Questioning God — Heart Conditions
Tuesday, January 16th, 2024
by Ken Pullen
ACP
Is it wrong to question God? Well, that all depends. On the condition of the heart, the sincerity of the question and questioner. The disciples asked Jesus, Who is God, questions all the time. While not knowing the hearts of each man at the time of asking, it is safe to assume here that in the majority of instances, the condition of the disciple’s hearts were of a pure and sincere desire to learn, to know. As it is safe to assume we know the heart condition of Judas Iscariot at the Last Supper when he asked the Lord Jesus Christ, after betraying Jesus by going to the chief priests;
When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. Now as they were eating, He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.”
And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, “Lord, is it I?”
He answered and said, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish will betray Me. The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”
Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Rabbi, is it I?”
He said to him, “You have said it.”
Matthew 26:20-25
The condition of the heart is everything.
Throughout Jesus’ ministry on earth, the scribes and Pharisees constantly questioned Jesus. Every single time, every single question to test Him, to attempt to trip up God on earth. So they could have there “Aha!” moment. The condition of the heart is everything.
Habakkuk questioned God, as did every prophet, but Habakkuk asked God with a sincere heart why the evil that was occurring was taking place. Why did God allow it? Asked with a contrite, humbled, faithful sincere heart. Trusting in God’s answer. Trusting in God’s Word. And God answered Habakkuk and he rejoiced in the Lord with God’s answer.
Habakkuk in God’s Word consists of three short chapters. I am a strong believer in context. In order to attain the necessary understanding it is vital for every believer to spend more time in God’s Word. In context. Praying to the Holy Spirit beforehand for increased spiritual discernment, understanding, and knowledge. For God’s ways and thoughts are not our ways and thoughts.
Seek the Lord while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the Lord,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:6-9
It isn’t about our feelings or when and where we live. God is unchangeable. Immutable. He is the same today as He was in the days of Habakkuk, as He was in the days before He uttered the first words, “Let there be,” and He is going to be the same tomorrow, next month, next year, 10,000 years from now.
Question: O Lord, how long shall I cry,
And You will not hear?
Even cry out to You, “Violence!”
And You will not save.
Why do You show me iniquity,
And cause me to see trouble?
For plundering and violence are before me;
There is strife, and contention arises.
Therefore the law is powerless,
And justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.
Answer: “Look among the nations and watch—Be utterly astounded!
For I will work a work in your days
Which you would not believe, though it were told you.
For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans,
A bitter and hasty nation
Which marches through the breadth of the earth,
To possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
They are terrible and dreadful;
Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
Their horses also are swifter than leopards,
And more fierce than evening wolves.
Their chargers charge ahead;
Their cavalry comes from afar;
They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat.
“They all come for violence;
Their faces are set like the east wind.
They gather captives like sand.
They scoff at kings,
And princes are scorned by them.
They deride every stronghold,
For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it.
Then his mind changes, and he transgresses;
He commits offense,
Ascribing this power to his god.”
Sometimes great love comes by way of great discipline, reproof, chastisement, suffering, and not comfort, reward, or maintaining the status quo. It is usually comfort, reward after reward, little or no suffering, and contentment in the status quo that requires great discipline, reproof, chastisement, and suffering. To be led to the point of maturing, finally seeing God’s plan, that God knows best. That God is consistent and always right and to be obeyed.
It is all about heart conditions.
If we truly believe, if we truly believe God is our Father, then as the Greatest Father of Eternity and All Things He is going to reprove, rebuke, chastise, and discipline those of His whom He loves so greatly. A love greater than anything we can imagine as love within us presently.
I see and hear far too many professed believers questioning God. That is, questioning what is in the Holy Bible. The God-breathed words of Himself given to select men over a great span of time to fit into a concise, precise, direct, easy to comprehend story, a history of THE TRUTH.
The only truly true thing on earth.
For everything else, even of the most righteous and holy of men or women, while having God work in them, the Holy Spirit to work in them, they are still sinful flesh. Possessing great weaknesses, foibles, and opinions varying from God’s Word, from the Spirit of God as they are tainted to some degree by the world in which they live.
I know this firsthand.
So ought you, dear one. Chosen of God to be His and not the world.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11
It is time to trust God. Wholeheartedly. Completely. Totally. In all things all the time. In the correct heart condition.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28
Too many nitpickers. Endless debaters. Mired in the minutiae. Up to their knees stuck in mud, in the dung. Unable to even understand and live the basic, the plain, and the ought to be easily understood major things. Questioning God by questioning something in God’s Word they don’t like, they don’t agree with, that makes them uncomfortable.
For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:16
Those are they who ought to bridle the tongue, humble their hearts, cleanse their hearts and spirits and seek out the Word of God, and remain in prayer unlike any previous time in their lives. Now professing to have the mind of Christ in them.
And then there are these in the midst…many of them in these times…
For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
Jude 1:4
For it is Satan who whispers, who creates the dialog of questioning what is in the Word of God with a heart, a spirit not in the right condition.
Too many telling God how He is wrong, He needs to change, His Word needs to change rather than listening to and obeying God these days.
Do we believe every word within the Holy Bible? Are the Scriptures and the Lord Jesus Christ sufficient for us? Or do we delude ourselves in vain and sinful imaginings that we somehow know better than God and we need to question Him? Because surely everything in the Scriptures can no longer be relevant to the times in which we live, right? Because, well, it’s so different now than before, right?
