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Have you discovered that there are some questions that God never seems to answer?
Despite His amazing promise to always be with us, and to continually guide us in to His will, it seems that God can get a little finicky at times when we ask Him certain questions. In fact, I’ve identified several questions in my own life that He never seems to acknowledge.
“What’s the use?”
“Why don’t you do something?”
“Why me?”
“When will it ever end?”
And, “Oh, Lord, how long?”
If you’ve asked Him these questions, then you too have probably run in to the same silent treatment from heaven that I have. However, even though God won’t answer these questions directly, I’ve discovered that if you slightly alter the questions you can sometimes ask it in a way that He likes to answer.
You can’t ask, “What’s the use?” But you can ask, “Father, what is your purpose?”
Don’t ask Him, “Why don’t you do something?” He’ll never answer that question. But if you ask, “Father, what’s being done?” you’ll very possibly get a reply.
Instead of asking “Why me?” try asking, “Why not me?” Ask, “Do you need somebody for this task? Why not me?” He’ll respond well to that line of questioning.
How about “When will it ever end?” Sorry, that’s another pointless question. I’ve asked Him that one more times than I can count and He’s never even hinted at an answer. However, when I’ve changed that question slightly to “Father, what would you like me to learn?” I’ve often received a swift reply.
For the last question, we need to remember God’s interaction with the prophet Habakkuk because he asked the million-dollar question amid great anguish of soul. He cried out, “How long, Lord? How long until you do something?”
Habakkuk never received a direct answer to his question but he did learn something very critical for his spiritual success. He learned that the vision speaks of the end. God said to him, “The revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” (Habakkuk 2:3)
Did you catch that? The revelation from God speaks of the end. What it does not speak of is the process we have to go through to get to the end. Vision is dangerous if we don’t understand that it speaks of the end and not of the means of getting there. Without this understanding, we’ll get in trouble, we’ll get disillusioned and we’ll be tempted to lose heart. If you and I don’t understand the ways of God during the waiting seasons, we will be tempted to give up before the end ever occurs. There is an appointed time for every word of the Lord.
There is an appointed time for you.