#78 – How to Question God Without Losing Your Faith

Welcome to season eight of Presently Engaged with Mandy Pallock. Here you’ll find short, friendly, Jesus-focused encouragement to live intentionally right where you are. And now for your host, Mandy Pallock. You know that I love a good question.

Asking questions and listening well can take every relationship you have deeper. In this season, we are diving deep into questions in Scripture because as we look to the Bible, we look to the very best source. We will then end the podcast with a Scripture reading anchoring us in the truth of God’s word before you go on with your day. This will give us the opportunity to center our minds on Jesus and our hearts on his word because lives will change as we engage with God’s word.

I wonder if you could help me with something. Would you consider texting this podcast right now to a friend or to someone that you’re mentoring? Listen in and then join me at PresentlyEngaged.com. I am so grateful for your time and glad that you are here because you friend are making a difference.

A few years ago, I took my children to an aquatic park. One of those places where you can see dolphins and belugas and whales up close, it was going to be a fun family outing, a chance to marvel at God’s creation. So we settled into our seats for a show featuring Pacific white-sided dolphins. These beautiful creatures swam and jumped and responded on command, gliding through the water and the air with precision and grace.

The entire show was designed to be educational. The MC explained the dolphin’s native environment, what they loved, how they interacted in the wild, what their natural habitat looked like. She painted a picture of the vast cold waters of the North Pacific Ocean where these dolphins were made to roam freely. She talked about conservation, about protection, and in front of a backdrop of painted pine trees and mountains.

She spoke on how important it was to preserve their way of life. And the whole time, these dolphins were performing tricks in a pool in San Antonio, Texas, thousands of miles away from their natural home. After the splash of a finale and the soaring music, the crowd clapped and cheered. And then in the hush that followed, I heard a voice.

I immediately recognized it. I didn’t even have to turn to look to know who had said it or why. My six-year-old son, a justice-loving, truth-seeking, man-hearted boy, had recognized the disconnect. He saw that what the MC was trumpeting from the microphone did not match with the reality in front of us.

He saw the injustice of dolphins bottled up instead of swimming free. He saw that the entertainment we were watching didn’t match up with the communicated ideals of conservation and protection. And so in his clear and dignit voice, echoing through the amphitheater, he declared, How dare they? How dare they indeed?

That feeling, that ache of witnessing injustice and feeling helpless, that doesn’t go away when you grow up. If anything, it gets louder, doesn’t it? You realize it’s not just dolphins who are in captivity. You see corruption in systems you can’t change.

You watch people you love suffer in ways you can’t fix. You read the news, whether it’s a local tragedy or national division or global crisis and fuel the weight of a broken world pressing in. And somewhere in the midst of all that aching, a question rises up. How could God let this happen?

Maybe you’ve wondered, what if I could ask God that question face to face? What would he say? And from that question isn’t unfaithful. It’s not a lack of faith that that question rises in your heart.

It’s not a sign of weak faith or a rebellious heart. In fact, it’s one of the most honest prayers you can pray. So today we’re going to meet a prophet and a prayer warrior who asked that exact question out loud, unfiltered and directly to God. His name is Habakkuk.

He lived in a time of fear and division and violence, and his story gives us permission to bring our hardest why questions to the one who can handle them. Habakkuk was a prophet and a musician, a worship leader who lived in a time when everything felt broken. Judah was drowning in corruption and idolatry. The courts were rigged.

Violence was everywhere. The innocent were oppressed and the wicked prospered. The law, God’s law, was ignored and paralyzed. It seemed powerless.

And Habakkuk, a prayer warrior, couldn’t make sense of it. So instead of venting on the ancient equivalent of social media, instead of simply complaining to friends, Habakkuk did something radical. He brought his confusion, his anger, and his pain directly to God, not in polite, sanitized language, not with a tidy bow on top, but raw, honest, and unfiltered. And here’s what makes his story even more remarkable.

