God Is the Expert Question Asker

Kathy Collard Miller's passion is to help Christians trust God more and help others know how much He loves them. In this Relationship with God UPGRADE, she invites us to explore God's intriguing questions.

Kathy asks: "Do you sometimes wonder if you’ll ever figure out God? Just look at His questions for help."

This past week, I (Dawn) read with sadness about  a Christian leader who says he no longer believes in God. He says there are too many questions about God that are unanswered. But Kathy has an interesting perspective: What about God's questions?

Kathy continues . . .

Some time ago I began to notice how many questions God asked in the Bible—in fact, more than 300 of them! The more I noticed, the more I saw how His questions revealed who He is.

He is working in our lives—motivated by love, care, and goodness.

During this horrible time, we’d love to know the “why”s of what God is doing or allowing. Some clues might be in the questions He asked.

(1) God asked Adam and Eve, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9).

They felt ashamed, yet God pursued them, calling out to them. He didn’t shame them or even get angry at them. He calmly inquired with the purpose of helping them see their distrust of Him and their need of a Savior (Genesis 3:15).

The First Couple thought He wanted to destroy them, but He actually wanted to restore fellowship with them.

God spotlighted His forgiving and kind nature.

(2) God asked Joshua, “Have I not commanded you?” (Joshua 1:9).

My husband, Larry, talks about how, if it were up to him, he would have chosen Caleb to be the new leader of the Israelites, because Caleb had natural leadership skills.

But God chose Joshua and had to emphasize, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.” God wasn’t looking for a leader who might depend upon his own strengths.

He assigned Joshua as leader because Joshua knew he needed to look to God—who would then demonstrate His own power.

God asks His question to draw attention to Joshua and the Israelites’s need of God’s characteristic of strength to carry them through.  

(3) Jesus asked the Samaritan Woman (in a telling kind of way), “Give me a drink” (John 4:7).

 Most commentators believe this statement can be regarded as a question, because Jesus gave her a choice.

Jesus reached out to a person most despised by the Jews. Jesus broke the mold of the typical prejudiced Jew and showed compassion for a woman who is the least of the least.

Little by little, He breaks through the walls of her many defenses until she is so thrilled to know the Messiah, she leaves her water pot behind and runs to tell her fellow villagers—who hate her—she has found the Messiah.

Jesus spotlighted His compassion and mercy.

(4) Jesus asked, “What do you think, Simon?” (Matthew 17:25).

Peter (Simon) had just talked with the tax collector, and Peter lied. The disciples hadn’t paid the tax, but Peter said they had.

He was distressed. Jesus addressed his swirling, fearful heart, and helped Peter work through His tumultuous thoughts.

Jesus, a wise counselor, knew the inner workings of Peter’s heart and mind—and ours also.  

In each of these examples—which are only a few of the many in the Bible—God and Jesus reveal their unified nature which includes a multitude of amazing attributes.

• Every single one is in sync with the others in an intricate tapestry of holiness.
• Every question and every interaction with men, women, and children, points to the wonder and awe of God's love, knowledge, power, creativity, faithfulness, and so many other characteristics.
• And each one assures us He is working in our lives—motivated by love, care, and goodness.

What is your favorite quality of God and why is it important to you?

Kathy Collard Miller loves to help women trust God more through her 58 books and her speaking in more than 30 states and nine foreign countries. Her website/blog is www.KathyCollardMiller.com. Kathy’s newest book, co-written with her husband, Larry, is God’s Intriguing Questions: 40 Old Testament Devotions Revealing God’s Nature. Book two in the series is God’s Intriguing Questions: 60 New Testament Devotions Revealing Jesus’s Nature. Check out Kathy’s Amazon author page. 

Graphic adapted, courtesy of Brightside Creative at Lightstock.

The Ultimate Life Upgrade

The Bible talks about one woman who certainly UPGRADED her life!

Dianne Matthews, who wrote the devotional The One Year Women of the Bible—reflections on women of the Bible and women today—writes about this transformed woman.

“While researching women in the Bible,” Matthews wrote, “I fell in love with the story of an unnamed woman in Samaria.”

She continues…

As I read the fourth chapter of John, I pictured this woman with the bad reputation plodding along the path to the village well. She occasionally paused to shift the weight of her clay jar. At least the other women can draw water in the cool of the day, she thought bitterly. She hated waiting until noon when it was hot, but she knew how they’d treat her if she showed up when they did.

What the woman didn’t know was that she would leave the well a short time later as a changed woman. A conversation with Jesus would upgrade her life.

Jesus’ request for a drink shocked her. Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each another. A Jewish man who drank from her water container would be considered unclean. Then Jesus made a mysterious comment: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst” (verses 13-14).
 
Her curiosity aroused, the woman asked the man to give her this miracle water. Jesus responded by telling her to go get her husband. The woman probably stiffened.

“I don’t have a husband,” she answered. To her amazement, Jesus’ response showed that he already knew the sordid details of her life—that she’d had five husbands and currently lived with a man to whom she wasn’t married.

She didn’t like the direction the conversation had taken. The fact that this stranger knew all about her personal life horrified her. So she steered the talk away from herself. Surely this man was a prophet. Perhaps he knew the answer to the debate between the Jews and the Samaritans over whether Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim was the appropriate place to worship God.

Jesus explained that since God is Spirit, a worshiper’s attitude matters more than location. Then Jesus astounded her. For the first time in his ministry, he overtly revealed his identity as the Messiah. The woman’s mouth must have dropped open—she’d received more than an answer to a theological argument.

She'd just met the One who is the Answer to everything in life.

At that point, the Samaritan woman ran off to share the news. I find it interesting that the Bible makes a point of telling us she left her water jar behind at the well. I think it’s to let us know that she left much more than that.

When Jesus revealed himself as the Messiah, she understood that he offered forgiveness instead of condemnation for her sinful past. Besides her water jar, she left behind a heavy burden of guilt, shame, and humiliation, along with her old identity as an immoral woman, an outcast from society.

She began the new life of a woman accepted by God as a beloved daughter. The woman with the bad reputation had just received the ultimate life upgrade.

        How has God’s forgiveness changed your life?

[Photo credit of Jesus and the Samaritan woman - "Living Water" by Simon Dewey]

Dianne Neal Matthews is a freelance writer and the author of our daily devotional books including The One Year Women of the Bible and Designed for Devotion: A 365-Day Journey from Genesis to Revelation. She also writes regularly for websites and blogs (such as CBN.com and FindingGodDaily.com), and contributes to compilations (including Guideposts’ 2013 Mornings with Jesus). Learn more about Dianne at her website or connect on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.