Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Psalm 139: 23-24
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
When my Lifegroup last met, we worked through a session in discipleship level 2 about persevering through suffering and trials. As we each shared insights from the lesson, one topic that came up was the idea of asking God “why” questions.
At certain times in our lives, we may find ourselves struggling with recurring issues or challenges that seem to crop up in our lives over and over again. Maybe it’s a sense of anxiety about our work, or fear and insecurity about the future. It may be a bad habit that we’ve tried to address for years, but to no avail. It could be bouts of anger that blind us to reason, or shut us down to others. Whatever it may be, there are some recurring challenges in life that seem so difficult to overcome.
It may even come to the point where we accept these flaws and issues as a part of who we are. I remember two lines in the discipleship material that said,
- Frequently, people will say things such as, “Well, that’s just who I am.”
- Well, yes, that may be how you are, but that’s not the way you’re supposed to be, or even have to be! (Grow Character 2, day 2)
One of the biggest stumbling blocks we can face in our journey of growing in character is saying, “that’s just who I am.” We may say about ourselves, “well, I’m just a naturally anxious person.” Or, “I’m by nature lazy, it’s hard to change.”
Rather than simply accepting these things as part of who we are, a more fruitful way forward would be to ask God, “why?” It could be, “God, why do I always feel anxious?” Or, “why do I feel so bad/bothered about ?” Or, “God, why do I always avoid ?” Some of the most important areas of our lives we need to ask “why” about are those issues that we attach the word “always” or “never” to. “I always ” or “I never .” Paying attention to some of those issues can help us to discern areas in our lives that may need work.
One tool that can help us to ask and address such questions is to walk through some steps for inner healing and wholeness (see the steps in discipleship lesson 4b, day 4 and 5: https://tinyurl.com/y8pkjrmp). These steps can provide a helpful way to ask God to search us, and to point out anything in our lives that may be at the root of some of our challenges.
We are sometimes too quick to accept the way things are, without thinking to ask God “why.” If there are areas of your life where you’re facing this, set aside some time to do listening prayer and review the lesson and steps from the discipleship lesson above. If you’re interested in pressing deeper, reach out to me (ryan@life-spring.org) as there is a Set Free retreat taking place in November that can help with addressing some of these issues.