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How do we cope when God never gives us an answer, and we think he should? The Psalms are of great help to us here, for frequently both David and Asaph expressed their frustration at the lack of answers.
In Psalm 44 David says to the Lord,
But now you have rejected and humbled us …You have made us a reproach to our neighbors …You have made us a byword among the nations … All this has happened to us, though we had not forgotten you or been false to your covenant … Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? … Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?
That’s an angry man, expressing it openly to God. And at that moment, with no answers to his questions, his anger was vented toward God.
Now, I don’t want to imply I think we should yell and scream at God when we please. But I do want to say if you are living with those difficult, unanswered questions, it’s okay for you to tell God exactly how you feel about them. Please tell God; he knows your feelings and thoughts anyway, and if you don’t ventilate those thoughts, or you try to deny or ignore them, they will turn into bitterness and depression.
Who better to tell than God? He understands you completely, and no one will be fairer or gentler to you than he will be. He didn’t chide Martha for her questions. He didn’t zap David and Asaph for voicing their anger. And isn’t it interesting that all of that is recorded in Scripture for us to read. That’s not an accident, you know; it’s there to show us how to deal with unanswered questions. So, if the questions and the anger are smoldering inside of you, get alone with God and voice them to him, out loud.
I notice that every time David or Asaph voiced their frustration about their unanswered questions, soon they were led back to that basic trust in God which was the cornerstone of their lives.
One of David’s frequent phrases was,
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God (Psalm 43:5).
So, turn to God today with your unanswered questions. Pour them out to him, but then go back to what you know about who God is. Say with David, “I will put my hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”