Why doesn’t God show us the whole picture ahead of time? Wouldn’t it be easier to avoid pain or make better choices if we just knew what was coming?

In this deeply personal episode, host Nina Pajonas shares a powerful message straight from her walk with God. Through scripture, raw reflection, and spiritual insight, she explains why God sometimes withholds the “why”—and how that’s actually part of His love for us. If you’ve ever struggled to trust God in the unknown, this episode will encourage you to release the need for control and walk forward in faith.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why God doesn’t reveal everything in advance
• What it really means to walk by faith, not by sight

📖 Featuring John 13:7 and 2 Corinthians 5:7

🦋 Reflection questions + a closing prayer

Listen now—and remember: You don’t need all the answers. You just need God.

Born to be a Butterfly © 2025 Nina Pajonas. All rights reserved. The content of this podcast is for informational and inspirational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. For the full disclaimer, visit ⁠ninapajonas.com.

I'm starting today's episode with a question.

Why doesn't God show us everything ahead of time?

Wouldn't it be easier if we just knew how things would turn out?

If we could avoid the pain,

if we could see what's coming and make better choices?

That's what I used to think.

But the Lord taught me something very different,

and I want to share it with you.

So stick with me.

This is going to be a very interesting episode.

Welcome to Born to Be a Butterfly,

where we embrace healing and growth in Christ to experience true transformation.

My name is Nina Pajones, and I pray that today's message ministers to you.

Recently, I found myself wishing I could just know.

Know what's coming,

know how a situation is going to end,

know who will leave or stay.

Know if the risk is going to be worth it.

Have you ever prayed,

Lord? I just want to know what's going to happen.

I have,

and a lot lately because it's been a season of major uncertainty.

So last week I told the Lord,

I wish I knew what the rest of my life was going to look like.

And I'm sure my sisters would like to know what the rest of their lives would look like, too.

I apologize for throwing you guys in there, but I couldn't help myself.

I really didn't expect an answer.

I just spoke out loud in my car about what was on my mind and on my heart.

But then God whispered something into my spirit that shocked me.

He said,

no, they don't.

Because if they did know, they would never get past the bad thing to get to the good that I have waiting for them.

They would see the bad and think,

there's no way I can live through that.

He told me,

they'll think those things,

but they forget that I would carry them through it.

They forget to factor me into the equation.

That's why my children can't know what's coming.

I was stunned.

I actually started laughing because even though I was shocked by the immediate answer,

I knew he was right.

And he's right, isn't he?

We often forget to factor the Father, the Son,

and the Holy Spirit during stressful situations or seasons.

I'm not saying that we do it deliberately.

I know that's not how I received the message he gave me.

He said, we forget to in our humanness,

in our frailties of the flesh.

Sometimes we forget to turn to the one who knows the beginning from the end.

Think about it.

If you could see a painful moment coming,

a loss,

a betrayal,

a closed door,

you might quit before you even got close.

But that hard moment,

that dark valley,

it might be exactly what God uses to shape your character,

deepen your faith,

and lead you to a breakthrough.

We can't skip the hard and still get to the holy.

We want the destination without the detour,

the promise without the process.

But the timeline of our lives isn't just a series of events.

It's a journey with God.

With every step,

we imagine the storm,

but not the Savior. In our boat,

we anticipate the fire, but forget the one who joins us in the flames.

We project suffering, but don't picture the supernatural comfort that will carry us through it.

And that's why God can't show us everything ahead of time.

Because we would analyze the future from a very limited human perspective,

not a divine one,

we would say, there's no way I can survive that.

When God is saying,

not only will you survive,

you'll thrive because I'll be with you the entire time.

Let's refer to John 13, 7 NIV,

where Jesus replied,

you do not realize now what I am doing,

but later you will understand.

How true is that?

How many times in our lives have we looked at something in hindsight and we've said,

oh, wow,

I could see where God showed up in this.

Oh, wow, I can see what God was protecting me from.

Oh, my goodness. If he had answered that prayer and gave me what I wanted,

I would be in a horrible place right now.

meaning we see it so clearly.

Why do we see it so clearly?

Because we have much more information about the situation now than we did then.

That's why in our commitment to Christ,

we have to trust that everything he's doing is for our benefit.

Even if we can't see any benefit,

we're never going to understand everything,

and we have to make peace with that.

When you can say,

I'm not going to understand everything because I'm not meant to,

but I know my God.

I know that he is good,

and that's all I need to know.

When you can say that,

I mean, really say that with faith,

you're in a spiritually strong and beautiful place.

When you can say that with conviction because of your commitment to Christ,

then you are where you're supposed to be.

Then you can move through this life and the waves won't drown you.

Then you can move through this life and you'll be spiritually mature enough to say,

if I don't have it, it's because I'm not meant to because it's not good for me.

My God is good and he knows what's good for me.

I actually came to that point in my life years ago,

and I discuss it in my book From Broken to Butterfly.

I'm going to share two sentences from the last chapter of my book because I can't say it any better now than I did then.

God's will had given me life,

saved my life and brought me back to life,

while my own will always brought death to my doorstep.

How could I think for a second that my ways were better than His?

End quote.

I know that I need the Lord,

and I also know that,

that I trust him with everything.

I don't know what's good for me.

You know, why I don't have all the information.