When God answered, God answered his prayer. When God answered Habakkuk’s questions, his plan, his answer, looked shockingly appallingly different than anything Habakkuk had expected. God revealed that he would use the fierce Babylonians, Judah’s enemies, to bring justice and to change Judah itself from the inside out. You can almost hear Habakkuk’s stunned response when you study the book of Habakkuk in the Old Testament.

Wait, what? That’s your answer? And friend, I wonder, has an answer to prayer for you ever looked so different from what you envisioned that it left you with even more questions? And friend, I wonder, has an answer to prayer for you ever looked so different from what you envisioned that it left you with even more questions?

Let’s listen to what Habakkuk said in that moment of wrestling. Open your Bible with me to Habakkuk chapter 1, verses 2 through 4. As we read together, keep in mind that Habakkuk is unique and that the audience of the book of Habakkuk is the Lord, as opposed to the nation of Israel. And we get to listen in on their conversation.

Verses 2 through 4. How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you violence, but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice?

Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me. There is strife and conflict abounds. Therefore, the law is paralyzed and justice never prevails.

The wicked him in the righteous so that justice is perverted. Habakkuk doesn’t hold back. He’s not pretending everything is fine. He’s not putting a happy face on it or whitewashing real emotions, real experiences, and real facts.

He’s not spiritualizing his pain. He’s bringing it all of it to God. And here’s what’s remarkable. God doesn’t rebuke him for asking.

Instead, God invites him to keep watching, keep listening. And we see that in verse one of chapter two. Habakkuk says, I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts. I will look to see what he will say to me and what answer I am to give to this complaint.

Habakkuk positions himself to listen. He asks his hard question, and then he waits for God’s reply. So friend, I want you to hear this. Habakkuk’s questions aren’t signs of doubt.

They’re expressions of faith. They show us that wrestling with God is part of a healthy relationship with him. Throughout his book, Habakkuk asks God 10 questions depending on what version you’re looking at. 10. And if we look closely at how Habakkuk asks his questions, we see three consistencies that guide us when we bring our own hard questions to God.

So let’s look at them. Consistency one, trust God’s character. Even in his anguish, Habakkuk anchors his question in who God is. Look at chapter one, verse 12.

Are you not from everlasting Lord my God, my holy one? Habakkuk confidently trusts that God is who he says he is. Before he questions what God is doing, he remembers who God is. Let’s say it again.

Before he questions what God is doing, he remembers who God is. Eternal, holy, faithful, so much more. This is important. When we come to God with our hardest questions, we don’t come as skeptics demanding answers.

We come as children who trust that our Father is good, even when we don’t understand his ways. And we can share even those deepest hardest questions with God. Habakkuk’s questions aren’t accusations. They’re rooted in relationship.

He’s expressing that he knows God. He knows his character. So then he’s positioning himself to then understand, to ask God, to help him understand what he’s seeing because it doesn’t match what he knows about God. This kind of questioning draws us closer to God.

So consistency number one, trust God’s character. And consistency number two, verbalize your confusion. Habakkuk doesn’t minimize his pain. He doesn’t gloss over the injustice or tell himself to just have more faith.

He honestly and humbly expresses his confusion to God. He names what he sees. Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?

Destruction and violence are before me. Habakkuk is specific. He’s honest. He bases his questions on what he knows of God’s character, and he doesn’t try to sanitize the pain and the perplexity that he’s feeling.

Isn’t there something so deeply powerful about naming what hurts? When we try to bury our questions or pretend we’re not struggling, we cut ourselves off from the healing God wants to bring from the restoration he has for us. But when we bring our confusion to God out loud, unfiltered, we create space for God to meet us there, to meet us even in the hard times. And here’s something to remember.

Friend, if you see injustice in the world and it bothers you, be assured God is infinitely more aware of it and infinitely more sensitive to it than you are. Your concern is a small reflection of his heart for justice. Lament isn’t the opposite of faith. It’s an act of faith.

It’s saying, God, I’m hurting and I trust you enough to bring that hurt to you and to make sense of what’s going on here. So consistency number three, expect a divine answer. Here in the book is where Habakkuk’s posture shifts. After he pours out his complaint, he doesn’t walk away.

He doesn’t throw up his hands. He doesn’t give up, become embittered. Instead, he puts himself in a position to listen. He says, I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts.

