God knows what will happen. God knows how you will mess up. He knows what obstacles you will slam into. He also knows the crazy spiral you'll start spinning into. Thankfully that does not mean God just knows when to grab the popcorn. It means that He knows exactly which tool to place in your pocket long before you need it.
When God places that preparation in your life, you may not notice or want it. David in the Bible probably did not notice that his sheep defending skills would prepare him for a battle with a giant. Protecting sheep probably just seemed like a part of normal life. That same David probably did not want to be hunted for dead by Saul. He was likely very glad later, though, when he encountered all kinds of danger and had already learned to fully depend on God. God did not announce the tools He was giving to David but embedded them deeply enough into his life that he used and continuously used those tools.
God will hand you tools for later that you do not notice as important but do notice. These may seem like normal parts of life such as a talent, hobby, living arrangement, or relative. They don't appear to be especially helpful or necessary until an obstacle or calling finds you, and only then you can see just how necessary those bits of life are that God gave you. Those moments help you see that every bit of life God gives you is especially necessary.
The much less appealing tool is the unwanted preparation. You would never willingly ask for these: tragedy, death, disabling effects of poor life choices, and daily frustrations. They seem like wastes of time and events that only bring harm. However, God would never waste one moment of your life. He has a reason for allowing every difficulty that wrecks you to do so. Sometimes that hardship prepares you to help others who encounter a similar hardship. Sometimes that death is to place you where you need to live to have true life. Those disabling struggles may teach you why you will never again dare stray from God. Those daily frustrations are definitely God's way of teaching you the right way to deal with future similar situations. In those ways and many others God hands us unwanted tools because we will need them later.
God knows what will happen. If you let Him, He will prepare you for it. He will hand you the tools whether you noticed them or not and whether you want them or not. All you have to do is accept and learn from those tools. That is how God will prepare you to use them later.
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