Living with Confidence in Uncertain Days

Have you ever planned and prepared, believing you could control the outcome? Me too! I find security in my well-laid plans. I think if I try hard enough, I can accomplish most goals. However, I am learning I cannot control the future. Life happens. Sometimes others interrupt my plans. Often an unexpectant event will rearrange my day. When circumstances do not unfold as envisioned or when my dreams come crashing around me, it shouts how little I can truly control.

Recently on a beach trip with the Grands, I was reminded of this truth. The grand-girls wanted to construct a sand castle. They worked hard as they dug into the earth. They persuaded PopPop to help with the building process. They created a pit and allowed water to fill its borders. However, within time an unexpected wave dashed their hopes and dreams. After all their hard work, their plans were destroyed in one quick sweeping motion.

Trying to control an uncertain tomorrow is like trying to capture the ocean one handful at a time.

So what is a gal to do when her world is full of shifting sand? How do we plan for the future when everything keeps changing?

Here are a few things that are helping me!

First, I must remember that though I may be self-controlled, I am not in control.

Yes, I plan and prepare, but I do not control my or anyone’s future. This is the role of our heavenly Father, not me, and not you. So, friend, maybe we should relax and let Him take care of us. He’s got this, and He has our best interest in mind.

Second, I have to trust God in the bad times as I do in the good.

My world is ever-changing, but this is not my dream home. My heavenly Father is preparing a perfect place, and He invites you and me to live forever with Him. “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” John 14:2 (ESV)

Third, I believe that God is God, and He is good, so I choose to trust Him. He loves me even more than I love myself. He loves my children more than I do. When I do not understand His hand, I choose to trust His heart.

Ladies, plan your days. Make wise choices, but do not waste your time, energy, and emotion trying to control the future. When we build our life on shifting sand, our life will end in chaos. Matthew chapter seven gives a clear picture through a parable about a wise and foolish builder. One builds his house on sand, the other on solid rock.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Matthew 7:24-27 (ESV)

We can choose to build our life on the solid rock of Jesus Christ and his word. His word never changes. He is a firm foundation, even when things around us are shifting. He is the solid rock. He is in control. No matter what happens around me, of this, I am sure - we can live with confidence in uncertain days by trusting Him.

“The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” Psalm 18:2 (NIV)