"When it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.' And in the morning, 'It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.' 

You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times."

Jesus, as quoted in Matthew 16:2-3, ESV

What happens when we lose the ability to reason in important things? 

In the above passage, we see the leaders of the Jews demanding that Jesus give them a sign. This despite the fact that Jesus had already spent a significant portion of His ministry performing miracles and explaining what God expected of them. They had ample opportunity to be convinced of His authority and His power, but they were so blinded by their personal ambitions that they did not want to see, nor did they want to believe what they want to believe the only logical conclusion of what they were seeing. The common people saw it immediately - they realized that Jesus was from God. But the very ones who had been studying the Word of God failed to see that which was plainly before them, even though it was right under their noses.

In short, they had lost the ability to reason in areas that were of the greatest importance. Had this been excusable, Jesus would have said so. Instead, He called them a brood of vipers and said that they travelled over land and sea to win a single convert, only to make them twice the son of Hell that they had become (Matthew 23). The Apostle Paul would later echo this thought concerning people who had lost the ability to reason when it came to that which God had clearly revealed. Consider the following:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in things that have been made. they are without excuse.

Romans 1:18-20. ESV

Throughout history, men have either pretended to be dumb, or genuinely are dumb when it comes to understanding God's Word. We can see that, for we have been guilty of this very sin ourselves. The point that God has consistently made throughout His Word is that He has given us enough information to understand everything that we need to. So, whether we are talking about seeing that sin is really sin, or if we are talking about understanding just what it is He expects us to be doing in the important area of obedience, the fact is that He has given us enough. Therefore, if our plan of life has been to pretend that no one can understand the teachings contained within the Bible, then we need to get a new plan.

Do you remember when you were in school and were either too busy or too lazy to study? Maybe it was a particularly tough assignment in math, perhaps it was a long writing assignment that that mean old English teacher had given, but whatever it was, you pretended not to know how to do it. So you told your parents that the teacher was just unreasonable and that hardly anyone in the whole class could figure out this maniacal teacher's expectations. If your parents were smart, they didn't accept your excuse any more than your teacher did. They probably told you something along the lines that you just needed to work harder or that you should have gone to the teacher for help, but whatever the case they for sure didn't allow you to get away with playing dumb.

Why not? Well for one thing, your parents knew you better than just about anybody else. They knew that you had a good mind and could use it if you were really pressed to do so. In a like manner, God really does know you better than anyone else - including yourself! He knows that He has given you a fine mind that is fully equipped with the capacity to reason; furthermore, He expects you to use that mind. Over and over throughout the Scripture, we see people who were punished because they should have known better but still feigned ignorance when it came to complying with God's commandments and expectations.

That being the case, we should learn from their mistakes and understand that God is serious when He tells us to do something... even when that something is hard! The fact of the matter is that God does have expectations for us and part of those expectations is to use the ability that He has given us to use reason and logic. This will require deep thought and even hard work at times, but that is okay. After all, we are trying to please Him - aren't we? Part of that process will require us to use our minds to the fullest extent that He has given us. He has given us the exact amount of information to understand His expectations and to do them. Anything else might very well find us without excuse of that final day when we appear before Him in Judgment.

One last thought: When we are young and have good intentions, we sincerely want to please our parents and teachers. It is a natural thing to seek the approval of those who are doing their best to help us accomplish the things that we are capable of. We want to make them proud, so we do our very best to make that happen. So, when it comes to the One who loves us more than we can imagine, shouldn't we be doing our very best to use every ounce of our ability to reason in order that we might please Him? I think it is only reasonable that we should, don't you?