This month will be more internally focused, discussing questions we have for ourselves regarding our own faith.
I rarely answer the featured question right up front, but this time will be an exception. The simple and probably obvious answer is, “Yes, it’s definitely ok to have questions.” If that weren’t the case, we’d all be in big trouble.
Some things are impossible to know, so you shouldn’t be too bothered about not knowing. For example, what would be happening right now if Adam and Eve had not sinned in the garden? Interesting question. There’s not enough in the Bible to shed much light on that question. Although I’m pretty sure we’d be able to eat as much chocolate as we wanted without ever getting sick.😀
There are also two ways to be bothered about unknown answers to questions. One stems from being frustrated that there’s genuinely no way to know an answer to a specific question. The other is driven by the feeling that you probably should know the answer but don’t. The former frustration needs to be diminished or removed through simply trusting God, understanding that if He wanted you to know, He could easily have provided a way to determine the answer. Since He hasn’t, it’s obviously something He wants you to fully trust that He is in complete control even if you really don’t understand. The latter type of frustration is something that should drive us to study and seek godly counsel.
The point of this article isn’t to attempt to answer tough questions you may have but rather to help you avoid anxiety regarding certain doubts you may have about your faith.
Your own internal questions can fall into two categories.
- Things you are interested in learning more about, but they really don’t affect the strength of your faith in any significant way.
- Things that trouble you and at least occasionally cause you to question your faith.
For example, a question falling under the first category above might be wanting to know a bit more about how the church started after the resurrection of Jesus. That’s not too hard to learn about (e.g., read the book of Acts), and your lack of knowledge probably doesn’t keep you awake at night.
It’s the second category that this article is centered on. Is it ok to have those types of questions? If you’ve never had any of those, you might not be thinking hard enough! Everyone experiences those to some extent at some point in their walk. They are somewhat hard to avoid and part of the human experience.
The real question becomes, “What do you do when dealing with these discomforting questions?” Here’s my suggestion:
- Be honest with yourself and acknowledge you really have the question (or questions).
- Be honest with God (since He already knows) and acknowledge you really have the question (or questions).
- Tell God, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)
This last point may need some clarification. The verse cited may seem confusing, but it makes a lot of sense and is something we all experience.
The short version of the context of Mark 9 is that strong faith (and prayer) was required to heal a man’s demon-possessed son. The father expressed that he had faith but admitted it wasn’t as strong as it should be. He was saying something like, “I really want to believe, but I’m struggling right now. Please help me!” Have you been there before? I have, and it’s pretty normal. The encouraging aspect is that this response is something that pleases God, and He loves to help us when we express this level of humility and honesty.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him (James 1:5).
If you are a sincere Christian, you should be willing to accept things even when you don’t comfortably comprehend them.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).
As we grow in our faith, we learn to trust God more and more. I have so many personal examples of answers and direction from God that when a new challenge arises, I just remind myself of how many times God “showed up” in the past, even when I thought all was lost. Therefore, I know He’ll do it again. One very important caveat: I am not saying God always gave me exactly what I wanted. I’m saying I know for sure He allowed or directly orchestrated the resolution, so that even if it wasn’t what I wanted or what I thought should happen, I can be confident it was God’s will. I don’t have space to elaborate on God allowing something versus Him causing it, but I will say, in either case, He doesn’t owe me an explanation of which it was and why. Sometimes, I do feel I know, but it doesn’t change the fact that God is Sovereign and will do what He pleases. (I’m thankful for that because I would make a mess of things over and over!)
On another note, related to our question, if someone chooses to leave or reject the Christian faith because there are questions they can’t answer, they’ll be in a very uncomfortable position. Here’s why. While parts of the Christian worldview may be difficult to understand or not exactly to our liking, every other worldview has many more unanswered and unanswerable questions. So, the apostate’s situation will actually get worse, and they will have to end up thinking even less about their new faith than they did about Christianity in order to stay comfortable with their new choice. Or, they can once again move on to another belief system in a never-ending search for truth (or, more accurately, search for something they can be comfortable with, independent of whether or not it’s true).
always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 3:7).
So, be honest about your questions and doubts, but also ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen your faith, trusting that perhaps God knows just a bit more than we do!
If you have any questions about this or any other issue, please don’t hesitate to contact us!
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