“Maybe you can help me understand my cousin. She was seriously hurt in an auto accident about a year ago, and she'll never fully recover from her injuries. Yet she's always cheerful and says God has been very good to her. How can she say such a thing? If that happened to me I'd be angry at God, frankly. How could He let this happen?”
“I read a book attacking religion recently written by an atheist, and it convinced me to believe in atheism as the only logical way to live. God doesn't exist, and the sooner we admit it, the better off we'll be. I respect your sincerity, but sincerity isn't enough.”
“I always knew my husband liked to gamble, but when he died a few months ago we discovered he had piled up tens of thousands of dollars in debt because of his gambling. It has left us almost impoverished. How could he have done this to us? Didn’t he care about us?”
“Why do some people have a strong faith in God and others have a weak faith? Ten years ago, a friend and I became Christians at the same summer camp in high school, but my faith is so weak compared with his. Does God just give some people a strong faith, and the rest of us will always be weaker?”
“My father, who is in his 80s, has inoperable cancer and probably has less than a year to live. But when I try to talk with him about heaven and faith in Christ, he just laughs and says he’ll take his chances. I’m very concerned, because he’s never had any use for God.”
“Our children always get very excited about Christmas and what all they'll get for presents, and I know that's to be expected. But how can we help them understand the real meaning of Christmas?”
“I have a great interest in astrology and fortunetelling, and I think someone with your spiritual insight would be very good at predicting the future. You could help a lot of people by telling them what the future holds. Have you ever thought about doing this?”
“This has been a very bad year for me: a messy divorce, financial setbacks, sickness—you name it. I know I've made some wrong decisions, and I can't blame anyone but myself for most of what's happened, but can you give me any hope for the future?”
“I'm 12 years old, and I want to serve Jesus very much. But how can I? Almost no one in my school seems to care about God, and yet I know they need Him.”
“I've become very disillusioned over our political system. In fact, I almost didn't vote in the last election because I got so disgusted with the ads on television. Do you think there's any hope of reversing all this?”
“The doctor told us my brother would never recover from the stroke he suffered a couple of months ago, but now he's almost completely healed. Was this a miracle, do you think, or did the doctor just not know what he was talking about? My brother had lots of people praying for him.”
“How can I know God has forgiven me? Or can we only know whether or not God has forgiven us after we die? I've asked Him to forgive me dozens of times for all the bad things I've done, but I still feel guilty.”