People who grow and mature are people who ask questions. I taught a college course in Business Law for about 10 years, and I could always tell the students who would do the best in the class. They usually sat near the front, were always tuned into the lectures, and asked good questions. Conversely, when I invited the class to ask any questions, those who were the poor performers would invariably decline to do so. They were not asking questions, challenging their minds, stretching forward to learn new things.
In life, we need to be asking good questions, and we need to be asking them of the right source. You would not ask your plumber for recommendations about your upcoming shoulder surgery, and you would not ask your medical doctor how to install a new bathtub. It is important that we know what questions to ask, and whom to ask.
The same is true in our spiritual journey. We should be asking good questions, and we should be ultimately directing these to God himself, through his word. We need to be sure that we can justify our beliefs and actions with a “thus saith the Lord.” Here are a few examples of some good questions each of us should be asking:
1. Why am I here? In case you were not aware, life has a purpose, a meaning which should be carefully considered. Stop and ponder what you are doing with your time. If you do not seriously consider the purpose and meaning of your life, you will end up like so many others — wandering aimlessly through this journey. The Bible answers the question of why we are here in many places and in a number of contexts, perhaps one of the clearest is this statement from Solomon: “This is the end of the matter; all hath been heard: Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man,” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). It’s hard to come up with a more cogent summary of the purpose for our lives. We are on this earth to respect God and to obey him to the best of our ability. This is what life is all about, and those who learned this early will have a fuller, more productive life.
2. Where am I going? For anyone who has not noticed, physical life on this earth is relatively short. “The days of our years are threescore years and ten, or even by reason of strength fourscore years; yet is their pride but labor and sorrow; for it is soon gone, and we fly away,” (Psalms 90:10). James explains that our life is like “a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away,” (James 4:14). After this short life is over, we will all stand before God in judgment, to receive the things done in the body, according to what we have done, “whether it be good or bad,” (2 Cor. 5:10). “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this cometh judgment,” (Hebrews 9:27). That judgment will usher each of us into an eternal state of reward or punishment; life or death; comfort or separation, (Mt. 25:31-46; Lk. 16:19-31). That is where we are going to end up. That is where we are going.
3. What does God require of me in this life? In view of these sobering and fundamental realities, all of us should be asking what God requires of us. How can we conduct our lives in such a way as to be acceptable and pleasing to him? In answering this important question, we are going to want to be extremely familiar with profound passages like Micah 6:8, “He has showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Or Dt. 10:12: “And now, Israel, what does Jehovah thy God require of thee, but to fear Jehovah thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of Jehovah, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?” Asking correct questions like this will make us intensely interested in studying God’s word, knowing that the Bible says we are to “give diligence to present [ourselves] approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth,” (2 Tim. 2:15). Only by studying the Bible can we know what God requires of us.
“Inquiring minds want to know.” We want to know the answers because all of life and eternity depends upon them. Let’s be sure we are asking the right questions, and that we are directing them to the infallible Source!
-by Robert C. Veil, Jr.
