travel down a road of doubt and confusion that may cause of us to leave the faith.
I think it’s better to ask questions of God that to withdraw from our relationship if we have questions or doubts – e.g. Psalms asking ‘Why’ etc.
Not that we are questioning God’s ‘authority’, just that we are engaging with God honestly – when we don’t understand, feel distant, want guidance, etc.
God can of course ‘handle’ this honesty and questioning – God is ‘big enough’ to take our questions – and is wise enough to give appropriate answers or to not give answers, whichever is best!
Absolutely, I think it is very important to seek God as much as possible, and questioning is one of the ways you seek Him.
I think we should ask God. I do not think that that I would dare do it disrespectfully like some might toward their parents. But we also need to get off our rear-ends and obey, evangelize, teach and all the other stuff for others. Sounds like someone is not spending enough quality in the Word and in prayer.
“Central to the Christian experience is the art of questioning God. Not belligerent, arrogant questions that have no respect for our maker, but naked, honest, vulnerable, raw questions, arising out of the awe that comes from engaging the living God.”
I don’t agree with this. It is like saying there’s a special “way” to talk to God and if you don’t know “how” it’s done, that special formula that He will listen to and answer, you’re never going to know the answers. Why have so many rules about how to talk to God? If we are supposed to have “personal” relationships with God, why can’t we approach Him as we are? He’s supposed to meet us where we are, we’re not supposed to clean up and pretend to be something we’re not. If we’re angry and bitter, don’t you think HE knows that? It’s not like I can be upset about something and ask God “the wrong way.” This puts so much more pressure on us to be perfect, to ask those perfect questions that a perfect God will acknowledge. And anyone who is arrogant or bitter or hurt or angry will be ignored? Isn’t it more HONEST to be what you are and feel what you feel rather than pretend you don’t? God can tell the difference, anyway.