You, too, may have heard it all your life. God is in complete control of everything.

But, oh how that rubs when the crud of life comes your way.

What do you tell a young woman who is pregnant with her first child when her husband of less than a year abandons her?

What do you tell the wife of a pastor who is shot dead on his church campus while serving the needs of his congregation on his day off?

What do you say to the woman who has served God all her life but now fights a fatal cancer that is eating away at her bones?

All three of those women talked with me recently about their unanswered questions. All three of them today have an intimacy with God that I long for. And all three of them are leaving a legacy…not just in their life but in the lives of others. They are proof of what happens when God sees your tears.

As I wrote my book, When God Sees Your Tears, I had to grapple with those questions we still struggle to comprehend. And while I don’t have answers this side of heaven for some of your hurts, I do know this: God knows every detail of your life. He hears every one of your prayers. And He is already working to bring about His desired purpose for your life.

But what if God’s desired purpose doesn’t sound real attractive to you right now?

It rubs against our pride when we consider that God will do whatever He wants to do with our lives, and He doesn’t need our permission or understanding in the process. So if God is going to do what God is going to do, we might as well surrender to the plan and partner with Him for His glory and our ultimate joy. That’s right. The Bible says “joy” awaits those who “remain” in His presence or surrender to His will (Psalm 16:11, John 15:10-11).

So how do we remain in Him when we’re stuck in a situation we don’t like?

1. Trust God With Your Entire Story. We often see only a chapter in our lives when God sees the complete story from beginning to end. God also sees what we and others will glean from our story as well as how He can be glorified. That may be something we don’t see this side of heaven. But I encourage you to trust Him with what He has planned that only He can see right now.

2. Trust God’s Timing. Hannah in the Bible is an example of a woman who was frustrated, hurt and angry with her circumstances. She couldn’t conceive a child. And to add insult to injury, she was mocked and ridiculed for it by her husband’s other wife. Yet she poured out her heart to God in prayer and offered back to God what she wanted most in life.

When Hannah finally received her child, she raised him for a few short years and then followed through on her promise to give him back to God. Into a corrupt worship system she surrendered him, but trusted that God was big enough to shield her child from negative influences and bring about His will for her son’s life. God did more than that. He took Hannah’s little boy, Samuel, and turned him into one of Israel’s greatest prophets and priests at a time when the nation was most in need of godly leadership. Samuel anointed Israel’s first two kings and left a spiritual legacy …for both his mother and himself. But Hannah’s little boy never could’ve done that if she hadn’t been desperate enough to offer him back to God and trusting enough to do it at a time when it looked like a ridiculous thing to do (First Samuel 1:21-2:26).

Pour out your heart before this God who knows you and hears you and sees your tears. Trust the process that He is working through, even though you can’t see it right now. And most all, trust what happens when God sees your tears.