I will look to see what he, God will say to me. Habakkuk doesn’t simply throw his questions out into the void and move on, disenchanted. He believes God will respond to him in his timing. He expects God to answer.

He positions himself spiritually, emotionally, physically to hear what God has to say. And God does respond. God does respond with clarity and with kindness. In chapter two, verse two, God tells him, write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.

God promises that an answer is coming. It may not come immediately. It will not come in the way Habakkuk expects, but it will come. And when it does, it will be worth the wait.

God always hears the calls and cries of his people. So this is a framework that we can use today. Trust God’s character, verbalize your confusion, expect God to answer, not because we’re entitled to explanations, but because God is relational. He invites dialogue.

He welcomes our questions and he is for us and for relationship. When we bring our hardest questions to God, we’re not being irreverent. We’re being honest and honesty is the foundation of intimacy. While working on a writing project this summer, I fell in love with George McDonald all over again.

You might know him as the 1800s writer who wrote The Princess and the Goblin or Fantasties, that book that first opened C.S. Lewis’s imagination to faith and truth. But reading multiple biographies this summer reminded me McDonald wrote prolifically and many of his books remain hard to find or hard to read. And so I took a happy side quest after months of updating the text and collaborating with a phenomenal artist and writing an afterward.

I am delighted to share the gifts of The Child Christ with you. It’s the story of Sweetfosie who’s ignored by her father and stepmother. She desperately craves love and it’s the story of a father who must learn that God is his father before he can father a little soul. And it’s the story of an innocent misinterpretation of an advent sermon leading to a Christmas morning surprise.

It was first published in 1882 and the gifts of The Child Christ it stands as one of McDonald’s most moving Christmas stories, this Victorian tale that speaks timelessly to love and loss and grace. So if you’re looking for a cozy family read or a thoughtful gift for ages 10 through 100, this might be just right for you. And you can find it in print, hardcover and paperback, ebook and audio. Thanks for celebrating with me friends.

So how do we take Habakkuk’s example and apply it to our own lives? Let me give you three very practical steps you can take this week. First journal, journal how long? Grab a notebook, find a quiet space and write down one how long question that reflects your heart’s cry today right now.

Maybe it’s how long Lord until my loved one comes to faith? How long, dearest father, will this financial struggle last? How long God before justice is done in this situation? How long before this health challenge is overcome?

Writing it as Habakkuk did. Do it honestly and specifically without trying to clean it up or make it sound more spiritual. Your audience, God is ready to hear your questions. Just pour it out.

Two, look into God’s word expecting him to answer. Once you’ve written your question, take it to God in prayer. Use Habakkuk’s posture, stand watch. This could be a literal walk outside, a quiet moment at your desk or even sitting in your car before you go into work.

You can whisper, Lord, I’m watching, I’m waiting, I’m listening, speak your wisdom into my situation and then wait. Not passively but expectantly. Open your Bible. God may bring a verse to mind.

He may prompt you to reach out to a friend. He may give you a picture or a song or an idea of peace, but position yourself to hear him. Here’s a truth that brings comfort and hope because God does not change. The greatest indicator of what God will do is what God has already done.

As you look into his word, you’ll see his pattern of faithfulness, his heart for justice, his tender care for those who cry out to him. We see it in the book of Habakkuk and we see it throughout the word of God. So ask God, how long? Look into God’s word expecting him to answer and finally come humbly, honestly, and expectantly.

God hears those who come to him humbly, honestly, and expectantly. He heard Habakkuk. He will hear you. This process transforms frustration into faith.

It turns uncertainty into an opportunity for closeness with God. When we bring our hardest questions to him, we invite him into our deepest, most real places and God delights to meet us there in those places. So let me ask you, what injustice moves you to ask God, how long? Maybe it’s something global or poverty corruption.

Maybe it’s something deeply personal. A broken relationship, a health crisis, a dream deferred, whatever it is, bring it to God. Don’t wait until you can phrase it perfectly. Don’t wait until your faith feels stronger.

