Trusting God With Your Future

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” Corrie Ten Boom

Can God be trusted with my future? The answer for most Christians is yes. But each time we struggle with letting go of our agendas to follow Christ, we are asking if we can trust God to navigate the future successfully. We think we know what is best for us, and that we know what will make us happy, how to get it and we do it on their own terms without God. There is one problem with that idea, control of our life in the future is an illusion. Trust is a choice, not just a one-time decision of saying yes to God but a series of daily and moment by moment choices built on trusting God with your present and future.

Trusting God is simply believing that He loves you and knowing He’s good, He has the power to help you, and He wants to help you: in the next few moments and five years from now. As followers of Jesus we are called believers, but in some times and in some circumstances we are more like unbelieving believers because we are scared to trust God.

We may be looking for a job, an answer or solution to a problem, or we make plans that we think are beneficial to our lives. We don’t want to talk to God or ask His opinion on the circumstance because we think He will alter or even thwart our plans; He will make us do something we don’t want to do, or we are scared to let go of what we think will bring us happiness. We can find ourselves trusting our friends, the bank, the stock market, or the government more than we trust God. John 15:5 reminds us of a stark truth: “…For apart from me you can do nothing.” In other words, we need to lean on Him for help with everything in our lives, including our future.

It is not easy to trust completely in God. It always seems a little easier developing the habit of trusting in ourselves. Some time or another other people will fail you. And when that happens, the logical conclusion is that if you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself. If you don’t ask anybody for anything or open your heart to them, they can’t hurt you. But this mindset can keep us from trusting God. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”

Because we are so scared of God saying “no” to our dreams and desires for the future we miss out on what else He is trying to tell us. He may be saying “No, not this person” and that’s all we hear because we don’t listen to the rest of what He is trying to tell us. “I have something better for you. I have unimaginable blessings and promises in store for your future.” This is what else God may be telling us, but all too often we we only focus on the no.

My prayer is that we learn to trust God with the future. He has a plan for each of our lives and He will bring good from our choice to trust Him.

Discussion Questions:

If you were able to know one thing about the future, what would it be?
What can we do this week to trust and accept God’s plan for the future?