Unanswered Questions: Navigating Anxiety and Finding Peace in an Anxious World

Living in the information age provides lightning-fast access to a flood of data and facts. The web surveys every imaginable topic, allowing us to discover virtually anything that we want to know. Our microwaveable, instant-download society has conditioned us to believe that everything we want to know should come easily and swiftly through the tap of a screen or the click of a mouse. It can also produce anxiety.

Although God has given humans all the greatest ideas and inventions from His brilliant mind, no amount of searchable human knowledge replaces a relationship with Him. We need to seek Him always. We are amazed by His god-ness when He does the miraculous and unexplainable. Yet, we are devastated and begin to question His goodness when witnessing the unfathomable.

Did He somehow stop being God or cease being good? That question is too grand for an internet binge to satisfy. In the end, information overload and quick access to whatever we want to have created a state of feeling constantly in control. Although this is an illusion, we are now haunted when we cannot explain why certain things happen, or we are helpless to fix them. Unanswered questions fuel our anxious society when we sense we have lost control.

Craving Closure for Unanswered Questions About Anxiety

We seek the omniscient God when we pursue unanswered questions. He is the only one who possesses all knowledge and wisdom to answer the unexplainable (Isaiah 11:2). It can be frustrating to want answers and closure for the heartrending happenings in our lives.

Our attempts to make sense of events, emotions, and experiences are part of the curious nature that God Himself planted in us (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Yet, our desire for closure from painful circumstances can overwhelm and frustrate us when God does not give the response or resolution we want.

When we insist on our right to know, demanding that God give an account for His will, it can position our hearts to oppose Him. We may have inclined our ears to the accuser’s subtle influence. He suggests that God is unfaithful or is withholding goodness from His beloved children.

When we agree with the view that tempted Adam and Eve to lose sight of their abundance, we breed discontent and anxiety about what we do not know and cannot change. We operate from the posture that God owes us something, invariably hardening our hearts toward Him.

Abundance or anxiety?

Lucifer did the same before he and his fallen angels were evicted from heaven for presuming that they were wiser than God (Isaiah 14:13-15). Later, those devastating consequences hit the earth when Adam and Eve agreed with his deceit, coming in the form of a serpent.

They believed that God was depriving them. They trespassed into forbidden territory, sampling what was off-limits to commandeer their own knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:1-6). It was not that God did not want them to have knowledge at all. He wanted them to obtain all knowledge through a trusting relationship with Him, not by means that they secured apart from Him or in their own strength.

While there are areas where we can experience an abundance of the Holy Spirit’s revelation, wisdom, and understanding, there are times when God does not furnish answers to our unanswered questions, for the things that we cannot explain.

What will we do then? What about the things that we do not or cannot know? We can choose anxiety, allowing anxious thoughts to disrupt our trust in God. Alternatively, we can choose to trust God’s pattern of faithfulness. It is often said that when we cannot trace the Lord’s hand, we must trust His Heart. Although that is not a verse, it does ring true through the unfolding narrative of God’s word.

The Maker and Mystery

For now, we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known. – 1 Corinthians 13:12, NASB

Throughout Scripture, God unveils events to come and enlightens us about the present. Yet, there are other times when he holds back an explanation. He leaves us in mystery, as when He informed Daniel to seal the scrolls or John to simply stop writing what the Lord revealed (Daniel 12:9; Revelation 10:4, 22:10).

It is God’s sovereign privilege to illuminate, providing details about the future’s mystery. On the other hand, they were told some revelation would remain unwritten. God was as good in His choice to share as in His decision to withhold the information.

As much as we are like Him, we are not God. He will always be our Father. Mercifully, our maker shields us from evil, and sometimes He buffers us by what we cannot see. It is part of a journey of faith to grow in Him and rely on Him when we could otherwise become anxious about what we find mysterious and unexplainable.

At times, God reveals knowledge or information in advance or immediately because we need to know. Other times, He reveals answers to our questions over time. Sometimes He is silent. He requires that we trust His heart, even when we do not yet understand. Otherwise, how could we cultivate childlike faith if we could navigate without His guidance and genius?

God is a loving and kind Father. Sometimes, the experiences that we endure do not have an explanation that we can process mentally. Even if we could understand, the explanations might not satisfy anyway. They might evoke more questions or lead to attempts to help Him “fix” things. The unanswered questions underscore this truth: God remains God in all circumstances, both good and bad.

His sovereignty is not separate from His goodness. In His authority, God works the unlikely for His ultimate purpose (Romans 8:28). His aim is for our ultimate good, though the evidence may not make sense until we can see it through the eyes of eternal perspective.

Scripture can offer insight, even as we have a hunger for closure from upsetting circumstances. The word provides peace that settles us from within, although life storms may continue to rage outside. The Bible confronts the anxiety in us in the face of adversity, suffering, and trials.

Elicit curiosity

Call me and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. – Jeremiah 33:3, ESV

We have a choice to cultivate a holy hunger to learn God’s character and ways. Developing a curiosity about His mysteries invites us into fellowship with Him and counters our anxious thoughts. He gives us a desire to discover with Him. As He exposes us to His wonders, we develop humility and appreciation for the One who knows all.

Embrace the journey.

And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. – Jeremiah 29:13, NASB

What is God inviting us into? Sometimes, He employs a lack of closure to spur us on a new journey, leaving anxiety behind. The Lord may be drawing us into a new and different experience that will offer some insight into a previous season. If we resist moving forward, we miss what He wants to reveal.

Embody peace

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:7, ESV

In this turbulent world, it is essential to guard our hearts and minds with God’s peace. With God’s help, what we believe can protect our minds from the toil of anxiety, worry, stress, and fear.

Jesus’ example on the boat with His disciples demonstrated how we can endure stormy encounters in the seas of life (Mark 4:39). Wind gusts and waves may be tossing us, yet He has the power and authority to release His stillness. His words of tranquility, received first in our own hearts, empower us to extend that abundant peace to others.

Next Steps for Countering Anxiety

While what you may have endured experiences that have no answers, the peace of God gives grace for what you cannot explain or control. God, as your Father and Wonderful Counselor, desires to walk you through the valleys where it seems that you have nothing (Psalm 23:4).

Please know that you do not have to cross this terrain alone. There are qualified and empathetic counselors to support your journey amid unanswered questions. Reach out to us today, and we will help you connect with someone on our site to walk alongside you. As you embrace your own experience, God’s peace will still the storms inside and out.