What I Know In The Midst Of Everything I Don’t

“This I know: God is for me.” Psalm 56:9b (CSB)

If I had a dollar for every time I spoke or thought the words I don’t know, I’d have quite a stash of cash.

These three little words roll off my tongue or ping across my brain so effortlessly that they’ve practically become an automated filler word in my vocabulary.

There are so many situations and circumstances in life that don’t make sense to my limited brain that all I can do is sigh and confess, I just don’t know.

The reality of being human is that we don’t know what will happen in the next hour, much less the next week, month, or year. We won’t have the answer to every question thrown our way and the actions of other people will sometimes confound us.

But rather than letting what we don’t know discourage us, we can let it redirect us to the truth we do know.

In Psalm 56:9b, David writes, “This I know: God is for me.”

David wrote this Psalm while under attack. His enemies were twisting his words, scheming against him, and lurking around in hopes of taking his life. I imagine David felt the weight of a lot of I don’t knows regarding his circumstances, but rather than crumble under the pressure of the unknown, he affirmed what he did know. David knew that God had his back and that gave him relief from his fear and comfort in his misery.

In our unknows, we can make this same declaration.

I don’t know what challenges a day will bring, but this I know: God is for me.

I don’t know how to solve that problem, but this I know: God is for me.

I don’t know why certain trials and troubles mark our lives, but this I know: God is for me.

Friend, God is for you, not against you!

Now, as much as I wish God being for us meant he’s for a comfortable and easy life, that’s just not the truth. God doesn’t always show us he’s for us the way we think he should. What he is for is our growth, our transformation, our joy, our freedom, our character, our hope, our eternal glory, and that may come through difficulties and struggles.

But when we know nothing else, we can rest assured that we have a God who loves us and is on our side. His greatest demonstration of that is the cross and he has literally put his Spirit inside of us to be our Advocate, or Helper.

When we let our I don’t know redirect our focus to this I know, our lack gets lost in the sufficiency of our all powerful, all knowing, always present, faithfully providing, fiercely protective, merciful and gracious God.

We will never have all the answers, but we can take courage that we know the one who does and rejoice that he is for us.