Lately I’ve had to ask God some hard questions. The ones that seem to surface in the midst of great struggle, and I feel like I need answers if I’m going to have any hope of getting through it.
Maybe you’ve been there, too— in a place where hard questions consume your thoughts. And maybe like me, you’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out the answers on your own when you know deep down God wants us to bring our hard questions to him.
Usually these types of questions come to mind when a desperate prayer goes unanswered, or when God doesn’t answer the way I wanted. So I’m learning to trust God with my questions, because I know from past experience, the hardest questions can either pull me away from God or draw me to him.
Taking Our Hardest Questions to God When We’re Hurting
When we’re hurting, we want to ask, “Why did this happen?”
Whether walking through grief, battling discouragement, or falling into despair, I used to hesitate before asking God my hardest questions. I entertained them in my mind but stopped short of bringing them before my merciful God. I felt that questioning my circumstances would somehow disrespect him.
Well-meaning people of faith have tried to rationalize the unknown by saying things like, “...because he’s God and we’re not.” But I’ve never found comfort in that answer. Instead, it caused me to believe my God was unapproachable. That I needed to just accept the fact that he would do what he wanted, and if I questioned it, that meant I didn’t have faith.
Oh, how misguided I was.
Because the blessed truth is, God longs for us to come to him. With our concerns, doubt, and yes, even our questions. He wants us to seek him at all times.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 NIV
In the above verse, the Greek word for burdened is phortizō, meaning “to load down with a burden.” Maybe you’ve felt loaded down with the burden of unanswered prayer. Maybe tragedy struck and you’re struggling to understand how God could let it happen.
Jesus offered something in Matthew 11 no one else can give. He offered the gift of rest for our weariness, and it’s still available to us today. But we cannot experience rest if we’re weighed down with our hard questions.
Why I Need to Take My Questions to God in Prayer
If I tell God I’m angry, will he be mad at me?
After my dearest friend passed away a few years ago, I sat at my dining room table ready to have a “discussion” with the Lord. Anger over losing my friend so suddenly welled up inside.
I’d paced around the house for days, rehearsing my pain as I talked to myself about everything I didn’t understand. How could this happen? Why did our prayers for her healing go unanswered? How will her husband and son go on without her?
By the time I decided to talk to God about it, I’d worked myself into a frenzy of raw emotion. But as I released it all to him, I sensed his presence wrapping me in a loving embrace. He didn’t get mad or zap me with a bolt of lightning. He understood like no one else could.
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4
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That’s when I realized, it’s good to ask God my hard questions. Comforting, even. Talking to myself or screaming those questions to the universe only leads to emptiness. The universe can’t answer back, but having a conversation with God about my deepest hurts brings healing.
His holy answers give me hope. And even if God doesn’t answer right away, he wraps me in his loving care while I wait.
How to Ask God the Hard Questions
One of my favorite ways to bring my hard questions to God is through journaling.
Lately I’ve spent my mornings writing down question after question in my journal. Struggles abound as I grieve a loved one’s recent passing. My mind reels with runaway thoughts. By taking a few quiet moments to write them down, I’m preparing my heart to receive the answers God will provide.
The more time I spend in God’s Word, the easier it is to hear his voice.
So when we come to him with those hard questions, we need to also commit to spending time reading Scripture. God often speaks by bringing snippets of verses to mind— phrases or main ideas of what we've read before. Even if we don’t recall the exact reference of the Scripture, or the word-for-word translation.
God doesn’t need perfection, only our willingness to listen in his presence.
However we choose to ask him the hard questions, the important thing is to remain near to him through it all. To not push him away. We don’t need to fear how he will respond or think we should hold back our true feelings from him. God can take it.
Life is filled with hardship, and questions are certain to come. Without God, our most difficult questions will only guide us into uncertainty, angst, and hopelessness. They will pull us toward a pit of despair and away from his gentle embrace. But the best news is that it’s never too late to return to him.
Our loving Father is always ready to hear from us, with arms open wide, and he will provide a safe shelter where our questions are welcomed and grace is available.