Bring it now, right now, just as Habakkuk did. Because here’s truth. God is not threatened by your questions. He’s not offended by your confusion.

He’s not distant in your pain. He knows you and he loves you because he made you. He’s close. He’s listening and he has an answer, one that may take time to unfold, but will be better than we imagine.

Habakkuk began his prophecy with frustrated questions about God’s justice. But by the end of the book, he’s transformed. Listen to how he concludes in chapter three, verses 17 through 19. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls yet.

I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God, my Savior. The sovereign Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer.

He enables me to tread on the heights. This is how Habakkuk ended his time of questions. Habakkuk moved from questions to faith, from confusion to confidence and even joy. Not because his circumstances changed, they didn’t, but because he encountered the unchanging character of God.

And that’s the kind of faith that you and I are invited into, faith that trusts God’s character even when we don’t yet see his answers. Throughout this season, we’ve seen how the Bible is a record of people grappling with the biggest questions of life. Adam and Eve, the Israelites, Elijah, David, Jonah, Habakkuk, Jesus himself, they were united in their love for God and through the hard questions they asked. So when you ask questions that are found in Scripture, you ask from a really safe place.

Your questions are both rooted in and found in God’s Word. You can ask, secure in the truth that God is big enough to answer your hard questions. So ask those big questions. How long?

Where are you? What are you doing? What is your plan here? So before you rush into your week, before you pepper other people with questions, you can pause.

You can build the habit of spending time with Jesus first. Ask him your questions. Wait patiently for his reply and then follow his lead. And at least be wondering if you could ask God any one question, what would it be?

We saw these that Habakkuk asked God. In Psalm 27 verse 4, David recorded the one thing he would ask, to dwell in the house of the Lord all his days, gazing at God’s beauty and seeking him in his temple. Moses asked boldly, please show me your glory in Exodus 33 18 and God in his kindness and his love answered both of them. God has an answer for you too.

God tells us in James 1, 5 through 6 that we can ask him for wisdom. So as you are cultivating this habit of asking God questions, you can stop right now and whisper a prayer to him for wisdom. What question would you ask God today? Ask it.

Take your how long to God. Write it down, look into his word, pray it out loud and then stand watch expectantly for his reply. To close, we’ll center ourselves again in God’s word. In Matthew 9, Jesus asks seven questions, each one of them revealing his heart, his authority and his compassion.

So let’s listen together as we read. This is the word of the Lord. Matthew 9, Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralyzed man lying on a mat.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, take heart, son, your sins are forgiven. At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, this fellow is blaspheming. Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or to say get up and walk?

But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the paralyzed man, get up, take up your mat, and go home. Then the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe and they praised God who had given such authority to man.

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. Follow me, he told him. And Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and centers came and ate with him and his disciples.

When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and centers? On hearing this, Jesus said, it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. But go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

For I have not come to call the righteous but centers. Then John’s disciples came and asked him, how is it that we and the Pharisees fast often but your disciples do not fast? Jesus answered, how can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, then they will fast.

No one sows a patch of untrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wine skins. If they do the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wine skins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wine skins and both are preserved.

While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, my daughter has just died, but come and put your hand on her and she will live. Jesus got up and went with him and so did the disciples. Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, if I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.

Jesus turned and saw her take heart, daughter. He said, your faith has healed you and the woman was healed at that moment. When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd, the people playing pipes, he said, go away. The girl is not dead, but asleep.

But they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand and she got up. News of this spread through all that region. As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, have mercy on us, son of David.

When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him and he asked them, do you believe that I am able to do this? Yes, Lord, they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, according to your faith, let it be done to you and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly.

See that no one knows about this, but they went out and spread the news about him all over that region. While they were going out, a man who was demon possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.

But the Pharisee said, it is by the Prince of Demons that he drives out demons. Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. God’s word is for you, friend. Can you imagine not being able to read it or listen to it in your own heart language, the language that you think in, dream in, and speak in? Biblica is a global ministry, innovating new ways to reach people with the Bible.

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And now, as we conclude, a blessing for you from Colossians 1, 11 through 12. May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience and give joyful thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.