ASK!
We ask a lot of questions about what we should be doing in life. When not sure, we run around trying the next thing. It drains us to scramble about, trying to find truth in all the wrong places.
But there is one place I found where you can ask any question you like, no matter how frustrated or confused you are. Jesus is the way, the life, and the truth. He told us to ask, seek, and knock. If we don’t bother asking Him, He won’t answer. So why don’t we ask Him about everything if He is the truth and knows the way?
Many assume we don’t have to because He already knows everything. However, there are so many times that God and Jesus ask questions of people. I love the story of blind Bartameus in Mark 10:46-52. He knows Jesus is walking by and starts yelling for him to have mercy on him. When he finally gets to stand excitedly before Jesus, he gets asked what he wants? He readily answers he wants to see.
You see, Jesus wants us to come to Him and voice what is in our hearts. The questions and discussion will go both ways if we talk to Him. We will learn to dig deeper into what we really need and want. Honesty will grow in the relationship and not because we know He knows it all, but because we overcome the fear of voicing it ourselves. There is something about speaking words that brings power that we can’t fathom. We know from Genesis chapter one that God spoke the world into existence. He told the Israelites that what they spoke was what they got. They could choose blessings or curses. Just thinking about it is not enough. We have to act on it by saying it.
Sometimes it takes several lessons to know how to ask the right question to gain the answer we really need. Some questions will never be answered no matter how many times we ask. They are not the right question. I find that questions that start with why are less likely to be answered if I’m asking about some hurt over an event I had no control over. Most times I need to ask a ‘what’ question and then I’ll get direction from God. The main male character of my book Champions of Light had to change up from a why to a what question to move on. I wrote that out of my own experiences of when I was a younger Christian and still figuring things out. He rarely answered my why questions unless they were about Him rather than me and my circumstances.
This is where patience comes in. Man, do we hate that most of the time. In this have it now and our way fed world, we don’t want to wait for anything. However, if we leap too fast, we will miss the better option that could have been just around the corner. Therefore, we should always be in communication with God and leave room for Him to answer in his better timing.
Deciding to self publish a book was no small feat. I did not do it on a whim or impatience. It came about through learning how to pitch to agents and publishers and how the publishing industry worked. I went to trusted resources and people in my writing groups. Sure, I may have had a bigger launch if I had a publisher behind me, but I am still at peace with it all because I kept God as my pilot in my life. I just have to openly talk with Him and I’ll have peace with the correct choice for me. I can’t compare myself to anyone else because God made me uniquely me with a set mission in mind. So far, I like how things are going no matter how small they may seem. I have readers that get the point of my book and enjoy reading it. I found the ONE I wrote it for and that has allowed it to resonate further thanks to my listening to God.
What questions and concerns are you presenting to God? Are you asking, seeking and knocking? Are you waiting for his answer in due season if He doesn’t give you one immediately? It’s not easy but always worth it to keep Him close in all that you do. After all, the Bible tells us to do all that we do as if we do it unto the Lord. I’ll be right there with you because I am always learning on how to grow closer to Him.