Biblical Answers to Life’s Tough Questions: Is it Ok to Ask God Why?
Psalm 139:1-4
Hebrews 4:12
Questions and emotions aren't bad.
No, it's not wrong to ask God questions. Job and David and even Jesus asked God why they were suffering or felt like they had been abandoned by God. And yet God loved those men very much.
He called Job "righteous" (Job 1:8) and David "a man after His own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14) and Jesus His "beloved son with whom He was well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). He didn't always answer their questions, but He did let them know He was God, He was in control and He understood things they could not.
It's also not wrong to experience grief or anger or any other emotion when we're going through a hard time. Human emotions are natural. Healthy. Even Jesus experienced grief and got angry.
It's okay to ask God our questions. It's okay to tell God how we're feeling, He already knows anyway, and He wants to be included. But eventually we have to surrender to what God wants to teach us.
I have ask God why many times. When someone receives bad diagnosis after diagnosis, I continually asked God, "Why?"
"Why my child? Why both of my children? Why me? Why don't you heal them? Why are kids born with illnesses or disabilities? Why did you not heal this person? Why do you feel so far away?"
After months and months of pleading these questions and God not giving me an answer, I experienced a crisis of faith that scared me. Was God a good God? Was God even real? If He was, surely He'd be answering my questions and my prayers, right?
I. When do we ask why?
John 10:10
We want to live the blessed "abundant life" (John 10:10b) that Jesus said He was bringing, and we forget that He also told us that "In the world ye shall have tribulation:" John 16:33.
We ask why when hard times come.
We ask why when things don’t go the way we wished they had.
We ask why when we hurt.
We ask why when people leave.
We ask why when our life is a mess.
We ask why when someone is sick.
We ask why a lot, and that’s ok!
We forget that all our favorite Bible characters had their share of struggles and grief and hard circumstances. Sometimes they experienced struggles for decades before they saw God's plan come to pass in their life.
I went searching through Scripture and found that I wasn't the only one who asked God "why?":
- Moses asked, “And Moses said unto the LORD, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me?” Numbers 11:11
- David asked, “Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?” Psalm 10:1
- Habbakuk asked, “Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.” Habbakuk 1:3
- Job asked, “...why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?” Job 7:20
- The disciples asked, “And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” John 9:2 - in other words, why was this man born blind?
- Jesus on the cross asked God "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46
- Maschil ask “(Maschil of Asaph.) O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?” Psalm 74:1
There are many other instances in the bible where the question ‘Why’ has been posed to God - asking why His countenance was turned, why He was angry, why He had turned his face against His people, Why He didn’t deliver.
What I’m trying to show you is that you aren’t the first person to ask why, and you certainly will not be the last.
II. What does God do when we ask why?
A. Sometimes, He responds.
I want you to look with me for a moment in Job 38.
Job had ask God ‘Why’, and God responded. Now I realize this isn’t the answer perhaps Job was searching for, but God basically told Job to straighten up - who do you think you are.
Job quickly realized the error of his ways - not that he questioned God, but that He blamed God and essentially told God He had made a mistake in even creating him. We know though through this lesson that God heard Job & took time to respond to him.
Sometimes God may answer us - we may not like the answer, but He may very well give us an answer.
B. Sometimes He is silent
Somehow, I don’t think that situation is unique to me, but there have been times when it seems God is silent. But either way, when God is silent or seems silent, it can be an uncomfortable time. Can I start, though, by dispelling a myth that we can so easily believe? God’s silence, or perceived silence, is not a sign of His disapproval or disappointment. I’ll say that one more time as I believe this is so important. God’s silence, or perceived silence, is not a sign of His disapproval or disappointment.
The Bible tells us that God will NEVER leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13; Deuteronomy 31) and that nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8). That doesn’t change no matter what, whether we feel like we’re hearing from God regularly or whether He seems silent.
As we look through the Scriptures, there are times and seasons where God is silent. David, who God called ‘a man after my own heart’, experienced these moments as we read passages like Psalm 13, which expresses David’s desperation to hear from God. Also, Job, who was a man who God looked upon favorably as a man of integrity and devotion to the Lord experienced a prolonged period of silence from God, which we can read about for most of the book of Job, as He petitioned God to answer him when he was experiencing the many hardships that he endured. Both men experienced God’s silence despite His approval of them.
There were also times that the nation of Israel experienced periods of silence. When we are introduced to the prophet Samuel as a boy, it says that at that time, messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions uncommon (1 Samuel 3:1). Also, the time period between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament (approximately 400 years) is known as the ‘period of silence’, when God didn’t directly speak to His people. 400 years is a long time!
C. Sometimes He calls us to change our perceptions
Dt. 31:6 “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”
In this passage, Moses is reaching the end of his life and is no longer able to lead the Israelites. I’m sure many of them began to question WHY?!?! Or even “What will we do now!?!?”. Moses, speaking under the inspiration of God reminded them of the need to realize the provision and help of God - in other words, change your way of thinking!
Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, reminds us in Philippians 4:6-7 not to worry about anything, but to trust in God and His peace will sooth our minds.
6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
In other words, Stop worrying and keep trusting and praying!
Jeremiah, in Lamentations 3, was lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem. No doubt, he had the thought “why” in his mind.
In verses 21-23, Jeremiah has a change of heart. Listen to what he says:
21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
22 It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
Jeremiah realized essentially that things could certainly always be worse, and he praised God for his mercy.
D. Always, He calls us to trust Him
David gives us the charge in the 62nd Psalm to trust God always:
7 In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
8 Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.
Solomon reminds us in his Proverbs 3 to “5Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
Jesus Himself reminds us in Matthew 6 “25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?”
Jeremiah reminds us that we are blessed when we trust in God. 7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. (Jer 17:7-8)
Conclusion
Sometimes, we ask God why. Just as our children ask us why in our own lives, God knows that we as His children and Him as our Heavenly Father will also ask why.
He is ok with that. It is communication between His child and He Himself. That’s what He wants more than anything. He wants us to talk with Him. He wants us to need Him. He wants us to learn.
This morning, I as your pastor amd telling you - Ask Him why! He may not answer the why - just like we as parents sometimes don’t. He may answer in a way we don’t necessarily like. He may seem silent. He may demand we change our way of thinking. But He will always insist that we simply trust Him. He knows much better than we do what we need. He knows our tomorrow, and we must have full faith that He has our best interest - and the interest of those that we love and care about - at heart.
