How to Trust God With an Uncertain Future
Green Light Faith - Abraham's Call | Ben Markham

Ben Markham • Lead Pastor
July 20, 2026

8 Minute Read

Most of us spend a good deal of energy trying to remove uncertainty from our lives. We script the vacation, plan out the next few years, get detailed about as many things as we can, and quietly hope nothing catches us off guard. Certainty feels like safety. So it may sound strange to hear someone say they have no desire to live a life without uncertainty. But that is exactly what learning to trust God with an uncertain future has taught me. A life without uncertainty is a life that would not require faith. And a life of faith, as much of it as I can live, is simply a better life. When you look closely at Abraham, you see this at work. Abraham embraces uncertainty, while fear, by its very nature, tries to remove it. echo through the entire chapter for a reason worth understanding.

Faith Embraces Uncertainty. Fear Tries to Remove It.

Here is the difference in a single line. Faith embraces uncertainty. Fear attempts to remove it. When God called Abraham to leave everything familiar and go, Abraham went, even though he did not know exactly how it would unfold.

I want you to hear this from me: I do not want to live a life without uncertainty. That might sound a little funny at first. But a life scrubbed clean of the unknown would be a life with no room left for faith. There are some things I would honestly rather not know. I do not need to know what tomorrow brings. That is a hard thing to sit with, and some of you are reading this thinking, "You don't understand. I script my vacations."


Is It Wrong to Want a Plan?

No. There is a real difference between being a person who likes to be prepared and being a person who is trying to eliminate uncertainty altogether. Preparation is good. I work hard on a message before I ever stand up to preach it. And yet there is a part of me every single week that says, "Lord, I don't know exactly how this is going to go. I just have to trust that it will be what You want it to be." I can prepare all I want, and there is still an element of faith. I never want to remove that. I just want to keep trusting God with the outcome.


What Happens When You Stop Scripting Everything

Years ago I ran into a man I deeply admired, Dr. Jack Hayford, who has since gone to be with the Lord. He pastored a church called Church on the Way in Van Nuys, California, a bilingual, deeply evangelistic church that grew to something like eight to ten thousand people. He was known as a man of tremendous integrity. The first two years of my Bible college were actually through his school, one of the original online programs for Christian students, and it was what I had available to me at the time. I got the chance to meet him and be shown around a little.

We were making small talk, and he asked where I was from. I told him Michigan, and that my dad lives in Cadillac. He said, "Oh, I've been there." I could not figure out how a man in California had been to Cadillac, Michigan, so I asked him. That is when he told me how he and his wife vacation now that he is close to retirement. They pack bags with versatile clothing, drive to the airport, look up at the board, and decide where to go based on whatever the next flight happens to be. One of those flights had carried him into Grand Rapids, and he drove north until he landed in my hometown.

Some of you read that, and it makes you shake. You are thinking, "I do not want a vacation like that." This is not about getting you to travel differently. What I want you to see is that there is something exciting you get invited into when you embrace uncertainty. When you can say, "We do not know exactly how this will work out, but we know we have heard from the Lord to obey Him," it becomes exciting, because you get to watch Him do something only He can do.


The Best Decision We Ever Made

This is how God has worked in my own life. When my wife and I were in our early 30s, we began to feel like God was bringing our story in Michigan to a close. It was where we were from, where we had lived our whole lives, where I had pastored for about twelve years. I just knew it was not there anymore. God had made that clear through a variety of means: His Word, other people, and our own prayer time. It was time to go.

Some people I trusted sat us down and made sure I understood what I was leaving. They said, "You are at a church with its own Christian school. You have two boys, two and four. You can raise them in a wonderful Christian school, probably for free. Your wife is a teacher, and they will give her a job. You have earned all this trust and credibility over ten years. Why would you leave that?" Then they asked, "Do you even know where you are going to live in Florida?" We did not. We were going to stay temporarily at a pastor's empty house. "Do you know where your kids will go to school?" No. "Do you know where your wife will work?" No. "What are you thinking?"

