Trusting an unknown future to a well known God

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Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.

–Corrie Ten Boom

Do you lie in bed at night thinking about the unknown?  Question how you are ever going to make your finances meet?  Wonder why there are people in your life that only hurt you? Live in a state of anxiety because you don’t know what your future holds?

As Christians we are called to a life of faith.  What is a life of faith?

Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. It literally means a life of faith, not of understanding and reason—a life of knowing Him who calls us to do.

We can  make the best plans for our life and try to carry them out in our own strengths.  Or we can make “safe,” careful plans and ask God to bless what we do in hopes that He will listen.  Yet another way of working is to begin with God.  We can ask Him, His plans and to offer ourselves to Him to carry out His purposes.

Not knowing our future and what it holds is a scary thing.  I think especially for us mothers who like to “control” things.  We feel like if we plan and get things all set up just right then life will work out.

A few weeks ago I wrote about where does your security lie?  Little did I know that God would use my own blog post to speak to me about my own security of the future.

Shortly after I wrote that post, I had found out that we would need to be leaving our home.  This was fine as we have been talking of purchasing a home later on next year so we just thought God was moving us a little quicker in the process.  Well we started the process and got the ball rolling and it seemed comfortable and the logical safe thing to proceed with.  A few days later my husband had received a phone call from a potential employer in a state 700 miles away from us.

If you know my husband, then you would know that  it has been his dream ever since we were married to move us down south to enjoy a life of warmth year round.  He does not enjoy being cooped up for the long winter months of the north.  He would enjoy nothing better than to be able to take his family out in nature and do things together for most of the year instead of just through the summer months.  Part of me agrees.

I, as the supportive wife, just always said, well if the Lord wants us to do it, then He will make it work out.  Never really thinking that the Lord would interrupt my cozy life of friends and comfortableness that I have grown to love.  I mean I have just finished filling my freezer full of food from this years harvest, surely He wouldn’t move me across the country???!?!

Well nothing is ever set in stone.  As of now, we wait.  We wait on a application pending to go through for a home.  Then we see where we go from here.  Living a life of the unknown can be frightening.  So what are we to do?

We prepare our field.  I don’t know if everything is going to fall into place for us to move down south—even though it seems to be so I have to do everything to get ready and then wait on God.  For now, I sell.  I sell off things that we don’t need.  I find homes for our pets.  I weed out and throw away junk knowing that if I make the move down south, I will be fully prepared.  But if the Lord decides to close a door and we end up staying here and getting a home, I will be able to move without all the “stuff” I thought I needed but really it is just extra junk.

Deep down I know that my heart yearns for new possibilities and experiences. My life, like most people of the modern world, has become comfortable and quite easy. We work hard trying to build this fake sense of security in our lives.  We plan, buy, and set up this “perfect” little thought of what we believe our life SHOULD be like.  For those of us that aren’t able to get what we want out of life—financial security, life insurance, debt free living,  or stability in relationships continously search for this facid of security which can only be found in the known and comfortable.

The problem with the known is that after a while it becomes monotonous, than miserable. People know they are miserable but don’t change because at least being miserable is something they know is comfortable. The thing you have to understand is that life is not secure, life is dynamic not mechanical.  It is meant to be lived as a life of faith.

I have these word plaques on my stairwell that I could see each day while sitting in my living room.  One of the words was FAITH.  I was continually reminded when things were going crazy in my life that I must have FAITH and trust God to see me through my problems.    Another word was HOPE.  HOPE was something I would see every night as I nursed my baby a few years ago.  It was during those lonely times I would cry out to God as I was struggling with trying to make everything work being a Mom of many little ones.  The word HOPE gave me strength to keep going.

Something rather comical is that my word plaque of HOPE got broken and I had to throw it away shortly after my little one stopped his late night nursings.  Guess what?  I had worked through my need for HOPE and had no need to be reminded of that promise from God.   Months later my plaque of FAITH had gotten broken as well and I had to throw it away.  My need for FAITH had been embedded in my heart and I KNOW that God is in control and I don’t fear.

I was packing up the last two word plaques that I have left and while packing them, God reminded me what my next step of life is to have…COURAGE and FAMILY.  God wants me to be courageous in my new chapter of life with my family.  Being courageous instead of fearful of the unknown. You will need courage to go into the unknown. In the beginning all your fears will come to the surface, the only way to move ahead and accept your fears is through courage. To be a courageous person you will need to leave your analytical mind and live with faith.

People might think your crazy. They may question what it is your doing  and want you to look at life more seriously.    Having faith will transform us by transforming and encouraging the world around us.  Opposition and the “unknown” become a great motivating challenge and when adversity is turned into opportunity it reveals a greater personal resource.  When things work out and we become successful, because it is Gods plan than it makes us become more than we were before.

When we encourage and share with others through testimony of the trials and faith that we had to go through our  world becomes a better place because of it.