He has all the information.

God is all knowing I am not.

And another incredibly important fact is I will never love myself as much or as well as God loves me.

That's the truth.

And I hope you know that truth also.

But if you don't, Sister,

hear me when I say this.

Please go to God and ask him to help you with that.

Because the sooner you know that,

I mean really know that,

the better you're going to feel and the better your life will be.

You will run to be rescued by the Savior if you truly understand how much he loves you.

Do you hear me?

I'm going to repeat that.

I am going to repeat that because it bears repeating.

You will run to the Savior to be rescued if you know how much he truly loves you.

But if you don't,

if you do not know how much he truly loves you,

you will hesitate.

And it can cost you so much.

Understand,

Sister,

if you do not understand the depths of God's love for you,

you will fail to run to the Father and go to the Son and consult the Holy Spirit when you're supposed to.

You're supposed to rely on them. You're supposed to be taken care of by your Heavenly Father and by your Savior, His Son.

That is literally what we're supposed to do.

But we'll hesitate if we don't truly understand the depths of God's love.

So if you have any doubts,

if you have any doubts and trust me, I was there once, too,

at the beginning of my journey when I was in rehab and I was coming back to God. I didn't understand why he would want to save me.

I didn't understand why he would want to help me. And I didn't definitely could not understand how he could still love me when I didn't. Even love myself.

I believed that the prerequisite of God loving me was that I loved myself first.

Oh, my God, Sister, I cannot tell you how wrong I was.

He doesn't need us to love ourselves first.

He doesn't need us to get ourselves cleaned up and picture perfect to be near him or to be his child. He loves us as we are at all times.

He will love you in the muck and the mire. He will love you when you're walking in the sunshine. He's gonna love you when you're in your sinful, filthy rags, just like he loved me and mine.

And he's going to love you as he starts taking those sinful, filthy rags off of you, just like he took them off of me. He has cleansed my soul,

and he will cleanse yours. And he will heal your heart and he will renew your mind.

Please understand that. Please know that if you take nothing and else away from this episode today,

please understand that it's so important to me that my sisters in Christ understand how valuable they are to the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings,

to the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Our Heavenly Father loves His children and he loves us all the same. He does not have favorites. He's a good father.

He's such a good father. He's such a good father that he sent his one and only son to come and die for our sins.

That's how much he loves us.

Understand that.

Know that.

And if you don't,

please,

please, like I said,

go to him.

Pray to him and ask him to reveal his great love for you.

Ask him to help you tear down the walls that won't let his love in.

Now, I'm going to ask you to do something,

but I promise it's a lot easier than what I just asked you to do.

And don't do it if you're driving or doing any other activity that you need to concentrate,

or if you need both hands.

Okay, here we go.

Please raise your hand if you created every flower,

every tree,

every blade of grass,

and every animal that exists on the earth.

Okay.

I feel fairly confident that none of us raised our hands after those questions.

So let's continue.

My point is,

we do not know all the variables,

so we don't have all the information to make the best educated decision.

Technically,

every decision we make is like that.

We never have all the information.

We just do the best we can with the information we have.

But I will tell you this.

We need to go to God for the big decisions.

We need to do a better job of going to God and saying,

lord, this is way too big for me to make a mistake.

I have got to bring this to youo and I will not move on this until you tell me what I should do or which way I should go.

I'm going to refer to 2 Corinthians 5,

verse 7.

New King James Version for we walk by faith,

not by sight we talk a lot about trusting God's plan,

but let me ask you,

do you trust his judgment more than your own?

Do you believe he knows what you can handle better than you do?

Do you trust that if he allows something,

it's not to break you,

but to build you?

Because if you do,

if you really trust him,

you'll have faith in what he dictates,

not just what you think you deserve.

Sometimes the broken dream is really just a redirected one.

Sometimes the detour is divine.

Sometimes the answer is no because the yes would destroy you.

We have to walk by faith and not by sight because vision would become a crutch and would hold us back from the victory that God has planned for us.

Do you trust God enough not to know?

Can you be okay with not having all the answers if it means staying close to the One who does?

Let go of the pressure to understand everything.

You don't need the whole picture and neither do I.

If we had it like God said to me,

we wouldn't do anything good with it.

We would let fear overrule faith because we would forget to factor him into the equation.

We don't need all the answers,

we just need God.

Now I'm going to ask you a couple of questions.

What area of your life are you struggling to trust God with because you can't see the outcome?

And number two,

how would your faith change if you truly factored God into every unknown in your life?

Let's pray.

Father God,

thank you for being with us in every moment,

seen and unseen,

known and unknown.

Help us surrender our need for certainty and and embrace the beauty of trusting you step by step.

Remind us that you are in the eternal equation and are always working everything out for our good.

In Jesus name,

amen.

If this message touched your heart,

please share it with someone else who's struggling to trust what they can't see.

And don't forget to follow. Born to be a butterfly so you never miss an episode.

If you would like to learn more about my journey of healing and transformation,

you can get my book From Broken to Butterfly on Amazon.

And if you have any questions or would like prayer.

Please send me a DM on Instagram Born to be a butterfly or email me at ninapajonas@gmail.com.

And just so you know, you can always find my email address in the episode description.

Remember,

the Lord can turn your wounds into wings.

You were born to be a butterfly,