When You’ve Got Questions
Maybe you have a situation in your life that has not turned out the way you anticipated or planned. Maybe you needed to get to a certain point or make a particular score or finish at a set level—and even though you did everything humanly possible, you didn’t get to that point, you didn’t make the needed scores, and the mark was not made. Oh, you were diligent. Faithful. You heard God speak. But now, you’ve got questions.
Maybe you have been waiting on something to happen or NOT happen. Instead, the time has either passed and nothing has happened, or what you dreaded has arrived.
These types of situations leave you and me with some questions, and possibly a little doubt. Likely some of us become discouraged, unsure WHAT IN THE WORLD THAT WAS ALL ABOUT ANYWAY…
Well, all that deserves more than a 5-minute read.
Unanswered questions can mess us up.
In fact, the title of one of my prayer requests in my journal is just “QUESTIONS.” What follows on my page is a series of just that: questions for the Lord about this one aspect of something in my life, or another. These might look like, “What about X?” “And how about Y?” and, “You know, this situation is not working out as I envisioned– did I hear you incorrectly? Am I on the right track? What am I supposed to do now?”
This is the stuff of life for the believer in Christ, isn’t it? Time and time again we find ourselves facing life situations in which we don’t even know how to invite other people in to allow them to pray for us and with us. But God, in His kindness, His tenderness, His perfect understanding of who you are, of who I am, and what you and I will need, meets it with His Word.
Scripture When You’ve Got Questions
The following Scripture showed up in my Bible reading about the time I was pouring over these types of questions in my own life.
“Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?” says the LORD; “shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb?” says your God. Isaiah 66:9
I don’t know what you are going through. I cannot imagine the uncertainties or bewilderments and disappointments you are encountering TODAY at least in some aspects of your life. Likely, there will be an element of limited understanding of God’s Hand on your present situation and what the future may hold. For certain, we have a room full of friends who can relate – even when we cannot articulate it to each other.
What we CAN do is take our questions to the Lord. What He is saying through Isaiah is that if He has ordained it; if what we are trusting Him for and waiting on aligns with His heart and purpose for our lives, we can take it to the spiritual bank. You God WILL be faithful to see the ordeal through to completion.
Right now, that may look impossible, as if it’s never going to happen.
Encouragement When You’ve Got Questions
Here is the encouragement from the prophet Isaiah:
Don’t stop believing. Do not lose heart. Remember with Whom you are dealing.
“Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?” says the LORD; “shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb?”
Yeah – that’s a “no.”
Often a word like this arrives exactly when I need it. The writer or speaker or friend has no idea what’s going on. I imagine that happens to you, as well. So if you are enveloped in questions without answers, disappointments without explanation, and roadblocks with no way forward – remember with Whom you are dealing.
Some days, in particular situations, questions arise. And when that happens it gives room for all sorts of negative emotions and doubts. We wonder what in the world God is doing. Did we hear Him correctly when we thought He told us to move in a certain direction or follow a particular path? All roads forward seem to close in on us and there is not a Plan B illuminated. We failed the test. The job was given to someone else. Our loved one died. The relationship didn’t materialize like we’d hoped. And we want to know, can we hear God? Is He speaking in these areas? What should we do now?
Prayer for When You’ve Got Questions
Lord,
For my friend, reading, I primarily ask that You grant her the ability to see You at work in her life. Help her recognize the difference between what SHE wants and what YOU desire. Move her to seek Your face. And when she does, enable her to believe that she can trust what You tell her. In the midst of it not working out, or the room NOT being lit up, or the test being passed, I pray she never loses sight that You are in it to the finish, even when it might not look like it’s possible today.
I ask not that you answer her questions, necessarily, but that You show her Your way forward. WHAT SHOULD SHE DO? How should she think? What is the path that demonstrates a belief and trust in You? Reveal Yourself and Your purposes to her as she goes today, Lord.
In the glorious and powerfully able Name of Jesus,
Amen
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Because of these realities, David is drawn to plead with God.
We may not want to need Him to be this for us, but aren’t we thankful He is this kind of God?
Lord God, I come to You right now thanking you for being what no one else can be, and for doing what no one else can do. I pray for my friend reading that she might begin to understand and know you as the Father of sympathy. That you will be for her, the God Who is the Source of every comfort, every consolation, and every encouragement.
A couple of years ago, (before the world shut down), my daughter, Sophia, and I met up with a group in Kenya to go on safari. But it was quite a drive from Nairobi out to the reserve. We were closed inside a vehicle driving down the center of what looked like solid pavement when suddenly and often, the driver veered off the path to the right or the left to what was NOT a road. Constantly we would bounce around that dirt path until the driver crossed OVER the nice paved road onto the opposite side to do the same thing. We did this back and forth up and down weaving in and around on dirt, through mud and rocks for five or six hours.
