There is a difference between knowing and believing something. Do you just know in your head or do you believe in your heart? 

We can know what the Bible says. We can know God’s promises. We can know that God is good, that He loves us, that He is faithful, and that He is in control. But when difficult things happen in our lives, do we really believe what we know?

Knowing is understanding the truth. It’s in our minds. Believing is trusting that truth enough to live by it. It’s in our hearts that we believe.

Do you believe God in your mind or your heart?

God wants us to know Him and believe Him. He wants us to trust His Word, even when we cannot see what He is doing. He wants us to have faith in Him when our circumstances don’t make sense.

Because God is still God when life is hard. He is still in control.

God Is in Control

Sometimes life can feel completely out of control. Things happen that we didn’t expect. Plans change. Doors close. Prayers seem unanswered. We may wonder what God is doing or why He has allowed something to happen.

But just because we don’t understand what is happening doesn’t mean God has lost control. His sovereignty is over all things.

God Knows What He is Doing 

He is sovereign. Nothing takes Him by surprise. Nothing happens outside His knowledge. He sees the beginning, the middle, and the end all at the same time. He holds it all. He holds us securely in His hands.

We only see what is happening right now. We only see in part. God sees the whole picture. He is working in everything knows the details exactly.

His plans are good, even when the path to those plans is difficult. We may not understand His ways, but we can trust His heart. We can trust His goodness. By faith we can have His peace, power and presence in anything. 

Proverbs 3:5 

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding. 

Jeremiah 29:11 

For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the LORD. ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope.  

He Holds Everything in His Hands

God doesn’t just know the big things in our lives. He knows every detail.

He knows our needs, our worries, our disappointments, our hopes, our dreams, and the things we don’t even know how to put into words.

He is Working in Everything 

Sometimes we look at one small part of our life and think, “How could this possibly work out for good?” But God is not limited by what we can see.

He can take things we would never choose and use them in ways we never imagined. He can make a way where we don’t see a way. He can bring good out of circumstances that seem impossible.

This doesn’t mean everything that happens is good. There is evil, suffering, loss, and pain in this world. But God is greater than all of it. He is able to work through every circumstance according to His purposes.

Nothing is outside His hands and nothing is impossible with God.

Romans 8:28

And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

Psalms 103:19 

The LORD has established his throne in heaven; his kingdom extends over everything. 

Believe God at His Word

It is easy to say that we believe God when everything is going well.

But what happens when we are waiting?

What happens when we pray and don’t receive the answer we wanted?

What happens when we don’t understand what God is doing?

This is Where Knowing Must Become Believing 

God’s Word is true whether we feel like it is true or not. His promises don’t become less true because our circumstances look different.

If God says He will never leave us, then He will never leave us.

If God says He will strengthen us, then He will strengthen us.

If God says He is working all things together for good, then we can trust Him even while we are still waiting to see that good.

Faith is believing God at His Word.

Numbers 23:19 

God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a human being, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it happen? 

Romans 10:17 

Consequently faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preached word of Christ. 

Trusting God When We Don’t Understand

Trust does not mean we understand everything.

Actually, if we understood everything God was doing, we wouldn’t need faith.

There will be times when God asks us to trust Him without showing us the whole plan. We may only see the next step. Sometimes we may not even see that.

But God Does 

We can trust Him with our future because He is already there.

We can trust Him with our families, our needs, our decisions, our disappointments, and our unanswered prayers.

Whatever we face, God has not left us alone to figure it all out ourselves.

He is with us. God will never leave us. He lives inside us through His Spirit. He is our refuge and rock.

Psalms 37:5 

Commit your future to the LORD. Trust in him, and he will act on your behalf.

Psalms 46:10 

He says, “Stop your striving and recognize that I am God. I will be exalted over the nations! I will be exalted over the earth!” 

2 Corinthians 5:5-7

Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment. Therefore we are always full of courage, and we know that as long as we are alive here on earth we are absent from the Lord—for we live by faith, not by sight.  

Deuteronomy 31:6 

Be strong and courageous! Do not fear or tremble before them, for the LORD your God is the one who is going with you. He will not fail you or abandon you!” 

His Presence Is Always With Us

One of the greatest promises we have is that God is with us. We don’t have to walk through this life alone.

No matter what we face or feel God is with us. He is with us in this very moment as well as already there tomorrow working in everything.

His presence doesn’t depend upon our circumstances. It doesn’t depend upon whether we feel Him. God is faithful even when our feelings change. 

Just because we may feel far from Him, God is not far, He is right beside us, always.

He is our constant.

Hebrews 13:5-6

Your conduct must be free from the love of money, and you must be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you and I will never abandon you.” So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid. What can people do to me?”  

Matthew 28:20 

teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” 

He Is Our Strength & Sustainer

We were never meant to live this life in our own strength.

There are things we cannot do by ourselves. There are burdens we cannot carry by ourselves. There are situations that are bigger and overwhelm us.

But they are not bigger than God.

Even in smaller moments and situations God wants us to rely on Him.

God is our strength. He sustains us when we are weak. He gives us what we need for each day.

Sometimes God doesn’t remove the difficult situation immediately. Instead, He gives us the strength to walk through it.

We may feel like we cannot make it, but with Christ, we can take the next step.

Philippians 4:13 

I am able to do all things through the one who strengthens me.  

2 Corinthians 12:9 

But he said to me, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So then, I will boast most gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in me.  

Through Him We Have Victory

Victory doesn’t always look like getting the answer we wanted. Victory can be having peace in the middle of the storm. Victory can be continuing to trust God when we don’t understand. Victory can be getting up another day and continuing to walk with Christ.

Our victory isn’t found in our own ability. It is found in Jesus.

Whatever we face, we don’t face it alone. Christ is with us, and He is greater than anything we will ever encounter.

The world may tell us that we need to be strong enough, smart enough, or capable enough.

God tells us to depend upon Him.

Romans 8:35-37

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us!  

1 Corinthians 15:57 

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!  

There is Nothing God Can’t Handle

There is great comfort in knowing that nothing comes into our lives that God doesn’t already know about.

This doesn’t mean God causes every painful thing that happens. We live in a fallen world where sin and suffering exist. But nothing is outside His sovereign knowledge, and nothing is beyond His ability to redeem.

God knows tomorrow. He knows our trials. He knows our needs. He knows the problems, struggles and circumstances we face. 

He understands and has not been caught off guard. He has not left us on our own. He is providing for and supporting us every moment.

1 Peter 5:7 

by casting all your cares on him because he cares for you.  

He Is Our Hope

Knowing God is in control changes how we look at life.

We don’t have to know what tomorrow holds because we know who holds tomorrow.

We don’t have to understand every circumstance because we know the One who does.

We don’t have to have all the answers because we know the One who does.

Our hope is not found in our circumstances, or people, or even ourselves. 

Our hope is in God.

So let us take what we know and truly believe it.

God is good, sovereign, faithful, and always with us. 

God will strengthen, sustain and hold us. He holds everything in His hands. 

Whatever we face, we can trust Him. For He holds tomorrow and we know Him.

And that is enough. Move from just knowing to believing Him in your heart.

Trust Him. Know Him. Claim His promises. Hold onto Him through all of life.

Psalms 42:5 

Why are you depressed, O my soul? Why are you upset? Wait for God! For I will again give thanks to my God for his saving intervention. 

Romans 15:13 

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

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