Why We Can Trust Our Unknown Futures to God

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.
-Corrie ten Boom

I’m graduating from University in eight months.

Eight.

The thought of this makes me want to laugh and cry all at the same time. My time in college has flown by, and it kinda makes me sad.

The thing is though, people keep asking me what I’m going to do after I graduate. And people have asked me this question throughout my college-career, but I always thought I’d have a more definite answer once I started my senior year.

Nope.

I still don’t gotta clue.

I have a basic idea… but not a concrete answer.

This brings me back to the whole laughing vs. crying thing. Somedays the thought of having no idea of what the future holds makes me want to stress out and cry. Not knowing is stressful! Other days, not knowing makes me laugh- like and “LOL how in the world do I not know what’s gonna happen” laugh.

But I don’t need to know what my future holds. I know who holds my future.

Okay, okay, that’s like the MOST cliché phrase. I do wish I was more original, but essays have currently sapped me of all originality, apparently. Even thinking up a punny Instagram caption takes me longer than usual nowadays.

But anywho.
Back on track.

As I get asked “What are you going to do after graduation?” over and over again and have to go into my “Get a job, hopefully!” spill, I worry a bit about not having a set answer.

And I have to ask myself: Do I trust my future to God?

Or a better question in general might be: Do I trust God?

Because if I trust Him, I don’t have to worry about what’s going to happen post-graduation. I can smile at those people who ask those questions and confidently say, “I don’t know. But God knows.” And say that with faith.

How do we know we can trust God though?

Is God really trustworthy?

Well, let’s see.

First, let’s look at what the word “trustworthy” means, before we search the Bible to see if God really measures up.

Dictionary.com defines “Trustworthy” as: “deserving of trust or confidence; dependable; reliable.”

Alrighty then. Let’s see if Jesus is reliable.

One day, 2000 years ago, Jesus and his disciples were walking to Jerusalem.

His disciples freaked out at the thought of going to Jerusalem, after all, that’s where the religious leaders who wanted to kill Jesus were.

Jesus didn’t condemn their fears. Instead, He tells them exactly what was going to happen to Him when He entered Jerusalem.

“And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him, saying, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”
-Mark 10:32-34 ESV

Okay, I don’t know about you, but if I were one of the disciples and I heard my Teacher confirming my worst fear, I wouldn’t be feeling all that great. It would probably scare me more, even if I trusted what He was saying as truth.

“‘After three days he will rise’??? What is He even talking about?” I would wonder.

But here’s the thing, even though what Jesus was telling the disciples isn’t what they wanted to hear, He still did predict His own death accurately.

If we flip over a few chapters, we see soldiers mocking, spitting on, flogging, and killing Jesus. We’ll also see Him come back to life.

Jesus told them the truth, even if it wasn’t what they wanted to hear. That seems pretty trustworthy to me.

Because He lives.

This past weekend was Easter, and we celebrated the resurrection of our Savior. I think this song is the perfect way to express what I’m thinking as I write this post:

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone,
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!
-“Because He Lives” by Bill Gaither

Jesus has a plan.
Jesus knows the plan.
And I can trust Jesus.

When the disciples entered Jerusalem, they faced a scary future.

They didn’t know what was going to happen to Jesus. Even when Jesus told them what was going to happen, they still probably were afraid and wondering what was going to happen.

I think it’s easy for us to point fingers at the disciples, and wonder why they didn’t believe Jesus when He told them He would come back to life.

But we do the same thing, if we’re truly honest with ourselves.

Jesus has made us promises. Do we believe that He will carry them through?

“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” -John 10:28 ESV

Jesus has given us the free gift of eternal life!! Have you accepted it? If so, then you will NEVER die, and NO ONE will be able to separate you from Him. This is a great promise!

“I have told you these things so that in me you will have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.” -John 16:33 NIV

This is one of my all time favorite verses. Here in this verse, Jesus pretty much promises us that we will face troubles. Fact. Hard times are coming. But He also tells us that He overcame the world, and this is a great promise.

When it comes to your future, are you trusting it to God?

I’m striving to trust Him with my post-graduation life, and really in all aspects of my life, even now.

What about you?

Maybe you’re about to graduate high school and don’t know where you’re going to college or if college is even right for you.

Maybe you’ve noticed a guy and are wondering if he could be the one God has for you.

Or maybe all of your friends are engaged or married, and you’re the only single left, and you’re wondering if God has forgotten about you.

Maybe, like me, you’re just wondering what the future in general holds, and are scared because you don’t know the answer.

Regardless of what your “unknown” future is, rest assured that you can trust it to our God.

He’s got it covered :)

Related Post: 3 Ways to Learn to Trust God More

Posted by Kara Beth & filed under Devotionals. This post has 3 comments.