Bring on the Questions

I received an email from one of the professors at Bethany with the following quote:

Oswald Chambers has said that we don’t truly own our faith unless we have struggled over it in some form. Belief is not pure acceptance. God desires interaction and He revels in our working through the process of believing Him. He wrestled with Jacob and even let him win.

So don’t be afraid to question. Even doubt is a legitimate step in the process of faith. God welcomes the serious questioner. It means we care enough to persist in finding the answers we need. The person who is threatened by questions has much too small of an understanding of God.

This really struck a chord in me as this process of questioning is something that I have struggled with over the past few years. I was brought up with the mindset that to question God, or the Biblical teaching that I received was somehow sinful, or at least a sign of my lacking faith. I know that ultimately I can never fully understand God nor completely comprehend His ways, but there's something about asking questions and wrestling with the deep things of God that makes me want to know Him more. There is personal ownership in the sometimes difficult pursuit of knowledge that I would not possess if I did not seek it out on my own. Most of my life I have based my belief of God on what others taught simply because I trusted that they knew what they were talking about. I never thought about searching the Scriptures out in order to gain a more intimate knowledge of God. I was satisfied to let someone else do the work. The promise given to those who search Him out wholeheartedly is that He will be found. He will honor the seeking heart with the revelation of who He is and who we are in Him. It's almost as if God is sitting in heaven saying, "Go ahead, bring on the questions...ask, seek, knock and see what you will find."