When I Don't Know In Full

When I don't know what to do, or what to think, I make some choices based on what I do know and who I know to be the most trust-worthy source for direction.

I choose

I choose to live in a position of love, choosing to love God because He first loved me. He saved me from sinfulness - my own and others’ sin against me, which can trip me up and entangle itself around me, if I let it.

1 John 4:19 (CEV)

We love because God loved us first.

John 15:16 (NLT)

You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit

I choose to live in a position of faith, choosing to believe God is for me.

Romans 8:31 (NLT)

If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 

I know from experience, this doesn't mean people aren't going to oppose me. I come against strong opposition, strong criticism, strong misunderstandings, and strong temptation towards anxiety or rejection or anger.

Romans 8:35 (NLT)

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?

No, it doesn't mean that. But I've had to learn that. If God loves me, why does He keep letting this happen? If God is so big and powerful, why doesn't He change this situation for me?

The only answer I have come to that makes sense is this. He wants me to grow in strength and character, being a more complete person. If I didn't learn through struggles, how would I learn, how would I grow, how would I become stronger, how would I have more compassion for others? When people learn in an educational facility, part of the learning process always has a practical application. Why is that? Because we learn best through personal experience, not through theory. It's not comfortable, and it can go on for much longer than I expect. But, keep reading.

I choose not to give up. God gives me the means to continue to overcome. My faith produces perseverance.

James 1:3-4 (NIV)

you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

I choose to live in a position of trust, choosing to acknowledge, and be thankful, that God is a just God and His mercies are new to me each morning I wake up.

Deuteronomy 32:4 (NASB)

The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and just is He.

Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

I choose to live in a position of hope, choosing to remember my hope is built on Jesus Christ, the umpire and perfecter of my faith.

Colossians 3:15 (AMPC)

And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] to which as [members of Christ’s] one body you were also called [to live]. And be thankful (appreciative), [giving praise to God always].

I choose to live in a position of reception, choosing to receive the love that the Holy Spirit pours into my heart, so that my hope is not disappointed and I can believe that what He says is true.

Romans 5:5 (NIV)

And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Romans 5:3-5 (AMPC)

Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance. And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation. Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.

Therefore, I choose to live in a position of reliance, choosing to rest on His plan for my future.

1 John 4:15-16 (NIV)

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

Jeremiah 29:11

(CSB) For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

(CEV)  I will bless you with a future filled with hope—a future of success, not of suffering.

If I am suffering for His sake, that is, if people oppose me because of my belief and lifestyle, He will cause me to succeed and prevail in the spirit. If I am suffering for sin’s sake, and I repent, He will bring me out of it because His plans for me are for my well-being.

I choose to live by faith and not by sight.

2 Corinthians 5:7 (The Message)

It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going. 

I am tempted, at times, to remain in unbelief of these things when they seem too much for me, naturally. But I come back to what I know of God, and I go over those things again.

1 Corinthians 2:14 (NET)

The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

When I don't know in full, I choose. I choose to be spiritually discerning. At the end of the day, that is more important to me than my human unwillingness to grasp God's higher knowledge and love for me because things are uncomfortable. It doesn't always feel good, and I don't always understand, but I am always led towards God's eternal destination for me. These choices take me towards that and help me to see the natural limitations in opposing the things of God.