Even to your old age and gray hairs
    I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
    I will sustain you and I will rescue you. (Isaiah 47:4)

This verse is one of the most beautiful statements in the Bible about God’s care. It has extra meaning now that I have so much gray hair, but it applies to you too even if you don’t have a single gray hair yet.

But there is one danger in dwelling on a verse like this. We may drift into thinking that we’ll have no difficulties…. or at least that if there are any, they will be quickly resolved in the way that we want! We start to think we know exactly how God should act to fix it for us.

Not so fast! Compare our opinion of how we think God should serve us to what God says about his character.

I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
    and I will do all that I please.’ (Isaiah 46:10)

You mean God is not going to take care of my immediate needs?? You mean God might contradict what I know I need and want in my life.

Yes.

I like Tim Keller’s view that when we pray and don’t get the answer we want, God always answers our prayers in precisely the way we would want them to be answered if we knew everything he knew.

I do agree that God always gives us what we would ask for if we understood the whole story.

Personal example: I planned to excel in my age group as a runner as I grew older. I believed God would provide, and if anyone asked how come I was so fast for my age I would give credit to God.

But then, I got a heart rhythm issue a few years ago: persistent afib. My great senior running career plans ended. Now I can only jog, yet somehow it is part of God’s plan. I now tell people that being able to even jog at my age is truly a blessing!

Yes, God is definitely caring for me and sustaining me… just not in the exact ways I initially thought he would.