Every day our life is filled with questions? Everything we do or think is either asking or answering a question. We probably don’t think of our life this way but whether we consciously or unconsciously ask and answer questions our lives are presently and eternally affected by the questions we ask and answer every moment of every day. You are reading this because you asked the question “I wonder what this is about?” You are reading this because you answered the question: “Will you read what this article about questions says?”
Some questions are simple and rather inconsequential, and others are life determining. Some are okay to forget, some are worth reevaluating over and over.
We don’t just ask and answer questions, we ask and answer with different motives and attitudes. We ask and answer with sincerity, hostility, indifference, wanting to learn, to argue, to confirm, to confront, to explore. We ask and answer with desperation, with curiosity, or simply in the process of making ordinary daily decisions.
The most important questions we ask and answer involve our relationship with God. Is there really a God? I believe, or don’t believe! How do I decide and know for sure? If there is a God, what is He like? Why does evil exist? God doesn’t seem to be doing anything about evil and suffering in our world! What gives God the right to be the authority and judge of everything? My opinion is what matters most!
You may have read the Bible a little bit or a lot. Perhaps you have never read the Bible. There is something you, like I, may have not realized or have overlooked. We have many questions about God and many questions we wish God would more clearly answer. But, do you know that in the Bible God asks us more than five hundred questions? And every one we answer consciously or unconsciously.
Every one of God’s questions is important. Of course God’s questions to us are not to fill in gaps of God’s understanding of our attitudes and behaviors. God asks questions to prompt us to think more seriously about how our attitudes and behaviors affect our relationship with God. I assume that you, like I, have tended to skim over rather than genuinely ponder God’s questions in the Bible. There are two questions that summarize and introduce all the other questions God asks us.
The first question God asks us in the Bible is in Genesis 3:9. Adam and Eve had just disobeyed God by eating the fruit He had told them to not eat. Not wanting to face God they hid from God hoping they could avoid facing Him in their guilt. Like He always did, God came to the garden to enjoy visiting with Adam and Eve. They thought they were hiding but God called out …“Where are you?”
Read the context: Genesis 3
God was not ignorant of where Adam and Eve were hiding. As with all of God’s questions it was to get Adam and Eve, and us, to think seriously about their relationship with God. The question was not geographical, it was relational. How are things going for you when you disobey and hide from me? Do you feel estranged, dead to me? God still asks each of us: “Where are you?” Where are you in relationship with God. Where should you be or could you be?
God knows where we are and comes to offer Himself to us every day. God continues to want us to think more seriously about our relationship with Him, and so God Asks Us: “Where are you?” “What is your present and eternal relationship with God?”
Another question is found in Matthew 16:13–16 (Mark 8:27-29, Luke 9:18-20)
Jesus had been traveling and ministering with his disciples for some time and wanted to see what they were learning about Who He really was. He began by asking them what other people were thinking and believing, then He pointedly asked what they believed about Him.
”Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
It has been said that the most important thing about us is what we think about God, about Jesus Christ. The Bible is the greatest personal message of God’s thoughts about us and His actions toward us. Learning the truth about Jesus Christ is our most wise and rewarding challenge. Whatever we answer has serious consequences, either very bad or very good.
So, God asks you “who do you say Jesus Christ is” and what has He done for you? Remember that our personal believing does not make something true. What does the evidence in the Bible say about the nature and work of Jesus Christ? The primary question we all answer is: do I believe that God/Jesus has done everything necessary to rescue me from my sin? Jesus said: “I came that they may have LIFE and have it abundantly.”
Find someone who believes the Bible and ask them to help you understand what the Bible says about Jesus and what He has done for anyone and everyone who will believe.
God wants to bless you with HIMSELF!
