Overcoming Uncertainty

One morning I walked into my boss’s office and sat down.  From the way he was looking at me I knew it wasn't going to be a pleasant conversation.  We began to talk and at the end of the meeting I found myself packing up my office and catching a ride home from an employee.  My company truck had to stay and I had to go.  After 9/11 the business I was a part of was about to fold and they could no longer keep me on their payroll. I was a victim of downsizing. I had seen it happen to other people, even close friends, but now it was happening to me. 

I walked into the house with my box tucked under my arm and I began to weep.  Kristy came over to me and asked me what had happened.  I told her that I just lost my job. I had a mortgage, a car, a wife, a 2 year old son and no income.  I was devastated to say the least, but I had decided that it wasn’t going to get the best of me. The very next day I began searching for a new job. I woke up everyday with a pressed shirt and determination in my step to find more income.  However, at the end of four months I had no job and no more savings. It was right then that I began to doubt!  I began to doubt myself, my decisions and my God. 

We all have stories like this in our life.  We come to the end of the road and the unpredictability of life sneaks up on us leaving us to question what is going on. 

Life actually is fair.  It will bite all of us at one time or another.  Deuteronomy 28:66 says it this way; “So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life.” There have been seasons in our life that we could not have said it any better!

We often say, “God, why did you let that happen to me?”  We begin to doubt God because He has let us down. 

In actuality what happens is that we have put our trust in every other thing except God.  We put our trust in our own abilities only to be let down when we don’t perform the way we should.  We put our trust in other people only to be let down when they aren’t there for us in critical times. We put our trust in our money only to be let down when the well runs dry.  Children who have suffered abuse from their parents doubt any other relationship that comes into their life.  People who have been divorced doubt the next love of their life.  People who have watched a loved one die doubt the reasoning behind it.  Everywhere we go it seems like doubt is always there to welcome us home. Life just has a way of making us doubt.

It is easy to blame God when bad things happen.  We tend to view God as some sort of cosmic vending machine that is supposed to keep everything in order for us so that our lives can remain as comfortable as possible.  But God doesn’t work that way.  Actually God uses doubtful situations in our life to draw us closer to Him.  God’s desire is to move us away from artificial faith and into authentic faith. 

Artificial faith is anything man made and we tend to put our trust in those things. The things we can create and control because they are tangible.  Authentic faith, however, is a faith that cannot be shaken by any of life’s circumstances.   Why would God allow us to camp out in our artificial faith when we could have the real deal? 

He loves us enough to move our faith beyond our circumstances.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways declares the Lord.  As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”  Isaiah 55:8-9

In moments of uncertainty it is impossible for us to know what God is doing in our lives but as long as our trust is in Him then we have no reason to doubt our circumstances.  Let’s move beyond the artificial and into the authentic faith that God is good and He is who He says He is. He is on your side.

He is our strong tower. A place of refuge and strength.  Psalm 61:3