What do you mean, “Asking God the Wrong Questions”?
What should I do, God? What should I do?
Silence.
“Just show me your plan for me. Show me what to do and I’ll do it.”
Silence.
Has that ever happened to you?
You’re at a point where you really feel you need to know what to do. You don’t know which choice to make or whether to do anything at all. So you ask, and you ask, and you ask.
After a while, you may reluctantly conclude that God doesn’t always speak to you. You know the Bible says He does, but most of us believe what we experience. So you rationalize. There have been a few times when you really felt God was speaking to you. But you aren’t hearing anything now. Maybe it means that we can’t carry on a conversation with God like we would with another person.
What if it’s the wrong question?
In 1992, after two and one-half years in China, I was flown to a hospital in Hong Kong and then home to the U.S. with serious health problems. I thought I was going to be in China all my life. It’s all I wanted and it’s all I thought about. I felt so empty and my heart ached to go back. But I knew that God was not giving me permission to go back. I had no peace when I tried to force the issue. For over three years, I asked God the same question: “Why?” “Why can’t I go back?” “Why did I have to leave like that?”
One night, I was back in the same rut. “Why, God? Why? Why?” I wasn’t asking. I was demanding an answer.
Then I heard a loud voice. Whether inside my head or an audible voice I don’t know, but it was loud. God said, “It’s the wrong question!”
God’s answer scared the heck out of me! I fell to the floor on my face. I repented. I realized that I had been rebelling. As I repented, I immediately felt His love for me. He wasn’t angry with me, He just needed to get my attention.
I realized that God had been trying to help me to be content with Him and with where I was at that point in my life. Once I got over what I wanted and began to walk more closely with God, things changed quickly. Within two years, I was back in China, married to the love of my life.
I Wanted Directions and an Explanation. God Wanted My Heart.
I wanted to talk about what I was going to do next “for God.” God wanted me. He wanted relationship.
If we keep asking God a question he doesn’t answer, we might want to rethink the question and our approach. As people, we have this tendency to see and define problems the same way, time after time. Not too long ago, I realized that how I define and approach a problem is often a big part of the problem.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “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 (NIV)
Moses learned to ask for God to show him His thoughts and His ways:
If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Exodus 33: 13 (NIV)
Could it be that Jesus refuses to answer our prayers for a map of where to go and how to get there because he wants to walk with us? Could it be that sometimes the journey is important, the destination isn’t? Could it be that Jesus doesn’t want to discuss the business of being a Christian nearly as much as He wants real relationship with us?
What questions could we be asking – questions that would please Him? Through two years of being coached by the author of Questions for Jesus, I began to focus on God’s ways. Now I have these great conversations with Jesus. I found that Jesus really wants to talk about the desires of my heart and our relationship. I am learning His ways.
Approach Jesus Relationally
Open up. Ask Him about things that draw Him closer to you. He loves to talk about you and about your relationship with Him.
“Jesus, how do you see me?”
“Jesus, do you have for me in this situation that I can’t see?”
“Jesus, how can I better cooperate with You?”
“Jesus, what do you like about me today?”
Go ahead. Ask Him. Like many others, you will find that Jesus is much more interested in you than what you do. That’s what he loves to talk about.
So, what did you hear? Please share in a comment.
Great Resources for Knowing, Hearing and Relating to God
Leadership Metaformation Institute
Interactive, Experiential Workshops
(These are NOT affiliate links. These ARE life-changing resources.)
About Dave Milford
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