Not knowing much about our path ahead keeps us dependent upon God, and means we cannot rely on ourselves. We need him every step of the way. Yes it is riskier this way, and we may feel quite insecure and uncertain at times, but if that drives us to our knees and makes us even more fully trusting in him, that is all for the good.

It is a blessing of God that he does not show us all that will befall us as believers in the years ahead. How many new Christians would be deterred from going on if they had a fuller picture of what they would have to go through in their journey with Christ? So in his mercy he seldom reveals to us early on all the things that we will go through and deal with.

Of course that does not mean we are never told of what lies ahead. Sometimes God does offer his saints a pretty solid glimpse of what will be their lot. For example, in Acts 9:10-16 we read this about the conversion of Saul:

Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

We know that Paul suffered massively for his faith and he endured heaps of persecution and opposition. So in this case God actually warned him well ahead of time that this would be the path he must travel on. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

But generally speaking most believers are only given as much light as they need for their immediate future. As is often mentioned, when we read passages like Psalm 119:105 (“your word is a lamp unto my feet”), we understand that we get enough light for each step we take and not for miles ahead.

We have the general word of God always with us but specific guidance and particular divine leading may well be piecemeal and partial. Obviously if we knew all the details of our overall journey beforehand, we would have little need for faith and trust in God.

Not knowing much about our path ahead keeps us dependent upon God, and means we cannot rely on ourselves. We need him every step of the way. Yes it is riskier this way, and we may feel quite insecure and uncertain at times, but if that drives us to our knees and makes us even more fully trusting in him, that is all for the good.

Also, if so much about the upcoming years was revealed to us long ago, most of us would have been too freaked out to want to go on. We would have complained to God and told him that those upcoming burdens and trials would be too much for us to handle. We would tend to want to tell God, ‘thanks, but no thanks.’

When I became a Christian nearly 52 years ago, little did I know what would happen over the decades to follow.

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