As a friend of mine was putting the final touches to her Christmas tree this year her four year-old daughter posed an interesting question…since the tree had a skirt she wondered where the shirt was. Good question! She comes up with a lot of interesting questions and observations which keeps her family on their toes. Kids are like that, aren’t they? When you are not used to all of the questions, time spent with an inquisitive child can wear you out!
Do you sometimes feel like you have more questions about your faith than answers? How do you go about getting those questions answered? Many times we just shrug our shoulders and give up saying that this is just too hard. In my study last week of John chapter 6 the people who had followed Jesus had a lot of questions but they didn’t like the answers Jesus gave and ended up leaving.
“From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” John 6:66 (NIV)
This verse is not referring to the twelve disciples but the following that had gathered waiting to see what Jesus could do for them next. The day before they had been part of the crowd that was fed with the two fish and five loaves of bread. They were looking to be fed physically but Jesus wanted to feed their souls.
It is certainly not wrong to question God but we need to be willing to accept truth. We may simply be asking questions to start an argument with someone, not truly desiring to know what God has to say or refusing to believe His answer.
Are you willing to wrestle with God’s Word until you understand what it means or will you grumble and walk away like the disciples above? I can speak from experience that when you wrestle long enough and the truth finally becomes clear you won’t soon forget it.
As you study, I encourage you to begin with prayer. Ask God to show you what it means, but more importantly, how you can apply what you learn to your life. Too often we fill our heads with knowledge but then we don’t live it.
And for the good news….we won’t wear God out with all of our questions!
Have a great day!
Melanie
What a terrific musing!!!!
Thanks, Melanie, for sharing this – I smiled when I read it, especially the not forgetting what you wrestle for long enough & finally find the truth. Yes, we’ve had some wrestling in this deeper teaching of Christ while studying John. May the Lord continue to use you in MANY ways as you make the most of every opportunity to pass on what the Lord is feeding you. Indeed, this blog is a wonderful vehicle!