Trusting God In Uncertainty
Ian Revie
‘We walk by faith, not by sight.’
(2 Corinthians 5:7, NKJV)
We were on holiday over the last week with our daughters and their boyfriends on the west coast of Ireland - bleak, barren and beautiful land and sea-scapes all at the same time. We did various activities, but youngest daughter wanted to hike in the Blue Stack mountains, so we found a short 5 mile hike around two hills & a river from our guide book - a moderate walk is how it was described.
The walk started moderately along the river side and then we started to climb - the last instruction in the guide book was: “follow the track to its end then start up a moderate grassy bank”. That bank was not moderate and was over 1km in length - and then we had no instructions further other than “if it has been wet, the ground may be boggy” - and it was - we were often were knee deep in bog. We got close to what we thought was a mountain top, and then knew we didn’t know where to go to get back down.
One of our party was well equipped and had a good GPS, however soon that also got lost. We were on top of a hill (but not even certain which of three hills we were on!) and needed to get back down. The same person began to see our problem and began to lead in a way that inspired us: he found the right positions, ran around to find landmarks and then pointed us to the way down… it was a 45° slope over rocks for over 2km!
We did get down safely but it led me to think about our faith… We were walking in faith: one person knew where we were headed, but the rest of us needed to follow on. We never had instructions on how we were going to descend the hill, only what our next point of direction would be.
Close your eyes and try walking without sight, and you will get an idea of what it means to walk by faith. Faith in what? The unchanging character of God, goodness of God, love of God, and truth that He always has your best interests at heart. With God, information is given on a need-to-know basis. And God determines who needs to know what and when.
Many examples of the early Church show they were happy to settle for heartfelt obedience and follow step by step direction. When Paul says we ‘walk’ by faith, he is referring to the slowest form of transportation known to man. He is also referring to a process that happens one step at a time and sometimes through a “bog”.
God has the satellite view. He sees your entire journey from beginning to end, and plans each step. And He says, ‘Do what I have given you to do, and when you have done it, I will show you what I want you to do next.’
Our God is a great God, but we need to trust his direction for our life journey.