I said, "I think God's got it." They said that seemed irresponsible. I said, "It's called faith." I have come to believe that if we have a few fill-in-the-blank questions left in our lives, He likes to fill them in Himself, and then He likes to get the glory and the credit for it. To live a life where He gets the glory is a better life. It is not about what I was able to pull off. When God says go, we go.

We were young. We were basically kids, a little family that jumped into a 1998 Chevy Malibu convinced it would make it to Florida. It did not. It broke down in Valdosta, Georgia. Our boys, Max and Malachi, were so small then. On our very first Sunday, Max had a total meltdown and could not be brought up on stage, but little Malachi was there, and God started something that day. When I look back, I can only say that He wrote a better story than I would have. He wrote a better story than I would have, and I am confident He is still doing that.


Is the Center of God's Will Really the Safest Place?

My wife and I have tried our whole lives, because of the people who discipled us, to stay in the center of God's will. But one of the great lies that gets caught more than it gets taught in the church is the phrase, "The safest place is in the center of God's will." Let me step right on that. The safest place is not the center of God's will. Hear me carefully. It is the most fulfilling place. It is the right place. But it is not the safest place.

When God called Abraham from Haran to Canaan in Genesis 12, He was not calling him into safety. He was calling him into faith. We get so obsessed with keeping everything as safe as possible, wanting every part of life secured and settled. God has not called us to live safe lives.


Faithful, Not Fearless

Did Abraham still struggle with fear? Of course. When he stepped into new territory, he was the one who said, "Let's tell them you are my sister." He was not a fearless man. But he was a faithful one. In the big moments, when God said get up and leave, he got up and left everything he knew and every connection he had.

That is the invitation, and it comes with a cost. You do not get to experience the benefits of faith without paying the price of obedience. Trusting God with an uncertain future will not guarantee that everything will feel safe. What it offers is better than safe. It is the chance to watch God write a story you never could have written on your own, if you are willing to get up and go when He says go.

