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“Ask Him Your Questions”
Darlene Winans
As our new way of life under the coronavirus pandemic continues – we are now at eight or ten weeks, depending on where you live – we have turned to the Lord to ask our questions. How long, O Lord? Why is this happening? Will you keep me or my loved ones safe from infection? If someone I love is harmed, do I still trust You? How will this affect me and my walk with the Lord?
In times like these, I turn to the Word of God. I spend more time with Him. I dig deeper and find treasure there. Text that I have read many times suddenly comes alive with new truth and new meaning. This is what has occurred with my time with the Lord in the book of John.
John writes his gospel using many recurring themes – light and darkness, truth and lies, joy and peace. But the most prominent theme here is love. One of the first verses we memorized as believers, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son . . .” It is in the context of love in John 13 that Jesus dines with His disciples during the Passover, the meal that would be known as the Last Supper. He demonstrates His love by washing their feet. He loves Judas, but knows he will betray Him, and so Jesus is troubled in spirit. He tells the disciples in verse 21, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”
The disciples are all shocked at this statement that one of them would betray Jesus. Now we understand the way in which the meal was eaten for the culture and the time was that the men would recline at a very low table, propping themselves up on their elbows, or leaning against one another. Therefore John, in verse 25, leans back against Jesus and asks, “Lord who is it?”
And it struck me. We live in difficult times due to COVID-19. We are troubled in spirit, like Jesus was. We are shocked, like the disciples were. Like John, we should lean against Jesus. We should ask Him our questions. In the next chapter, in John 14: 13-14, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” We see David in the Psalms asking the hard questions of God many times, and God delivered him. Friends, Jesus is not unapproachable. Jesus is not afraid of our hard questions. You can find Him in the still, small voice. You can find Him in conversations with wise friends. You can find Him in His Word, and through the whisperings (and sometimes groanings) of the Holy Spirit.
In good times or bad, in hard times or easy, our God is waiting for you. Run to Him, find solace in Him, and ask Him your questions. Our God will never disappoint.
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