I’m part of several groups on Facebook that are for youth ministers. And many times I am utterly amazed by the things that are posted. All of these groups are for all different denominations, so there are a variety of beliefs that are in the group. But I am utterly amazed sometimes by the things that are said that honestly, should be taken care of by studying the Bible.

The first question anyone should ever ask when confronted with a situation is: What does the Bible say?

This was posted a while back:

If you could ask God one question and get a response what would it be?

Now the person who asked this did say that they were going to use it for an upcoming lesson, so he may just want ideas to throw out for discussion. However, there seems to be this idea that even though we can have a “personal relationship with Jesus,” that God (and Jesus) are still really far away, that we can’t know what they’re thinking or get them to answer a question we might have.

In fact, I heard a leader of a national youth organization once say that we can’t ask God “why” questions because He doesn’t answer those prayers. She declined to give a scriptural reference to back that up. Now I know some people think that no one can know what God is thinking – that’s clear by what this leader said (and the other two leaders that agreed with them). After all, Romans 11:34 says, “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” 1 Corinthians 2:16 says the exact same thing.

But the problem is that people don’t keep reading. The rest of verse 16 says, “But we have the mind of Christ.” If we have the mind of Christ, we can know what Christ is thinking. That’s the whole point – to know what God thinks.

The Christian should honestly know what is going to happen, why it’s happening, and what God thinks about it happening. The reason we don’t is because we’re too consumed with psychological thinking, the entertainment of the world and the desires of the flesh. Instead of getting close to God and getting the mind of Christ, we‘re being close to the world.

Jesus tells us repeatedly that He wants to share things with us – even answer our questions. Just because He doesn’t answer yours, that doesn’t mean He doesn’t want to. He answers my questions all the time. I want to give good things to my kids, but if they’re too far away from me when they ask, they can’t hear my response.

In John 15:7, Jesus says, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” That includes answering your questions, even questions that ask “why.” Our relationship with the Lord should be closer than any other relationship we have, including our relationship with the world. When it is, when we meet the qualifications, we can ask whatever we want and we’ll get it.

You know how I said we should know what is going to happen. I didn’t really say that. Jesus did. He said it in John 15:15 – “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” Jesus wants to make known to us what is going on in the world.

Jesus told the disciples (and us) in John 16:12, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” That means that there are things no written in the Bible that Jesus wants to share with us. Of course those things will agree with the Bible, but they’re not specifically stated in there. How is this going to happen? Because of the Holy Spirit.

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. – John 16:13

God desires to have a relationship with us that is so close that we can ask anything and get an answer. We’re just clouded with everything that we allow to consume us that we can’t hear His response. Moses was on the mountain for six days before God started talking to him. It wasn’t until the seventh day that they started their 40 day conversation. What would have happened if Moses went down on the fifth day?

He wasn’t in a hurry to leave everything and go back to the world. He valued his relationship with God so much that he was willing to wait however long it took until God started talking to him. What about us? Shouldn’t we be the same?