Trusting God with the Unknown

We don’t know a lot more than we do know. For this reason, we spend a large portion of our lives preparing for things that may never happen.

•  We have car insurance in case we crash.
• We have life insurance in case we die before our loved ones.
• We have smoke alarms in case there is a fire.
• We wear a life jacket in case we fall into the water.

 
We make these kinds of plans because it is responsible to prepare for the future the best way we know how. We don’t always just plan for the unknown, though. Often, we worry about it too. “The Big Unknown” becomes more worrisome to us than death and taxes because we don’t know what it is. 

I don’t know how many times I’ve said, “I can handle whatever answer comes, I just need to know what it is.” I have said or thought these words when:

• A loved one waited on appointments I couldn’t rush, for a diagnosis I couldn’t yet know.
• A family member went through an illness that I couldn’t help or control.
• My husband and I both started new jobs at the same time, and I couldn’t know if they would work out.

These are real-life scenarios that have made me crave concrete answers. Why am I possessed by this need for knowledge? This is certainly not a new struggle. It is as old as the human race. It’s the same “need” that possessed Eve in the Garden of Eden.

“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” Genesis 3:4-7

In a very real sense, Eve sinned the first sin in a quest for knowledge. I don’t know what Adam was after, but I can identify—strongly—with Eve. She wanted to know things God hadn’t revealed to her yet. Like Eve, I want to know things before God sees fit to open my eyes to them. Why would I rather know the worst than be left to guess if the news is good or bad? Because knowledge feels like power. What we know we can do something about, even if it’s just planning for it or learning how to accept it. What we don’t know, we’re helpless to control.​

• I want to know the outcome of my loved one’s appointments so that I can either experience relief or prepare my heart for pain and difficulty.
• I want to know if my husband and I will be able to have children so that I can prepare my heart for the future without having to experience the raw pain of disappointed expectations I have seen other couples endure.
• I want to know if my nieces and nephews will receive Jesus so that I can pray for their souls without having to experience fear and uncertainty.

The truth is, God does His best work in our lives when we are waiting on Him for answers He hasn’t given us yet. He doesn’t say we just have to wallow in fear and stress about future outcomes. He says that if we are willing to wait—if we have the courage to trust in His timing and His working—He will make our hearts stronger.

I justify these desires to know answers God has yet to provide by rationalizing that I’m not trying to change God’s will for the future. I only want to know what it is so that I can prepare myself. I want to avoid the unnecessary fear, pain, and stress of waiting. The problem is, God tells us to wait. He has the answers, and that is supposed to be enough.

“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” Psalms 27:14

Waiting. That is what trust is.

• We sing songs about trusting God.
• We listen to sermons on trusting God.
• We read Bible verses about trusting God.​

​​​We’re so familiar with the idea of trust, that sometimes, I think we forget what it means in our day-to-day lives. I know that I do.

Knowing the future outcome of my worries would not change anything for the better. Rather, it would provide me with a feeling of self-sufficiency and control that would be detrimental to my relationship with God. As a descendent of Eve, I want to bite into the fruit that will give me knowledge because I don’t want to depend on anyone else—not even God. I want to be strong and independent. 
 
But God is not glorified by my strength. In 2 Corinthians, the Lord tells Paul:

Only in uncertainty can we learn what it means to trust God. Uncertainty is painful. It’s scary. It’s big and unknown. But it’s also what prayers are made of. It’s also what trust is built on. And if we’re willing to wait on the Lord, it’s also what peace is grown from.

“My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

God is where my strength comes from. The weakness I feel during times of uncertainty is intended to push me to a greater reliance on God’s strength. He is the only one who can strengthen my heart.

My heart won’t grow strong by God letting me know all the answers. Otherwise, God wouldn’t have made the tree of knowledge off-limits in the garden. Rather, my weakness reminds me to rest in God’s strength because only in reliance on our Creator God can we find peace in uncertainty. He is the only One worthy of complete trust, and our trust in Him brings Him glory and honor, which is the very point of our existence anyway.
 
What a glorious circle of truth that is!

• God created us to glorify Him and have a relationship with Him.
• Our sin weakened us and pulled us from that relationship.
• That weakness points us to God’s strength.
• Our reliance on His strength brings us back into a relationship that glorifies Him.

This is the beautiful redemption story our God has written for us.

​In the words of the hymn-writer John H. Stockton:

“Yes, Jesus is the truth, the way,
That leads you into rest;
Believe in Him without delay
And you are fully blest.
 
Only trust Him, only trust Him,
Only trust Him now;
He will save you, He will save you,
He will save you now.”

Perhaps you, friend, are in a hard place today finding it difficult to trust God with the unknown. Remember, "...only in reliance on our Creator God can we find peace in uncertainty."