Trusting God With The Outcome

The perfect family photo never works out the way you want – Instagram vs. reality. We go into family photoshoot sessions with a little stress, but a lot of expectations about the outcome.

In church, we talk a lot about control. We talk about how we’re not in control, that we need to give God control, and that we need to trust God with it. Some of us are happy to relinquish control. We’re happy when someone else takes the initiative.

But what really matters to us isn’t the control, it’s the outcome.

• I do X so that Y will happen.
• I have the conversation, so they’ll change.
• I parent correctly so my kids turn out “correctly.”
• I work hard so I’ll succeed.
• I pray so that God will fix this.

And when Y doesn’t happen, we’re devastated. It even causes us to question God.

Why?

Because we weren’t simply being faithful, we were making a deal with the outcome.

Have you ever given a gift where the other person didn’t respond the way you thought they should? Or maybe someone gave you a gift where you suddenly discovered it was as much or more about your response than the gift?

Living a faith-driven life looks different.

• I do X because X is what God asked me to do.
• I tell the truth because it’s right.
• I love because Jesus told me to love.
• I forgive because I’ve been forgiven.
• I persevere because God is faithful.

James 4
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

The first thing we do with outcomes is assume them. He has the whole thing mapped out, and at the end, you find the outcome. But who’s nowhere to be found? God.

James isn’t criticizing planning or looking ahead, you should do those things. But sometimes we need to slow down or wait, and sometimes that means taking a step of faith, but not in the direction you want.

You can make the plans, but you need to hold loosely to what comes out of them, and trust God with the outcome.

Proverbs 16
9 A man plans his way, but the Lord orders his steps.

We plan, God laughs. God gets the final word.

James 5
Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

Our certainty is in an outcome, but now it’s wealth – money.

We might see the word “wealth” and think this doesn’t apply to us, but it does. Money isn’t the issue, the level of confidence you have in your faith is. James says what we all subtly know – whatever you think it gets you doesn’t last.

James 5
3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.

James doesn’t say, “had wealth,” he says, “hoarded wealth.” Right now, the wealth gap has never been wider, the top 1% hold more wealth combined than the bottom 90%, and most people who are objectively wealthy (2%) don’t think they are.

There’s always another rung on the ladder to climb. And as we lock our eyes on that outcome, something begins to happen. We start trying to buy outcomes.

You can’t control tomorrow, you can’t even control what you have. And you can’t control people to try to make it happen.

So, what can you do?

James 5
7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.

Be patient, wait faithfully. We all love being patient (enter sarcasm here). But we are so impatient because the outcome we have our minds and hearts set on hasn’t happened yet. Impatience reveals something that’s in our heart.

“Why hasn’t this turned out the way I thought I should?”

“I did what I was supposed to do – why hasn’t it paid off?”

James uses some illustrations about what being patient and releasing the outcome looks like:

• The farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop.

Faithfulness is doing what God has given me to do in this moment while trusting God with what only He can do.

• The prophets who spoke. The moment they opened their mouths, their lives got harder.

Obedience is about doing the right thing regardless of the outcome and trusting God with the rest.

• And finally, Job. He did all the right things and didn’t get the outcome.

Faithfulness doesn’t guarantee the outcome you want, but faithfulness isn’t resignation, it’s not just passively shrugging your shoulders.

This is about an active trust. Trust that’s a battle every day. It’s not trusting the outcome, it’s not invoking God as a genie in a bottle to get the outcome, it’s about blessing whatever our outcome is.

It’s trusting the character of the God of the outcome.