What If He’s Faithful?

It only takes a few experiences of loss or long-deferred hopes to become a person bent on protecting yourself from future sorrows. You begin to view every potential good thing in life as the harbinger of your next greatest loss. Rather than bringing your desires and concerns to the Lord with hope that He will intervene or work things together for good, you worry at the Lord, certain everything will soon fall apart. You live each day convinced that the worst will happen, that you’re bound to be hurt and disappointed, and that God only has suffering for you.

Perhaps you’ve lived through extreme financial stress in years past. You’re certain that God will never provide, that you must work endlessly to protect your remaining assets, and that you’re destined to feel the strain of monetary destitution for the rest of your days. You spend your time catastrophizing what might happen to you next and work endlessly to protect yourself.

Or, maybe you’ve experienced multiple difficult diagnoses. Your symptoms weren’t in your head and the diagnosis didturn out to be the very thing Google warned you about. Now, you live in constant fear that every cough, bruise, or ache is the next big medical scare. You spend hours scrolling for treatments information, certain that you’re only ever doomed to be diagnosed with the worst thing you can imagine.

Maybe you’ve lost a loved one. Nothing prepares you for the shock of death, the ache of loss, a future emptied of the presence of a person you miss every single day. As a result, you brace yourself for the next loss. You worry when your spouse travels, you don’t feel settled until your kids are home under your roof, you pray for the safety of your family or friends because you are always afraid of losing them. You struggle to enjoy your relationships because you are so fearful of losing them.

Once something has gone significantly and horribly wrong in life, we look for ways to prevent its return in any form. Expecting the worst in life seems like a practical way to live. Isn’t it preparatory and wise to protect your heart from future pain? Maybe. Do you only expect God to bring about pain but never joy? Disaster but never comfort? Suffering but never peace? Spending your life looking for the worst to happen means living without hope. God does allow suffering, but He doesn’t waste our trials or leave us alone in them.

I’ve long been entrenched in this “waiting for the other shoe to drop” kind of thinking. I’ve experienced physical pain for years without healing, deferred hopes with no recourse, broken relationships without restoration. I know the world is broken, so deeply infected with sin that suffering touches every area of life. I know that death is imminent, that tragedy happens when you least expect it, that it rains on both the righteous and the unrighteous. The problem of evil rears its head every time you wonder if the thing that happened to you was deserved or not.

And yet, expecting the worst has only ever made me doubt that God has my best interests at heart. Expecting the worst leads me to doubt His faithfulness first and foremost. Trust is rarely our gut response to challenging circumstances. More likely, our first questions right out of the gate of impending sorrow are full of accusation and fear. What if God doesn’t fix this? What if He lets me suffer? What if I lose this person? What if the Lord takes me through this hard thing and I can’t handle it?

But, I’d like to pose another question when life is hard and you’re fearful of the future. What if He’s faithful? Instead of immediately defaulting to all the potential disasters, what if we take our thoughts captive and force them to settle down in front of the 100% likelihood of who God will be to us no matter how hard life gets? Ask yourself a new question. When the diagnosis is given, when the news is dire, when the loss is deep, when the bank account is empty—what if God is not far away and unconcerned? What if He’s…faithful?

The truth is, of course, He’s always faithful. He will never change, and nothing can separate us from His love. His love reaches to the heavens, and His faithfulness stretches to the skies. We’ll never bump up against a life circumstance that’s too much for Him. So, when you get the call, the news, the diagnosis, or the bank statement, remember that He is strong and faithful and for you. He may not provide the answer or resolution you want, but He will be the faithful God you needto endure. If you must “what-if?” your life circumstances, turn the question on its head. What if He’s faithful? What if He carries you? What if He’s at work in a million unseen ways? What if He’s teaching you to trust Him? What if He’s protecting you from sin? What if He’s growing your faith? What if He’s anchoring your hope in heaven rather than on earth? What if He’s keeping His promise to make all things work for good in the end?

Once you’ve walked through the valley of the shadow of death, it’s difficult not to prepare yourself for the worst news around the next bend in your road. But, I’ve learned that in the trials that come our way, God never leaves or forsakes us. It is in suffering when His faithfulness appears more clearly than ever before. So rather than bracing yourself for the worst, anchor yourself in what’s best: God is faithful. Look for the ways He is being faithful to you.

Instead of immediately defaulting to all the potential disasters, what if we take our thoughts captive and force them to settle down in front of the 100% likelihood of who God will be to us no matter how hard life gets? Share on X

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