Don't Be Afraid To Ask

“Don’t Be Afraid To Ask”

By Zach Wood

James 1:5 NLT

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you.  He will not rebuke you for asking.

I don’t know about you, but I have always been a person who fears asking questions in a group of people.  I don’t have a problem asking a question to someone one-on-one, but if you put me in a classroom or any other environment where there are many people, I get nervous to ask the most simple question.  I remember in college that I raised my hand a few times to ask questions and before the professor called on me, my heart started racing, my body shook a little, I got a little sweaty, etc.  I just always feared asking questions in public. 

Through the years, I still feel the same way when I am in a group of people.  There is just something intimidating to me when I am around a lot of people and I think of even asking a question to the person in charge.  I often think everyone else is going to have a better and more reasonable question than I will.  It isn’t a good way to look at it, but it is just what goes through my mind. 

Sometimes, we approach God the same way with the questions we have.  Even though we have direct access to God, we often hesitate to ask Him for wisdom or for anything because we are afraid of how He will respond to us or we feel we do not want to bog him down with petty questions when He has so much other things to deal with.

We need to get this mindset out of ourselves and know that God welcomes us, no matter what we ask of Him or come to Him about.  If we want wisdom, He wants us to ask Him.  He definitely does not want us going after the wisdom of the world.  He wants us to come to Him with our requests and He loves to communicate with us.  We should never be afraid to approach Him and lay our requests at His feet.  He is never too busy for our questions or too busy to give us wisdom. 

I often tell my kids that I do not want them to be afraid to ask me questions.  Sometimes, they are afraid of the question they ask and nervous what my reaction and answer will be.  I admit, sometimes I do not react the best to their question, but I try hard to be sensitive and open minded about what they ask.  I want them to feel comfortable coming to me to ask me anything.  They might not always like the answer, but I try to understand what they want or need and talk to them about it. 

We should never be afraid to approach God with our requests and our desire for wisdom.  Our God is a very generous God Who loves us and will give us what we need.