Nothing has changed one iota — not one thing has changed since Adam and Eve listened to the subtle, cunning lies of Satan and disobeyed God — nothing has changed whatsoever with men, women, and children in this world since then other than the advancement of technologies. Making things such as travel, clothing, the printed word, and on and on to where you sit this very moment reading this.
Nothing has changed one iota other than technology.
The heart of man hasn’t changed. Not one bit.
Unless healed, warmed, cleansed by faith and obedience in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and His resurrection, trusting in the Lord, committing one’s life to the Lord, making Jesus Lord of our life.
Then and only then on that singular circumstance has any man, woman, or child ever truly changed. From within. Otherwise? Everyone throughout history is no different than Cain, then Nebuchadnezzar, then Israel’s first king, Saul, from every individual enemy of God which is every individual that has refused to turn to the Lord and accept the Lord in their life to lead their life, trusting completely in God.
If I think I know better? If I begin to question God without the right condition of heart and spirit? It is then time to repent, pray, and go to the Word of God believing every word within God’s Word removing the chaff, the weight, the rot, the noise, the dung of this world that desires to cling to a person’s mind like cat fur on velvet, like ferrous metal shards to a magnet.
Let us not be the attractor of dung or the shards of this world. Let us be the attractor and developer, the protector of God’s Word, and not only that but to live it out to be witnessed within our families, our homes, our workplaces, where we live, where we attend church, in all things always.
To the honor, praise, glory, and giving thanks to God.
Maturing in the faith.
Coming to understand God, God’s Word, and our place in all things better and better each day.
Rejoicing in God’s plan. Which He is working every moment of every day without fail.
We can either be a help in this, or a spanner, a wrench in the works.
It is all about the condition of the heart.
And the words, the questions, the thoughts that then emanate and reveal themselves. It’s all about the source, the condition of every word and thought within every individual heart.
Each of us either has a heart for God, transformed by the Supernatural power of the Spirit of God, a heart then for God — while still being flesh and warring with the spirit, being pulled constantly by this sinful and fallen world, for Satan is a mighty, powerful and cunning liar, and serpent — or each of us has a heart for this world. A love for this world that supersedes the love of God, the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Holy Spirit, and the love and necessary understanding measured out to us as we need of the whole inerrant infallible UNCHANGABLE Word of God.
No matter the person.
No matter the date on any calendar.
A Song of Confidence in God’s Triumph over Evil
Why do You stand afar off, O Lord?
Why do You hide in times of trouble?
The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor;
Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.
For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire;
He blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord.
The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God;
God is in none of his thoughts.
His ways are always prospering;
Your judgments are far above, out of his sight;
As for all his enemies, he sneers at them.
He has said in his heart, “I shall not be moved;
I shall never be in adversity.”
His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression;
Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity.
He sits in the lurking places of the villages;
In the secret places he murders the innocent;
His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless.
He lies in wait secretly, as a lion in his den;
He lies in wait to catch the poor;
He catches the poor when he draws him into his net.
So he crouches, he lies low,
That the helpless may fall by his strength.
He has said in his heart,
“God has forgotten;
He hides His face;
He will never see.”
Arise, O Lord!
O God, lift up Your hand!
Do not forget the humble.
Why do the wicked renounce God?
He has said in his heart,
“You will not require an account.”
But You have seen, for You observe trouble and grief,
To repay it by Your hand.
The helpless commits himself to You;
You are the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man;
Seek out his wickedness until You find none.
The Lordis King forever and ever;
The nations have perished out of His land.
Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble;
You will prepare their heart;
You will cause Your ear to hear,
To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
That the man of the earth may oppress no more.
Psalm 10
Approach the throne of God boldly in our prayers, our petitions, in our questions, but tread carefully and wisely in doing so. Having the right heart upon approach. In spiritual heart and mind before the Lord. Always. In everything. Truly trusting the Lord. If still doubting, questioning with the wrong heart condition? Motive? Go back to the top of this and reread. Pray first. Humbly asking the Lord for spiritual wisdom and discernment, but turn to God, to God’s Word in humility of mind and heart to become wiser, stronger, and more able to contend for the faith and fight the good fight to the end.
I have heard many, more than I can count people, and this includes to a great extent those professing to be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ say in some form; “I’m mad at God!,” or “I’m angry with God!”
I have the urge to take a considerable number of steps away from such people, for fear of being hit by a lightning bolt.
How can anyone, ESPECIALLY a true believer in the Lord and in His Word ever be angry with God? I ask this sincerely and seriously. I have never been angry with God no matter what has happened and I have experienced much in this life to question and become angry about. Yet I have never blamed God or become angry with God. Who and I to so such a thing?
Where is such a person? In their heart, their spirit, their walk with the Lord?
Oh, I know we have examples of prophets and people in God’s Word getting angry with God. Keep reading in those accounts of the consequences. The aftermath. And unless there was repentance and a contrite and humble heart approaching the Lord after such the consequences were never desired.
Are we…
Living for God and not ourselves or this temporary world?
For we are citizens of heaven and this is not our permanent homes.
If still in doubt?
Read THE WHOLE BOOK.
And discover Who wins in the end. Who eternally prevails.
HINT: It isn’t Satan, evil, or anything or anyone of this world in their constant rebellion, mayhem, chaos, confusion, delusion, and debating endlessly those things that do not matter much. Distractions. Precious time wasters. Consuming the time given discussing that which does not lead to a glorious life lived for the Lord. Remove the minutiae, become weened off the milk, and begin digesting the meat, running to the Lord and from the things of this world…
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