Trusting God with the Unseen Future

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.”

Psalm 32:8–10

I read a fascinating story from the final days of World War II. An American B-29 bomber was tasked with attacking targets in Kokura, Japan. As was normal procedure, they were assigned a secondary target in case the weather kept them from reaching their primary objective. Sure enough they found the clouds over Kokura too thick to find their targets, and after an hour of circling, they diverted to their secondary objective with some frustration. It was not until weeks later that they learned that, unknown to American intelligence, the Japanese had transferred a huge number of American prisoners of war to Kokura just days before that raid. The officer who received this news said, “Thank God for that protecting cloud! If the city hadn’t been hidden from the bomber, it would have been destroyed and thousands of American boys would have died.”

Each new year we enter into territory that is shrouded and unclear to our eyes. While we may expect certain things to happen, none of us know what the future holds. When we cannot see the path, it is more important than ever that we trust in God. So many times we are tempted to take matters into our hands when God does not work as quickly as we think He should. But He never makes a mistake, and we can trust in Him no matter what seeming delays we experience. Often it is only as we look back over the years that we see how God has worked.

Today’s Growth Principle: 

You can always trust God even when you cannot see the way ahead or what He is doing.