Can You Trust God Without Knowing the Answers?
One of my favorite places to visit in London is Westminster Abbey.
Many notable people are buried there. I like to go around to the
monuments and statues, look at the names of famous people of history we
have all read about and, most of all, to read the inscriptions by each
tomb.
As Christians, we have our own sort of Westminster Abbey
in the Bible. We have God's Hall of Fame, heroes of the faith, in
Hebrews 11.
And all of the inscriptions in the chapter start, "...by faith." By faith. By faith. By faith.
This is the secret of being great for God: FAITH.
As
we further read through this Westminster Abbey of the Bible, we
discover that faith always resulted in action in doing something. It
just doesn't exist by itself.
In verse 4, it says, "By faith Abel offered."
In verse 7, "By faith Noah...took heed and constructed an ark."
In verse 8, "By faith Abraham obeyed...and he went out, not knowing where he was to go."
Faith demands action. How do you know you have faith unless it results in some kind of action?
I'm
leading up to just two words, and they are what I call God's
inscription for Abraham in His Hall of Fame. These two words stand out
to me as though they are etched a little deeper or in capital letters.
They are "NOT KNOWING."
Not knowing. That's what faith is all about. Believing, yet not knowing the outcome.
Abraham was asked to leave his home, yet he was asked to leave NOT KNOWING where he was even going.
Can you imagine it? Abraham and his whole retinue leaving town. Someone says, "Abe, where are you going?"
He says, "I don't know."
"Well, how come you're going somewhere if you don't know where you are going? How silly?"
It irritates me sometimes not to know. Theologically not to know. When things just don't tie together.
And
I've spent some sleepless nights, all night wrestling with some things
that didn't come clear, until finally I put in my journal and
underlined it in red, "Lord, I am willing to trust you without answers as well as with answers. I am willing to trust you knowing or not knowing."
Faith, even though NOT KNOWING -- that's the secret.
Once a man asked me, "Lorne, why have you been a success?"
I
said, "I don't think I've been a success, but if you wonder why I think
maybe God has used me, I'll give you my wife's answer. Her answer is
that I've been available."
But I haven't found that
being available comes without a struggle. There's always the next thing
-- a new surrender. There's always the next step in not knowing.
But
the roll call of faith in Hebrews 11 is not complete until we read in
the last part where by faith some were killed, tortured, suffered, and
defeated, apparently. We must not put all the emphasis on success. God
will decide which way it leads.
And that's precisely what
makes life a thrilling adventure with Jesus Christ. God meant life to
be an adventure, an exciting one. As we look back on our lives, we see
that life has been just that.
The Lord Jesus said, "If any man
will do His will, he shall know." We find that not only do we obey "not
knowing," but that obedience leads to knowing.
Someone once said to me, "You don't think your way to faith, you obey your way to faith."
So
today, tomorrow, this year and next, we'll be called upon for new areas
of surrender. Have faith even though you don't know what the new
adventure will be.
This article was first published in The Navigators Log, July 1971.
