When Uncertainty Comes
And how to deal with it biblically
I wish I knew the future. Or more specifically, I wish I knew my future. It would help me understand how things would be in a year, five years, or more. Of course, I can’t see the future. I’m finite, as we all are. Uncertainty arises in our lives and we immediately wish we could peer into the future to see what will happen. Then, and only then, could our minds be at ease. Then, and only then, could we rest our heads on our pillows.
That, of course, couldn’t be further from the truth. If we had the ability to see into the future, it would create more angst in our hearts and anxiety in our minds. This is why placing our faith, trust, and hope in the Lord is important. We trust the Lord in the present and for our future. As the saying goes, we don’t know what the future holds, but we know the one who holds the future. Better yet, we belong to the one who holds the future in his sovereign hands.
There is a small amount of uncertainty in my life at the moment. Nothing major, nothing bad. Just work stuff! But uncertainty nonetheless because—you guessed it—I don’t know the future. I don’t know what things will look like in the next six months or a year. When I dwell on the uncertainty, my mind goes wild. My anxiety spikes, my fear builds, and my trust in the Lord dwindles. I attempt to handle things on my own and it reveals a lot of pride in my heart. That’s why it’s never smart to dwell on the uncertainties in our lives. We dwell, my friend, on the Lord—the one who makes uncertainties certain. The one who plans all things according to the counsel of his will. The one who establishes the end from the beginning.
I’ve been reading Philippians this week and read chapter 4 yesterday morning. As I thought about the uncertainty in my life—again, not a huge deal—I dwelled on Philippians 4:5-7, “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
We shouldn’t be anxious about anything, including uncertainties, because we know the Lord is close; he is imminent. He is here with us, walking with us through stages of life, holding our hands as we navigate life’s peaks and valleys. But there’s an important note here. The best way to be at ease with uncertainty in our lives—things that ignite anxiety in our hearts—is by praying, making our requests known to God.
One of two things will happen in these dilations. Either we dwell on our anxieties too much that they suffocate our prayer life and keep our eyes off Jesus; or we dwell on the Lord in prayer and that suffocates our anxieties in uncertain times.
What would you like to happen? Do you want your prayer life to suffocate your anxiety or the opposite?
Friends, we never have any reason to be anxious. None. The Lord is with us; he calms our hearts and minds. This doesn’t mean there won’t be moments of frustration or confusion or uncertainty. There most certainly will be. But we know that the Lord is working all things together for our good and his glory. And that is certain.
Amen Blake! If we look back and think about the many things we were so worried about ten years ago, five years ago, or even last week, we can see the Lord’s mercy so clearly, but yet each day we tend to completely forget those past mercies and just focus on the current fears. We are so wretched! Psalm 103:2 is a good one for this, and I’m sure there are many others.
Elisabeth Elliot said this in her book “A Path Through Suffering “, discussing Corrie Ten Boom’s tremendous tribulations:
“Oh, I could never have survived,” we say. Well, we were not asked to. But we could have if the Lord had allowed us to be put in her position, and if we had responded as Corrie did, looking to Him for the next grace. I mean, of course, that we could have survived spiritually. The body they may kill, but so what? Jesus said, “Do not fear those who kill the body and after that have nothing more they can do. I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell” (Lk 12:5). In other words, fear God and become fearless. Nothing in heaven or earth or hell can scare you.
EE had a knack for distilling things down to the absolute truth!