Do you ask yourself questions during your waking hours? It is a silly question. I firmly believe the reason we move forward in our days with any consistency is that we ask ourselves questions and answer them. “What should I wear?” “What should I make for dinner?” “What’s my next book to tackle?” Then come the more substantive queries like, “What do I do next?” Or, “What is God asking of me?” Or perhaps even, “How am I going to get through today?” The common theme in all these questions is the issue of needing answers.

Then comes the issue of discerning the answers to which I should lend my ear. Which answers best serve me and those I care about? Which answers have a valid history? Or even, “Must I have an answer immediately?” 

God gives to every one of us an amazing tool called the brain which can “combobulate” many more factors and bits of information than you and I will ever be able to handle. And when we use our brains to ask and seek, there are many “tentacles” that twist and cross to generate solutions. It is an unspeakably glorious gift. But our brains entertain and receive so much information that it is sometimes difficult to fend off the unhelpful answers and find those that will not only work, but truly give aid. 

So that’s where the next gift comes in. While the Scriptures do not give answers for every single issue in life, the way the Bible teaches us to use our minds really gives great counsel. “Think on these things,” says Paul in Philippians 4:8. Isaiah (Isaiah 26:3) reminds us that peace is available when our minds are stayed on the Lord. And how amazing, in 1 Corinthians 2:16 that Paul encourages Christians, reminding them they have “the mind of Christ.” All these point to God’s Word as the source, not of every individual answer, but as the way to get there. I especially love the psalmist proclaiming, I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation (Psalm 119:99). 

Questions invariably come to us. And they will come today, tonight, and every day God gives us. While we can’t find the color of the shirt we should pull from the closet in Holy Writ, we can and do find answers to give help for the questions that matter most. And the counsel of how we should use our God-given faculties is to be found nearly everywhere we turn in our Bibles. Open, read, meditate, and digest. Help is near.