How To Respond To God’s Secret Will?

We generally do not like ambiguous situations, but we prefer clarity. People tend to be curious about their future and want to be clear about which job they should choose without any regrets later, or who they should marry, or they like to know if their sickness can be cured, or whether their children will grow up well to have a bright future, or even when this COVID pandemic will end. And when there is no clarity in all these, people get frustrated.

As Christians, we also want to know God’s will for us so that we can obey Him well. But when we are unable to clearly discern God’s will, we feel stuck and even scared of making a wrong move. However, even if believers pray sincerely and humbly seek God’s will, sometimes His specific will for us is still not clear. That often left us wondering why won’t God give us more specific directions? What do we do when God’s will remain a secret and unrevealed?

God has His “secret will”.

1) It is God’s glory to conceal matters.

(Deut 29:29) “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”

(Prov 25:2a) It is the glory of God to conceal a matter.

Indeed, to be able to conceal matters makes God more superior and wiser than humans. Only God has that kind of glory to know things which mortals do not know.

While we may not like the idea of God knowing everything while we are ignorant of some, actually:

2) Being kept in suspense may not be all bad and knowing may not bring peace either.

One of our misunderstandings is the belief that if we can know everything then we can feel at ease. In fact, that may not be the case. Think about it, so what if we know certain things? Can we always change or avoid them? Will knowing bring us peace? For example, if a person knows clearly which job he should go for, will he then be in complete peace? Not really, he may still worry about whether he can fulfil the job demands and click well with his new colleagues. Or, will we be perfectly happy if we know everything? In fact, sometimes what we know makes us fear more. For example, if God reveals to a person exactly when he will contract a terminal illness or the day he will lose his loved one, from the day he knows he will start losing joy and feeling uneasy. Thus, we must trust that for things we need to know, God will let us know; but if God should withhold any information from us, that is because we do not need to know yet, or knowing also won’t benefit us. In fact, God does not want us to build our peace on the foundation of “known, or good outcomes”, but He wants the foundation of our peace to be He Himself.

Sometimes in our dealing with people, we also don’t let them know everything in advance for their benefit. For example, when parents handle their children, they will teach the children to behave and study well, but the parents will have a “secret will” in their minds that in the event the child misbehaves or scores poorly in school, the parents will also not punish them too harshly. However, the parents may keep the child from knowing the light consequences, or else the child may not be serious in behaving or studying well since there is no dreadful consequences. Likewise for God and us, if God reveals His secret will too early, there may be things we fail to learn well or take seriously enough. Thus, sometimes a certain degree of suspense may be good.

So if it is indeed the case where there will surely be things we do not know or will not have clarity over, then what should we do?

Focus on God’s “revealed will”, instead of His secret will.

Now, when we do not know the secret will of God yet, it means that for now, God wants us to focus on His “revealed will”. The Bible says that “the things revealed belong to us… that we may follow all the words of this law”. Thus, what God has revealed are meant for our obedience. And God’s revealed will are things He already make known to us through His Word. From the Bible, we know that it is God’s will for us to love God and not be conformed to the world, to set our minds on things above rather than things on earth, to love our neighbours as ourselves, preach the gospel and save souls, imitate Christ and live out the kindness, justice and righteousness that God delights in. In fact, if we are not even submitting to the revealed will of God now, so what if we know God’s secret will for things that will happen in the future? If we are not prepared to obey His will now, what makes us think that we will follow His will in future? Thus, even as we do not know God’s secret things, we should still be faithful to obey God’s revealed will. In fact, the Bible tells us that God has already let us know everything we need to know for a godly living (2 Pe 1:3).

God wants us to pursue faith more than clarity.

When there is a lack of clarity of God’s will now, it means that God wants us to have faith, not clarity. In other words, we must learn to trust God’s secret will, even if it is still unclear and unknown to us now. Until God reveals His secret will to us, we shall walk by faith and not by sight (2 Co 5:7). We do not need faith in things we already can see or already know. But when there is uncertainty and a lack of clarity, we have no choice but to cling onto the God we know and trust that He will work all things for the good of those who love and trust Him (Ro 8:28). We may not know everything but can we trust that it is good enough that the God we worship knows everything and is in control of all things? Even if things are unclear to us, God’s promises are sure, and we take comfort in God’s sovereign goodness.

The way not to be anxious in the unknown is to put God’s Kingdom first.

In (Mt 6:34), Jesus told His followers, “Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Usually, people worry about tomorrow because they do not know what will come their way. It is in God’s secret will how a person’s tomorrow will turn out. And it is natural for a person to feel anxious since he cannot be sure how his tomorrow will be. Yet, to those who believe in God, Jesus said they need not worry. However, Jesus also didn’t give a blanket promise, for before (verse 34) on not worrying about tomorrow, there is (verse 33), which says, “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness”. Therefore, if a person is seeking God’s Kingdom today, then his tomorrow will be taken care of by God.

Dear friends, we may not know exactly what we will encounter in our lives on earth, but we can be sure that this world is not our home and heaven is our secure destination, if we put our faith in Christ. Thus, even if God’s secret will is still unknown to us, we can rest assured on the promises He already revealed to us; and what He reveals, He expects us to obey.