Trusting God in The “How” This New Year

As 2021 came to a close, I took time to meditate on what God taught me that year. There were many lessons, but this one stood out above others: “You don’t need to know how God will do it, trust Him to do it”. I took some time to look at the articles I had written in 2021. So many of them centred around trusting God. These include; A New Year, A Renewed Hope, A Way Through The Red Sea, Running Ahead of God, Are You Patient and Joyful?, When You Forget What God Said and Service In The Dungeon.

God has truly deepened my trust in Him, and as a result of this journey, trust was a key theme in my articles last year. But the biggest challenge for me was not necessarily trusting that God could answer my prayers, but it was the “how”. How would God do it? I would often present my prayer requests to the Lord, and after praying, I would try to imagine the few ways my prayers could become a reality. But looking back now, all of my imaginations were limited. They were logical because I could see no other way that God could answer my prayers. However, I noticed that by attempting to picture how God would respond to my prayer with my limited imagination, my faith was weakened. I recall a season in the summer of last year where I desired to take some steps in my life, but I was too afraid because I didn’t have all the answers. I wanted to see the end from the beginning and everything in between before initiating anything! You can only imagine the pressure I put on myself. But God was gracious and reminded me that He would go before me and order my steps.

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way (Psalm 37:23, KJV).

So I went ahead and took baby steps and resisted the temptation to figure out how God would take me through the journey. And my goodness! God did much more than I could ever imagine.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us (Ephesians 3:20, ESV).

The promise in Ephesians 3:20 is no joke. This verse demonstrates that our requests and thoughts are limited. So why waste mental energy trying to figure out how God will answer your prayer? God can do far beyond! The truth is that if we focus on how He will do it, it takes away our peace and ability to be still during the journey.

I’m reminded of when Jesus’ disciples tried to catch fish all night and had no results in John 21:3-6, ESV:

“I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered. He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

There are a couple of things we can take note of here. To begin with, imagine the disciples’ disappointment having spent the night fishing only to come up empty-handed. This could be likened to unideal situations in our lives. Regardless of how much we plan, the effort we put in and our desire for everything to go well, sometimes we get disappointing results. The disciples didn’t realize that it was Jesus commanding them to throw the net on the right side of the boat until after they caught fish. Now, I can only imagine what must have gone through their minds when Jesus gave the command. They must have thought to themselves, ‘how would throwing the net on a different side of the boat result in fish being caught? Why would this stranger suggest something so illogical? Would all the fish just automatically navigate to the right? We have tried all night, we’ve thrown our nets on both the left and right side of the boat, and now we should go back to the right side, and we will be successful?’.

Well, ‘When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish’ (John 21:6). Notice that they didn’t hesitate or stop to ask Jesus (who they had not recognized) how obeying him will make a difference. They did not ask about the “how”; they simply obeyed. Obedience is a demonstration of trust, and yes, they probably didn’t expect to catch such a large number of fish.

Reading this passage is fun, but imagine if the disciples received the promise but spent all their mental energy trying to figure out how God would do it? Sounds ridiculous, right? However, we fall into this cycle many times. It takes discipline and God’s grace to realize that our faith is weakened when we focus on the “how” of our requests. Let 2022 be a year where you not only trust God to answer your prayers but trust Him with the “how”. Demonstrate your trust in Him by resisting the temptation to sit down and figure out how your prayers will be answered. Let God order your steps as you wait on Him. This makes the journey of waiting peaceful, joyful and will enable you to be patient. 

So, you may ask, ‘How will God do it?’. My reply is, ‘I don’t know, but I do know it will be beyond what you can think or imagine’. The key is being sensitive to His leading along the journey. Like Jesus’ disciples in John 21, obey whatever God reveals to you at different points during the journey and trust Him to do beyond what you asked. David Guzik notes that “John 21 was a test of their ability to find the guidance of God in small and unsuspected ways – such as a stranger calling out fishing instructions from the shore”. So, be sensitive to God’s guidance throughout your journey this year; He doesn’t always guide us in ways we expect.

Photo credit: ©istockphoto/Tinnakorn Jorruang

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