Asking questions but not wanting to change…
I spoke with someone today who was struggling with personal and spiritual issues that weren’t going well in his life. He said he was a Christian. I first tried to ask him some questions about what wasn’t going well, and his answer was:
I’m here to hear solutions, not to answer questions
See, that’s where it gets tricky—if I don’t know what it’s about, giving an answer becomes pretty difficult… When I asked him what he had already done to fix it, his answer was:
I’m not here to answer questions; I just want solutions, and you need to give them to me. That’s why you’re here, right?
Ah, see… this person seems to believe in some kind of magic answer machine that just hands out solutions, but they don’t even want to answer a question? That makes things tricky, and honestly, there’s not much I can do with that.
I told him that I don’t have a solution for his problems—I can’t be his solution. The key to solving things lies in his own actions (including how he deals with setbacks) and in building his life on God’s advice. The Bible is packed with answers on how to handle specific issues.
He said he already knew all those Bible verses and that he read the Bible every day. So my next question was:
“The Bible gives advice about your issue in ‘Book X, Verse X and Y.’ Do you know that verse?”
His answer was yes, so my next question was: “What do you do with that advice?”
And once again, his answer was:
Again, I’m not here to answer questions; I just want solutions, and you need to give them to me. That’s why you’re here.
I run into people like this quite often, even in churches. Somehow, a lot of people seem to think they don’t really have to do much themselves—that the people around them (and even God) are some kind of magical genie that will just hand them an answer. But actually doing something with that answer? No, they just want (or even demand) solutions!
The problem is, that’s never going to work. If we read what we should do but don’t want to listen to it, if we’re not even willing to be honest about what’s going wrong… well…
I’d love to help you, and God wants to as well, but there’s something you need to do:
Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7)
The second part of that verse only applies if you also do what the first part says… And there’s something else—when you get advice, you need to do something with it:
But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. (James 1:22)
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:8
God wants to help you, but expecting that “He will draw near to you” without you first “drawing near to God”? Let alone cleaning your own “hands” and doing what God’s word says? And demanding that someone else fix it for you?
He asked if I could pray for him and ask God to solve it for him…
I didn’t do that. Because I don’t feel comfortable asking God to just fix someone else’s problems when that person isn’t willing to do anything themselves… I’m not a magic genie, and neither is God.
So, I asked if he would like to start praying himself. He didn’t want to…
The questioner still has a long, long road ahead of him.
