Welcome to the 3rd and final installment of the asking questions series!
Knowing the importance of my heart’s intention in asking questions, here’s a list of questions I need to ask myself before I dare ask questions of someone else:
- Is this question meant to honor or to help or to harm or to hurt?
- Is this question asked for advice and growth or for attention and greed?
- Is this question intended as good or as guilt?
- Is this question for God’s glory or my gain?
Yes, I know – ouch! Those questions have stomped on my toes ever since they appeared in my mind.
With that in mind, my prayer now is that those questions will help shape my heart towards God, my prayers for others, and my choices for His kingdom and eternity to be made known here on earth, today and again, tomorrow.
Because I know this truth: There’s a big bunch of folks in my everyday life asking questions that don’t have answers outside of God’s plan for His glory and the good of His people. These folks are seeking truth in places full of lies. They are seeking hope in people just as bound up in sin as they are. And they are seeking love in plans that degrade their self-worth even more.
Thus, their questions should keep me face-down on my knees in faith before my Jesus because of this truth: I need Jesus as much as they need Jesus, if not more.
Let me say that truth again: I need Jesus as much as they need Jesus.
Only Jesus is the Answer and the Amen to every question posed and every promise given.
Only Jesus can give all of us the hope we need for today and every day yet to come.
We have opportunity as friends, coworkers, family, and neighbors to ask others about their relationship with Jesus and to truly listen to the answers from their hearts. In turn, we have the responsibility to answer their questions simply, distinctly, and lovingly even if their questions seem intended to provoke anger and promote dissension.
We don’t have to be eloquent to be effective ministers of the Gospel.
The Holy Spirit and Scripture do the work leading to salvation. We’re just tools God chooses to use in His power for salvation. Thus, when Jesus is evident in our lives, others will feel valued and loved by our questions and our listening given from our hearts for them.
With that in mind, Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well gives us a powerful glimpse into how we can care for others using questions. She met the Life, the Truth, and the Way to God in Jesus there at the well. Her story of finding hope and love encourages us with conviction and compassion to show others their deep need for our Jesus, too.
John 4:28-30 ESV says this about her story, So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people,“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
And that question, “could this be the Christ?”, is a great place to stop and ask ourselves if we are steadily and solidly following Christ with our lives. For when we’re following Jesus with our lives, it’s normal for us to then want to ask others the same question in the purpose and prayer of revealing to them their deep need for Christ and His deep love for them and us, too.
Two other great questions to ask ourselves daily also come from Scripture in Psalm 8:4 MEV what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You attend to him? and Romans 8:31 CSB What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
Thanks so much for coming (and staying!) for all 3 parts of this series! I hope you’ve thought of some good questions for you to examine and pray about while studying Scripture today and again, tomorrow, too!
If you happened to miss part 1 and/or part 2 of this series, here’s the links for those posts:
https://soulscientistblog.com/2026/05/11/asking-questions-part-1/
https://soulscientistblog.com/2026/05/18/asking-questions-part-2/
p.s. While I was thinking about the role of and importance of questions in writing and other forms of communication, I remembered I’d used questions as the framework for my 3rd book called, Well Grounded: Cultivating Intimacy with God. This book (and my first 2 books) are available for purchase online via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Walmart, and other online booksellers. I surely hope you’ll find something in this book prompting you to keep asking and keep learning and keep seeking our Good God today and every day to come until His appearing.
p.p.s If you’d like to receive more of the blog posts to your email every week, please use the link below to sign up to follow the blog – thanks!
written by and copyrighted to Beth Madison, Ph.D., 2026.
Soul Scientist 
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