Good Questions Give Us An Opportunity To Grow-Part 3

Ron Simkins – April 21, 2026 1 Comment

I usually choose to save my conclusion until I reach the end of what I write, but this time I want to state the main point up front. I think “who” we address our “why” questions to determines whether they become the basis for a deeper relationship or the basis for the kind of doubting that creates distancing. I have found that to be true in my relationships with fellow humans, and I have found that to be true in relating to God.

When I address my “why” questions about God to myself, I tend to distance myself from God. When I address them to God, no matter how much frustration they carry, I open a way for God to deepen the relationship between us.

Having stated the conclusion, let’s look at a few of the many times that the Biblical writers made it a point to write down their stark “why” questions for God and their fellow humans to see. And, note how they address these questions directly to God rather trying to solve them in their own heads and hearts apart from God.

1. QUESTIONS LIKE:  GOD, Why if you were going to let things go this badly, did you get me into this mess. I am just trying to serve you. 

Exodus 5:22-23  ²²Then Moses turned again to the LORD and said, “O LORD, why have you mistreated this people? Why did you ever send me? ²³Since I first came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has mistreated this people, and you have done nothing at all to deliver your people.”

Numbers 11:11-12  ¹¹So Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? ¹²Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a sucking child,’ to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors?

2. QUESTIONS LIKE: GOD, I am your child, why am I suffering like this?

Psalm 43:2  For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you cast me off? Why must I walk about mournfully because of the oppression of the enemy?

Psalm 88:14 ¹⁴O LORD, why do you cast me off?  Why do you hide your face from me?

3. QUESTIONS LIKE: GOD, Your Church is a mess, but Why would you let the world think that you have abandoned us?  

Exodus 32:11-12  ¹¹But Moses implored the LORD his God, and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹²Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains . . . .

Psalm 74:1-2, 11 ¹ O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?  ²Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago, which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell….¹¹ Why do you hold back your hand; why do you keep your hand in your bosom?

Psalm 44:23-25 ²³Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not cast us off forever! ²⁴Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?

4. QUESTIONS LIKE: WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE THE JERKS PROSPER AND THE GOOD SUFFER — The Opposite of What Psalm 1 says it should be like. (Jeremiah 12: 1-4 is Jeremiah quoting Psalm 1 back to God as clearly not the way things are going down!)

Jeremiah 12:¹Why does the way of the guilty prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?

5. QUESTIONS LIKE: The Many “How Long” Questions Which are a Form of Why Questions (here are three examples)

Psalm 13: 1-2 ¹How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?  ²How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long?

*Psalm 74:¹⁰How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?  ¹¹ Why do you hold back your hand; why do you keep your hand in your bosom? 

*Psalm 94:3-5  ³O LORD, how long shall the wicked—how long shall the wicked exult?  ⁴They pour out their arrogant words; all the evildoers boast. ⁵They crush your people, O LORD, and afflict your heritage.

6. QUESTIONS LIKE: In This Vast Universe Can This Person of Dust (Chemicals of the Earth) Really Matter to God? (A How and Why question verbalized as a “who are we” question that is even more poignant given what we have now learned about ourselves and our universe.)

Psalm 8:3-4  ³When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;  ⁴Who is a human that you remember him (her), and the son of an earth creature that you seek him (her)?

7. QUESTONS LIKE: THE WHY QUESTION THAT RENDS MY HEART AND AT THE SAME TIME COMFORTS ME GREATLY SINCE IT COMES FROM JESUS

Psalm 22:1-2  ¹My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? ²O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.

Matthew 27:46 ⁴⁶And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

God seems to welcome our honest questions so long as we keep taking them to God. And yes, sometimes we may need to discuss them with friends as well, but that discussion too needs to be done openly in God’s presence. Questions only create distance from God when we think we can work out our answers without doing so in God’s presence.