As a parent, I’d like to think I’ve encouraged curiosity in our kids. I hope, more times than now, I’ve answered questions rather than ignored them and readily said, “I don’t know” when I genuinely didn’t know those answers.

But, of course, there is a difference between asking questions and questioning. As parents, we all know that. And Jesus knew it much better than we do. During His ministry, all kinds of people asked all kinds of questions of Jesus. He answered some of those questions outright; others He answered with a parable; still others He didn’t answer at all. Surely at least part of how Jesus responded in each situation was dictated because He knew the heart behind the question – He is perfectly able to know the difference between a question and questioning. Here’s just one example:

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to trap him by what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are truthful and teach truthfully the way of God. You don’t care what anyone thinks nor do you show partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

Perceiving their malicious intent, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” They brought him a denarius. “Whose image and inscription is this?” he asked them (Matt. 22:15-20).

In short, the question was not a genuine question. It was ill-intended, not seeking knowledge or wisdom or anything of the like, but instead meant to try and box Jesus into some kind of rhetorical cage. And He knew it. He still knows it. It seems that Jesus, much like parents, is okay with questions but is much less okay with questioning.

Perhaps there have been moments in your life when you have brashly and brazenly called God into question. There unfortunately have been in mine – moment of anger, of grief, of frustration when my feeling in the moment has walked in front of my faith. But are there other moments when you might be questioning God without such an outright display? Consider, for a moment, these three ways we call God into question without questioning God:

1. Seeking revenge

Vengeance, at its core, is about taking matters into our own hands. And taking matters into our own hands is an act of desperation rooted in a lack of faith. In other words, because we do not like the way God is handling a situation, or because we do not think He will deal with it adequately, we feel compelled to do it ourselves. As such, acts of revenge are a way of questioning God without questioning God. But the Bible has another way:

Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord (Rom. 12:19).

A refusal to take revenge is not about being content with injustice; rather, it’s the belief that God will deal with injustice in the right way at the right time.

2. Living for “more”

Surely this single word could sum up much of our cultural intent right now: more. We want more of everything, and we want it right now. And against this societal norm of excess, the Christian is meant to have a different refrain: enough. We are a content people not because we necessarily have less and have settled for it, but because we know we have all in Christ already:

I know how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me (Phil. 4:12-13).

When we choose to constantly seek after more, we are questioning both God’s wisdom and His provision. We are bucking against what, in God’s sovereign design, He has chosen to give us and where He has chosen to place us.

3. Growing bitterness

Make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and defiling many (Heb. 12:15).

Bitterness grows. When we allow a root to remain in our hearts, it’s only a matter of time before it emerges to the surface. But what causes that root to be planted there to begin with? It could be any number of things – feeling we’ve been mistreated, or passed over, or forgotten, or mischaracterized. And any or all of those things might have actually happened.

But just because they happened doesn’t mean we have to allow the root of bitterness to remain. If we do harbor that grudge or sense of mistreatment, though, we find ourselves yet again questioning God in a subtle way. A growing sense of bitterness very well may have at its root the idea that things should not have happened the way they did to us. And God just sat by and let them.

Interestingly, each of these moments can just as easily be a cause for questions as much as a cause for questioning. And our God is gracious here too – that in moments of question, we find a waiting Father who might not give us answers, but will always give us comfort. Let us, though, be careful that our questions do not drift into questioning. Let us make sure we are approaching that Father with genuine trust rather than presumption.