How to Walk with Confidence When You Don’t Know the Way

You can walk with confidence even when you don’t know the way by trusting the God who does. Learn three reasons you can walk with confidence, even when you don’t know the way.

In August 1998, at the beginning of my senior year at Ole Miss, I sat with a roommate watching news of the embassy bombings in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We knew nothing of those two cities, which seemed so far away and remote. Though I was beginning the process of becoming a missionary overseas after graduation, East Africa had never crossed my mind. I had no idea that exactly one year later, I’d be living in Nairobi and a dear friend would be working directly with victims of the bomb blast.

I met her the first day I arrived in Africa. An occupational therapist, she had come to Kenya to help those whose sight had been damaged that day. She taught them skills for coping in a city with few sidewalks, and she ministered to their families, too.

I always think of her when I read the words of Isaiah 42:16, which says, “I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths will I guide them…”

Because that’s exactly what she did.

She went into parts of Nairobi that few expat people dared and helped those who couldn’t see find their way around. In my mind’s eye, I can still see her walking with someone, helping them count the steps from the door to the street or carefully navigating the muddy pathways in certain parts of town.

And I think of the impact that had on their lives. People who had seldom left their homes became more mobile and independent. They learned to walk with confidence even when they couldn’t see the way.

Because she walked with them.

To be honest, until today, I hadn’t thought of my friend in quite some time before the words of Isaiah brought her back to mind, but I am so very thankful they did.

Because lately I’ve been walking blind.

Haven’t we all?

From one day to the next (or one moment even), we have no idea what’s coming next. Covid seems under control then it spikes again. Cancer treatments get cancelled or surgeries postponed. Jobs are uncertain. Money is tight.

The world we are facing today would have been unrecognizable two years ago.

And we still have to walk in it.

We have to wake up every morning and face whatever comes our way.

And some days, that’s enough to tempt me to pull the covers up higher and hold on to the kids tighter and choose not to get up or go out.

But oh the things we would miss if we did!

I’m not talking basketball games or birthday parties.

I’m talking ways made in the wilderness.

Verse 16 of Isaiah 42 goes on to say, “I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.”

The God who goes before you will also go WITH you.

And he will do miracles, y’all.

That’s why we can walk confidently when we don’t know the way.

Because He does.

Isaiah 41 is full of promise for those of us wandering in the wilderness.

First, we can walk with confidence because we do not walk alone. Isaiah 41:10 says, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.”

Whatever you’re facing today, you are not facing alone, but don’t take my word for it:

• Psalm 23: 4 says, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”
• John 14:16-17 says, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The wold cannot accept him, because it neither sees him or knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”
• Zephaniah 3:17 promises, “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”
• And Jesus’s last words to his followers in Matthew 28:20, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

So, see? God is with you.

But he is also for you.

Isaiah, 41:10 goes on to say, “I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

You’re not in this alone, and you do not have to do it alone.

God will give you strength.

I need strength, y’all. And a nap. I’m not going to lie. I need naps. Lots of them.

Because I am worn out.

I’m busy all day, and I don’t sleep all night. And it wears me out.

But…

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:28-31)

I may be exhausted, but God is not.

And he will renew my strength, or as Tony Evans puts it in this video, he will give me “new strength.”

I may feel like I am trudging through the wilderness today, but the truth is: “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.” (Habakkuk 3:19)

Because he does miracles, y’all.

Yes, we’re back to that. It’s the reason my family and I can face this season with hope.

Listen to the words of Isaiah 41:17-20:

“The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs. I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set junipers in the wasteland, the fir and they cypress together, so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that they Holy One of Israel has created it.”

You see, I truly believe that not only is God making a way through the wilderness for us, he is growing great things, too.

I would be lying if I said I knew what, but I’m okay with that.

Because “our God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…” (Ephesians 3:20)

As we walk through the unknown terrain of my husband’s cancer treatments, God will lead the way. He will make a way. And he will do mighty things in the meanwhile.

“…to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:21)

For further encouragement to walk with confidence:

• Trusting God in the Unexpected
• How to Handle Unexpected Changes in Your Life
• No matter what you’re facing, God is in control.
• 4 Ways to Find Freedom in the Fact God is in Control
• God is good. All the time.