The Gift of Curiosity
Pastoral | July 17, 2025 | By: Michelle Clifford
I love questions! I truly believe that questions are gifts meant to open us to a deeper faith. However, for many years within the western Church, questions have gotten a bad reputation. They have either been seen as evidence of a weak faith, treated as a lack of assumed knowledge, or viewed as the cause for confusion.
As a response to this, many have settled for the information given to them instead of the information desired within them.
This in turn postured many toward simply collecting knowledge about God and their faith instead of seeing questions as a means to pursue a deep and personal relationship with God, living actively within their faith.
This was me for years. Somewhere along the way, I had let go of having a curious posture toward God and my faith and replaced it with formed boxes designed to safely contain my faith.
I lived this way for years, burying my questions and curiosity—fearing or dismissing them instead of allowing them to be tools to deepen and build my faith. I lived this way until one day I found myself stuck in my relationship with God. I mean unmovably stuck. Like I had hit a ceiling in my growth, and I could not seem to break through. Have you ever felt like that?
One day I found myself stuck in my relationship with God.
I found myself uninspired, apathetic, and honestly bored. Can you believe saying something like that about your faith? But somehow, I did. My zeal and hunger for more of God had gotten squelched and I had let it.
I stopped being curious about my faith. I stopped allowing wonder to capture my imagination around who God is and who I am in Him. And I stopped asking questions that had the potential to unlock a deeper faith and dependence upon God.
I settled for what I knew about God instead of living a life in pursuit of more of God.
And when I say that I stopped asking questions, I do not mean logically. I loved learning about God. What I had lost curiosity about was my relationship with God. I had stopped asking questions that postured me to entrust more and more of my heart, mind, life, and soul to God. I had stopped asking questions that deepened my dependence upon and relationship with Him. Instead, I stuck to questions that simply affirmed my knowledge of Him.
I stopped being curious about how to deepen my relationship with God. I settled for a routine relationship with God instead of an ever-unfolding relationship with Him.
So, what about you? Where is your curiosity? Are you still asking questions when it comes to your faith or have you settled for what you already know? Are you still asking questions that deepen your relationship and dependence on God or just ones that increase or affirm your knowledge?
Jesus Himself used questions to deepen the faith of His disciples and their relationship with Him. “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46) That right there is a faith deepening and relationship-building question.
Questions are good when directed toward God and in search of God. Questions are good because they not only reveal our hearts but deepen them. They show us roadblocks and opportunities for growth.
They posture us into a deep, humble, dependent relationship with God. Questions help us break past the plateaus of our faith (being stuck) and into the ever-unfolding depths of God.
Questions are good because they not only reveal our hearts but deepen them.
So, my encouragement to you today is to pick your curiosity back up. Allow your questions to flood back in. And I mean the real ones, not just the logical ones. These are the questions that can either hold your heart back or deepen your trust in your relationship with God. The questions that have the potential to keep you stuck in your faith if left unanswered. The questions that address the deepest fears, hopes, and dreams that exist within you. The questions that reveal the deepest desires within you.
If you are not quite sure where to begin, here are some examples to get you started:
Who is God to you, personally and relationally?
Do you believe God is relationally available to you?
Why is it important to have a relationship with God? And what does that mean and look like?
What does walking each day and every moment with Christ look like? What does that bring and/or cost?
When was the last time you confessed your sins and truly released them to the Lord to forgive?
Who are you called to be in this life as a believer? Where are you struggling?
What are you most afraid of? And have you invited God into those fears?
Then take your questions to the Lord. Take them to His Word. Take them to one another.
Allow them to draw you deeper, entrusting them each to the Lord, seeking Him and His Word for your answer. And that is key. Curiosity only deepens our relationship with God when our questions are placed within that relationship—allowing God to lead us in and through them.
So, do not fear or minimize your questions. God can handle them. He is a good God. Take that truth with you as you seek Him. And allow your questions to deepen your faith. For questions, when placed within your relationship with God, will do more than just deepen your faith. They will cause you to personalize how your live out your faith relationally with God.
I can only imagine what might happen in the church if we took God out of the box and let our curiosity roam into His depths. Trusting Him with all of us, as He reveals and transforms us to become more like Him
Michelle Clifford
Minister of Staff Development & Community Partnerships
If you’re asking big questions about life and faith, Alpha is a welcoming space to explore them. If you’re ready to grow deeper in your relationship with Jesus, Rooted will help you practice rhythms that build a stronger faith. Choose your next step today.
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