Can I Trust God to Keep Me Safe?

We need to talk about the elephant in the room.

It might be the biggest question keeping the average person from coming to God, and to be honest, it keeps many believers paralyzed, too.

Can I trust God to keep me safe?

We need to talk about it because we can all see the obvious—that the answer is no. We are not safe at all, at least not according to our own, quite reasonable definition of safety, which the dictionary defines as protection from injury and loss. Life hurts, and the walls of the church offer no immunity from that. None of us gets through this life without being subjected to injury and loss of many kinds, and for some, the waves of hardship and heartache are so relentless it can feel as though pain is the very essence of what it means to be alive. How can we possibly believe God is trustworthy when life looks and feels like this?

In the face of facts like these, it seems logical to conclude that either God does not exist, or He cannot be trusted. What other option could there be?

When I look around at creation, I, along with many others, find it untenable to conclude that God does not exist. But if those of us who believe He exists are going to claim He is still both powerful and good in spite of the evil in the world, then we owe our brothers and sisters, and ourselves, an honest look at how this could be possible. We need to finally face this unspoken question of how God could be trustworthy, and we need to do it together.

But… there’s another question we must ask along with the first: What exactly are we meant to be trusting Him for? If God’s promise to us is safety—our lives going well and protection from tragedy— then the answer is clear. But what if safety wasn’t the promise?

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33

Jesus actually promised we would have trouble in this life, and that we’d even experience an extra measure of it if we choose to follow Him. Everyone born into this broken world has inherited this trouble (and contributed to it). Those of us who have chosen to follow Jesus have actually signed up for it.

Could God protect us from suffering? Yes, and sometimes He does. (There’s no way to know how very many times He already has!) But He won’t always. I can only presume this is because sometimes enduring something difficult is worth the deeper purposes it can accomplish. I don’t say that flippantly. God doesn’t mercilessly subject you to things in a cold, harsh, “for-your-own-good” (but really not) kind of way. He cares for you deeply and tenderly, down to the smallest detail of your life. He numbers the very hairs on your head. He never takes the pain of his children lightly. But like a parent who sometimes allows his child to stumble and fall, or refuses to grant requests that are in his power to give but not in the best interest of his child, our heavenly Father is looking out for our good in a higher, more complete way than simply keeping us from discomfort or even pain. A child cannot always understand such a thing in the moment.

Lord knows a child’s skinned knee might pale in comparison to what you’ve endured. It can be pretty hard to swallow that the God who was powerful enough to intervene, didn’t. It can be almost unthinkable to face such a fact, because it whispers to the deepest places of your heart what it has always feared, the same lie that was whispered in the Garden— that God doesn’t really love you. It is easier to conclude from your pain that God must not exist at all.

But might I gently propose a third option, one I wonder if a corner of your heart has been aching to believe all along, one you might still hope could be true?

What if He has intervened? What if He is at work even now? What if God does have some unfathomable way to redeem your situation, and this redemption is so good that it could somehow even outweigh the pain you’ve endured? What if He’s been keeping you safe in a higher way you can’t yet see? What if He has been there all along, walking right with you, reaching out for you?

What if He loves you?

I am certain God is real, and I believe with all that I am that He is good, because I’ve tasted and seen that goodness, and it is not dependent on circumstances. It’s who He is. Should unthinkable tragedy strike my life tomorrow, I don’t think I could deny His existence or His goodness, not because I am any sort of super Christian, but because it is who I know Him to be, no matter what madness takes place in this small window of time we call life.

The truth is, God will not always keep you safe. But He will:

• Hear you, and answer when you call. (Sometimes this will be an affirmative answer to your requests. Sometimes the answer will simply be His presence.)
  
  “Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.” Isaiah 65:24
  
  
• Comfort you.
  
  “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3
  
  
• Be your shelter through the storm.
  
  “The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.” Psalm 9:9-10
  
  
• Bring you safely into his heavenly kingdom, if you place your trust in the saving work Jesus did on the cross.
  
  “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” 2 Timothy 4:18
  

In Jesus, we have the promise of eternal life. The trials that feel so monumental here will one day seem much smaller when we can view them in light of eternity, where we will be healed, whole, and never touched by pain again. If temporary heartache might help us get there, wouldn’t it be worth it?

Our good Father is more concerned with protecting us from eternal dangers than from temporary ones. He cares about us— our lives, our hearts, the things we love. But He does not want us to turn any of those things into idols that we love so much they keep us from Him. Sometimes our losses are necessary to cut the strings that tie us to things other than Him. He knows those things won’t hold up forever and they won’t hold the weight of all our hopes. Only He can hold you up, and He longs to! He’ll do whatever it takes to be near to you—even suffer greatly on your behalf, and permit some suffering in your life, too.

The trials we face are tough and the storms are strong. Your pain is real, and it matters. But in the midst of your trials, would you dare to hope— to trust— that the God who made you has not abandoned you? He will protect you from everything you truly need protection from, including idols and your own wayward heart. He’d rather allow our hearts to break so He can heal them permanently, than for us to live our brief lives in perfect safety and die having placed our trust in everything else that couldn’t really keep us in the end.

God really is good. And He really loves you.

Can you trust Him to keep you safe from earthly harm and heartache? No.

But can you trust Him anyway? Yes.

Because the promise was never safety. The promise is Himself, and there is nothing better.

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“You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me…in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?” Psalm 56:9-11

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

“It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” Deuteronomy 31:8

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” Psalm 32:8

“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.” Isaiah 40:29

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” Isaiah 43:2

“For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” Isaiah 54:10

“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. “ 1 Peter 5:10

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Romans 8:18

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:37-39

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’” -Revelation 21:3-5