When I Don't Have The Answers

I hate not having the right answer, especially in Bible study.

Especially if I'm leading.

I've become more comfortable with saying "I don't have an answer for that."  Regardless of how legit it is, I detest saying that for a few reasons:

1) I feel like a big fat dummy.          
   

2)  My faith sounds stupid, forced, and simple-minded when in reality it is so tangible, directing, and wildly unexpected.

3) While there are countless things I will never understand, God has given us a lot that we actually CAN understand.


In Bible study this past week, we discussed some really big 'God questions'...

"Why in the world did God...?"

  "Did He just forget about...?" 

 "How could He do that?"

While these were all questions that I wrestled through earlier in my faith, I had accepted that God didn't owe me the answers.  I moved along.  I grew up and forgot to wonder.  

I studied different parts of the Bible without ever revisiting or addressing my questions.  Somewhere along the line, I forgot how to ask the very questions that kept me digging for answers.

The questions were valid but I threw down the "I don't know but I'll be asking God that," card too many times.  I was serving dry toast to people craving steak and baked potatoes.  I didn't take it too hard though.  There's more I don't know than I do know and our group doesn't expect me to know everything.  Otherwise they'd end up extremely disappointed and our Bible study would've ended before it ever began.

For several days, I prayed and dug for answers like a bloodhound but there was very little said about some of these topics in the Bible.

Discouraged, I crawled into bed one night with a heavy heart.   I slept very little as I prayed and wrestled with God through the night. 

 When I finally silenced myself, God prompted my heart to stand on His truth and consider what I already knew.

What do I know to be true about His character and how He reveals Himself in Scripture?

What do I know to be true about His love for His people?

What do I know to true about sin and the resulting separation that happens in our relationships with others and with Him?

I allowed truth to wash over me like a wave and renew my faith.

If a two year old can't understand a parent's logic, what makes me think my tiny human brain could understand His ways?  It can't.  It won't.  I have to trust.  I have to rely on the fact that God has delivered me, comforted me, taught me, and provided for me countless times just as He has for His people since the beginning of time.  Just because I can't answer a few human questions doesn't make Him any less God.  Any less good.  Any less love.  Any less Him.  His existence is not dependent on my understanding of Him.  He is the great I AM.

God is good.  

He's always good.  

God loves His people.  

God is truth.

He promised that if you seek, you will find.  Maybe you won't find an exact answer but you'll find a new resolution, strength, faith, and assurance.  You'll be surprised at what you find when you seek the Almighty God.  He may not give you what you want but he always provides what you need.

Morning came and I crawled out of bed exhausted yet satisfied with the intimate reminders of God's might, power, love, and goodness.   He wants me to seek Him for the answers without making up my own truths based on feelings, agenda or pride.  I desired profound answers for my Bible study group served to me on my platter of self-entitlement when there was no answer to be had, at least not on this side of eternity.  I wanted to save face when my face needed to simply be bowed in humility and adoration.

We find soul satisfaction after digging through the mud searching for answers, wrestling our way to sweet submission.  Our wrestling, searching, and digging muscles become stronger with each round and God's Word then becomes extremely personal and real.

Faith presents a tension between mental wrestling and 

soulful rest in His provision and omniscience.

Perhaps this is why God doesn't give us every answer - He wants us to search, hunt, and seek so that our faith becomes personal.  My faith isn't anyone else's journey but I know this to be true; after the wrestling, He is the deep satisfaction we find.  Every time.

"Ask and it will be given to you; 

seek and you will find; 

knock and the door will be opened to you."

Matthew 7:7

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A resource you may enjoy:

*Do you have Bible-related questions?  GotQuestions.org

Question:  How do you find resolution to your questions about God?