When life is unsettled, uncertain

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     How do you live, when you don't know what's next? How do you go forward when so much is uncertain? How do you live when the things you desire so strongly have been placed in front of you, you've tasted them, and they've been pulled away? How do you pursue things that might fail, backfire, or be completely turned around, that might never happen?

     Submission. Submission to a God who knows what He's doing and who loves you soooooo much.

     Trust - trust that life isn't greener on the other side of the fence, that He is not nor will not withhold ANYTHING good, best, incredibly, tailor-made perfect from you. Trust that you lack NO GOOD THING, that your Heavenly Father knows what you will and do have need of before you and that He knows how he will meet those needs while you're seeking His kingdom.

     Truth - hard, ragged, sandpaper-rough truth. What does God want me to be doing right now? Truth that He sticks closer than a brother and He understands our anger, our frustrations with this imperfect world, our worries and our weaknesses. Truth that He knows the things that we miss the most - the deep, aching longing, and that He treasures all of our tears in a bottle, that He records all our tossings in His book. He sees our sleepless nights and our anxious thoughts and worryings. Truth that He sees our healing wounds - wounds that still bleed, that He sees both the old and news ones. Truth that He sees our hurts and hears our cries. Truth that the Holy Spirit translates our pleas for help and mercy and love into heavenly language and according to the will of God. Truth that we must come to the end of ourselves for Him to completely fill and use us with Himself.

     Love - loving our enemies, even in face of hurt and disappointment in self and in them. Love when you've hurt and disappointed. Love when patience is a trial and you must thank God through gritted teeth for these circumstances and these PEOPLE! Love, when being tender and kind is the last way you wish to treat the other. Love, because you realize how much you've been loved, and forgiven, and shown mercy, and given peace in the face of rejection of Him, spitting in His face, hating, cursing, denying Him.

     Thankfulness. Thanks-giving, even when life doesn't make sense but you must keep living it. Thanks-giving when your head is full of confusion and your heart of pain, when life is a struggle with no solution at hand. Thanks-giving when you don't know the next step you need to take, but know that understanding and direction will come. Thanks-giving when you are weak and clearly see your weaknesses. Thanks-giving when you have failed and know that you will again. Thanks-giving, because "this is the will of God, in Christ Jesus, concerning you." (1 Thess. 5:18)


     For. . . . . . . . . . . . .isn't life always uncertain? Are any of us promised a tomorrow? Do any of us truly know how this day will end?

"Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God." (Ps. 42:5-6a, 11; 43:5)

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