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July 20, 2026 • 8 Minute Read
How to Trust God With an Uncertain Future
Most of us spend a good deal of energy trying to remove uncertainty from our lives. We script the vacation, plan out the next few years, get detailed about as many things as we can, and quietly hope nothing catches us off guard. Certainty feels like safety. So it may sound strange to hear someone say they have no desire to live a life without uncertainty. But that is exactly what learning to trust God with an uncertain future has taught me. A life without uncertainty is a life that would not require faith. And a life of faith, as much of it as I can live, is simply a better life. When you look closely at Abraham, you see this at work. Abraham embraces uncertainty, while fear, by its very nature, tries to remove it. echo through the entire chapter for a reason worth understanding. Faith Embraces Uncertainty. Fear Tries to Remove It. Here is the difference in a single line. Faith embraces uncertainty. Fear attempts to remove it. When God called Abraham to leave everything familiar and go, Abraham went, even though he did not know exactly how it would unfold. I want you to hear this from me: I do not want to live a life without uncertainty. That might sound a little funny at first. But a life scrubbed clean of the unknown would be a life with no room left for faith. There are some things I would honestly rather not know. I do not need to know what tomorrow brings. That is a hard thing to sit with, and some of you are reading this thinking, "You don't understand. I script my vacations." Is It Wrong to Want a Plan? No. There is a real difference between being a person who likes to be prepared and being a person who is trying to eliminate uncertainty altogether. Preparation is good. I work hard on a message before I ever stand up to preach it. And yet there is a part of me every single week that says, "Lord, I don't know exactly how this is going to go. I just have to trust that it will be what You want it to be." I can prepare all I want, and there is still an element of faith. I never want to remove that. I just want to keep trusting God with the outcome. What Happens When You Stop Scripting Everything Years ago I ran into a man I deeply admired, Dr. Jack Hayford, who has since gone to be with the Lord. He pastored a church called Church on the Way in Van Nuys, California, a bilingual, deeply evangelistic church that grew to something like eight to ten thousand people. He was known as a man of tremendous integrity. The first two years of my Bible college were actually through his school, one of the original online programs for Christian students, and it was what I had available to me at the time. I got the chance to meet him and be shown around a little. We were making small talk, and he asked where I was from. I told him Michigan, and that my dad lives in Cadillac. He said, "Oh, I've been there." I could not figure out how a man in California had been to Cadillac, Michigan, so I asked him. That is when he told me how he and his wife vacation now that he is close to retirement. They pack bags with versatile clothing, drive to the airport, look up at the board, and decide where to go based on whatever the next flight happens to be. One of those flights had carried him into Grand Rapids, and he drove north until he landed in my hometown. Some of you read that, and it makes you shake. You are thinking, "I do not want a vacation like that." This is not about getting you to travel differently. What I want you to see is that there is something exciting you get invited into when you embrace uncertainty. When you can say, "We do not know exactly how this will work out, but we know we have heard from the Lord to obey Him," it becomes exciting, because you get to watch Him do something only He can do. The Best Decision We Ever Made This is how God has worked in my own life. When my wife and I were in our early 30s, we began to feel like God was bringing our story in Michigan to a close. It was where we were from, where we had lived our whole lives, where I had pastored for about twelve years. I just knew it was not there anymore. God had made that clear through a variety of means: His Word, other people, and our own prayer time. It was time to go. Some people I trusted sat us down and made sure I understood what I was leaving. They said, "You are at a church with its own Christian school. You have two boys, two and four. You can raise them in a wonderful Christian school, probably for free. Your wife is a teacher, and they will give her a job. You have earned all this trust and credibility over ten years. Why would you leave that?" Then they asked, "Do you even know where you are going to live in Florida?" We did not. We were going to stay temporarily at a pastor's empty house. "Do you know where your kids will go to school?" No. "Do you know where your wife will work?" No. "What are you thinking?" I said, "I think God's got it." They said that seemed irresponsible. I said, "It's called faith." I have come to believe that if we have a few fill-in-the-blank questions left in our lives, He likes to fill them in Himself, and then He likes to get the glory and the credit for it. To live a life where He gets the glory is a better life. It is not about what I was able to pull off. When God says go, we go. We were young. We were basically kids, a little family that jumped into a 1998 Chevy Malibu convinced it would make it to Florida. It did not. It broke down in Valdosta, Georgia. Our boys, Max and Malachi, were so small then. On our very first Sunday, Max had a total meltdown and could not be brought up on stage, but little Malachi was there, and God started something that day. When I look back, I can only say that He wrote a better story than I would have. He wrote a better story than I would have, and I am confident He is still doing that. Is the Center of God's Will Really the Safest Place? My wife and I have tried our whole lives, because of the people who discipled us, to stay in the center of God's will. But one of the great lies that gets caught more than it gets taught in the church is the phrase, "The safest place is in the center of God's will." Let me step right on that. The safest place is not the center of God's will. Hear me carefully. It is the most fulfilling place. It is the right place. But it is not the safest place. When God called Abraham from Haran to Canaan in Genesis 12, He was not calling him into safety. He was calling him into faith. We get so obsessed with keeping everything as safe as possible, wanting every part of life secured and settled. God has not called us to live safe lives. Faithful, Not Fearless Did Abraham still struggle with fear? Of course. When he stepped into new territory, he was the one who said, "Let's tell them you are my sister." He was not a fearless man. But he was a faithful one. In the big moments, when God said get up and leave, he got up and left everything he knew and every connection he had. That is the invitation, and it comes with a cost. You do not get to experience the benefits of faith without paying the price of obedience. Trusting God with an uncertain future will not guarantee that everything will feel safe. What it offers is better than safe. It is the chance to watch God write a story you never could have written on your own, if you are willing to get up and go when He says go.

Ben Markham

Lead Pastor