Do We Need to Know?
Please tell me everything you know about it! If I said this once I have said it a 1000 times. I need to know! Some call it FOMO – fear of missing out. For me, without the details, my brain could not put the pieces of the puzzle together.
It makes sense right? At least to our natural five senses. However, as I grew in my faith in God and in my relationship with Jesus, I realized that people in the Bible in times past did not know the details until they started moving. God would give them a direction. They would begin to go, and the details would come along the way. Sometimes one detail at a time. Let’s look at three, maybe four examples of people who did not know.
1. It started in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve when God gave specific instructions. He said, “Do not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” Adam and Eve ignored and disobeyed God’s instructions and paved the path for sin. God gave them sufficient instructions but they wanted to know more. The more got them in big trouble.
2. Stage right to Noah and his family. God told Noah to build an ark because He is sending a flood on the earth. Noah, nor anyone else, had experienced what God was calling rain, but he built the ark anyway and the rain came. It took Noah 100 years to build the large boat. He and his family boarded along with lots of animals. Noah and his family were thankful for the boat when God sent the floods.
3. Next, God calls Abram out of his hometown to go somewhere else. But where? Abram didn’t know, but he followed the voice of God and we are glad he did. He and his wife received new names and from Abraham and Sarah, who were childless, nations were born. They waited over 25 years for the details of God’s promise to come.
4. Finally, in the New Testament, after Jesus was raised from the dead, He told his disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait for the Promise of the Father. They go and wait, but they have no idea exactly what the promise is that they are waiting for. In the book of Acts, we read about the details of this promise. For 10 days, 120 people waited in an upper room. The Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit, descended on them, giving them the power they needed to walk out all the details Jesus gave them.
Why does God withhold information? Let me offer you three possible reasons.
a. God often leaves out the details to increase and test our faith. Besides, if we know and can see it, it is not faith. Hebrews 11:1-3 declares Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. God spoke the world into existence with His words. What you and I see today, came from the invisible. When our faith increases, our trust in God leading us increases simultaneously.
b. He is a personal God. God called Abraham His friend. I could continue on and on, but let me make it personal. I remember like it was yesterday where I was sitting and what I was praying. In short, I had many questions for God and He was quite quiet. I waited for an answer in my home. Significant questions. Serious questions. I thought it good that I was asking Him for answers since God taught me to go His Way and not my way.
c. God’s answers may differ from ours. God’s perspective from above will yield a different answer than ours from Earth. The answer I got was not what I expected or wanted at the moment. The Holy Spirit said to my spirit, “Can you give up your right to know?” If you have ever talked to God and He talks back, you know the conviction it can bring. Cut to my core, my response was, “I give up my right to know.”
In that response, a fuller trust in God flooded my heart that has since increased over the years. I often say God is trustworthy. That day a milestone happened in my faith walk. Sometimes our need to know involves control. When we give up our right to know we relinquish control to the One who is really in control. In giving up our right to know we are saying to God I trust you with the details and the outcome of my life.
So, until next time, remember that the heart of the matter is the matter of God’s heart. He is trustworthy!
Dr. Michele
October 6, 2024
