Uncertainty?

We can all relate to the notion of uncertainty. We all face trials and challenges that force us to make decisions that affect our future well-being and livelihood.

No one knows the intricate details of his or her life beyond the present. We have desires, goals, and reasonable expectations for the future but no guarantee about the fulfillment of these ideals.

Only within and through the pages of scripture can we obtain any certainty of future events. Even there, however, God speaks only on a global scale. God exists outside of time and space and sees the past, present, and future simultaneously. He authored a book through the hands and minds of over 40 different individuals yet a single coordinated message, the Bible, through which we can know Him and learn from Him.

We discover how He created the world and everything in it. We observe the entrance of sin into the human race and the resulting corruption of His perfect creation.

We learn about God’s plan to eradicate sin and death and save humankind from impending judgment. From our perspective, although the details of our lives are an ever-developing narrative, the ending is sure.

Jesus fully paid the penalty for our sin when He died on the cross and defeated death through His resurrection. Because of His sacrifice, we need not fear death. For those who know Jesus as Lord and Savior, to be absent from the body is to be with Christ (2 Corinthians 5:8).

How glorious is that!

When we are overwhelmed by life’s circumstances or a decision we must make, we should turn our eyes toward God, as King Jehosaphat did (2 Chronicles 20)

He was under siege by three opposing armies, completely outnumbered and helpless before them. He gathered Judah and presented his case to God. Please read his entire prayer below because this is awesome.

⁵ And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, ⁶ and said, “O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. ⁷ Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? ⁸ And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, ⁹ ‘If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you—for your name is in this house—and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.’ ¹⁰ And now behold, the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt, and whom they avoided and did not destroy— ¹¹ behold, they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit. ¹² O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

Did you hear that! Humility in the face of an almighty God. Often we need that attitude today. Pride overwhelms us to our undoing. Amid everything that we must endure in this lifetime, let us always acknowledge the sovereignty and power of God.

No matter how challenging and difficult our lives become, we can always look to God and say as Jehosaphat did,

“We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
-2 Chronicles 20:12 ESV