Asking Questions in Discipleship

How difficult is it to ask questions?

This is something we all naturally grew up doing. We always asked questions . . . all sorts.

Mummy, who am I? Why do I have to go to school? Why must we go to church? Why do I have to take my bath every day? Why is Daddy going out every day?

You remember those times? We just seemed naturally inquisitive. We asked about everything. When we saw a rainbow in the sky, we asked about it. When a car made a lot of noise on the road, I asked why. When we were watching TV and daddy said ‘turn the station, don’t watch that’, I asked why. Somehow, I just wanted to know all about the world I lived in and why things were the way they were.

Things shouldn’t be different as young disciples. I saw that Jesus’ disciples always asked questions. Many of the great teachings we had Jesus give in the bible – the teaching of faith, prayer, the signs of the end time, the great revelation about who he is – all came out, as personal responses to the questions his disciples asked. Those brothers just knew how to ask. They asked all sorts, biblical and secular, sometimes they would ask a question from a bible study/teaching and at other times, from simply watching & following him. They asked and asked and asked!

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But what did I notice? As we grew older, we stopped asking. As we approached teenage years, we preferred to go find out ourselves. Rather than ask, we preferred to ‘discover’. We wanted to go and adventure it and find out for ourselves (sometimes experientially) what would happen and how things would end. This didn’t really change even as we became Christians and disciples. Many times, we struggle for months over an issue and sometimes make mistakes, simply because we would not ask a question.

Though we have elders around us and we even have a discipler, we are still struggling to ‘figure things out’ ourselves. Many things bug your mind, you’re full of questions. Yes, I know because I do have questions too, plenty of them. The more I read my bible, the more I had questions. The more I searched and ‘saw’ things from God, the more questions I had. The more I had the opportunity to watch and follow my discipler around, the more questions came up in my heart. I would travel with him and had a bank (actually a book) of questions that I would ask.

What this is not!

While I speak about asking questions, this is not about a lazy diversion of a personal discovery of God. This does not substitute a personal driving into God, a personal digging into God to find things out. I’m not speaking about a lazy disciple who wants to be told everything, a Christian who prefers to “ask his prophet”, rather than “search the scripture”. No! I’m not talking about this modern day church goers who cannot be like the Berean Christians, searching & confirming the words spoken by their leaders – these will easily become deceived in days like the ones we are.

But even when we have studied, when you are sincerely digging deep in the word, even when you are watching closely a life, even when you spend time communing with the Holy Spirit, because of your present state of relationship with God, you will still have several unclear matters. For this, ASK. Don’t go on, trying to figure things out yourself. Don’t keep walking that path, hoping it will land you in the right place. Don’t struggle on, when you could ask.

Simply Ask!

You are not the first to walk that way, simply ask. Are you at the junction of career? Pray & Ask. Or at the junction of picking a job? As you pray, Ask. Are you about to decide about a relationship? Don’t just do like your friends are doing it – As you pray, Ask! Are you a young father or mother? Is raising a Godly child a priority in your heart? Pray and Ask. Thinking of ministry as a young person? Don’t just jump into something – Ask! There is no need to repeat the mistakes of our elders, we can stand on their shoulders, learn from their lives (their good and their errors) and move ahead to have a glorious experience in God!

Jeremiah 6:16 (KJV)  Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said We will not walk therein.

This is still God’s counsel to us – ask for the old paths – it’s a sure way to finding rest for our souls. May the Lord help us in Jesus name.