Life is “...a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14).

We all thought we understood that life is filled with a lot of uncertainties – and then we had the pandemic. We told ourselves that we could be content with less – and then we had the pandemic. We said we wouldn’t worry about our health or jobs or toilet paper – and then we had the pandemic.

For most of us, the uncertainty of the pandemic was what made it hard. Will there be food in the stores? What will this do to me financially? What will the government do? Will a loved one or I get sick? Who will die? Like all physical challenges, the temptation is to fail to see these as faith challenges.

Faith challenges are not won by ignoring physical challenges. Physical challenges test whether we will maintain and use our faith as we navigate them. It is about who or what we will consistently trust. It is about who or what we look to for certainty.

Knowing what we know. “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Can you send out lightnings? Does the eagle mount up at your command, and make its nest on high? Have you an arm like God?” (Read Job 38-41). God is God and we are not! There are things we know, but there are many things that we simply do not know. God is our certainty in an uncertain world.

Knowing what we don’t know. One of the keys to trusting God is the ability to recognize our limitations. Note James 4:13-16:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”

We can’t know what will happen tomorrow. “If the Lord wills…” takes certainty out of our own hands and puts it in the hands of God Who knows everything. God is our certainty in an uncertain world.

Knowing Why. When things don’t go according the script we have written for our lives our minds race to ask, “Why?” It’s a tough question, but believe it or not it has little, if any, relevance to what we are talking about. Did you know that, as far as we know, Job never found out why he suffered. No matter what happens, uncertainty in the world doesn’t change that God is our certainty.

Knowing our faith. Is our faith just a collection of facts and rules swirling around in our heads or is it a conviction of trust that makes us what we are and that dictates what we do? “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith…” (2 Cor. 13:5). Don’t just let life happen. Live and overcome in life by looking to God for direction, depending on Him for everything. God is our only certainty in an uncertain world.

- thinkonthesethings.com