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Trusting God With The Uncertainties Of Life

Trusting God With The Uncertainties Of Life

Last updated on: September 28, 2026 at 4:55 pm by Michele Howe

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Trusting God With The Uncertainties Of Life 2026-09-28T16:55:32-05:00 Michele Howe

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God - Our Shelter In Every Storm

God – Our Shelter In Every Storm

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Psalm 2: 12b

We like to serve from the power position. We’d rather be healthy, wealthy, and wise as we minister to the sick, poor, and ignorant. But people hear the gospel best when it comes from those who have known difficulty. If we preach God’s Word yet have little personal familiarity with suffering, the credibility gap makes it difficult to speak into others’ lives. But our suffering levels the playing field.

Randy Alcorn

After yet another long, lingering, cloud-covered winter where we transitioned immediately from cold to hot, I was so ready for the sunny relaxing summer to begin. But God had other plans. That sentence alone puts the fear of God into my heart and soul because the closer I edge toward the age of sixty-seven, I have learned from experience that God most often uses pain, suffering, and unexpected upsets (of all sizes, shapes, and colors) to mold me into the image of Jesus.

The happily naïve and ever hopeful me began marking off the days on the calendar as I anticipated June, July, and August…the months when my husband has a reprieve from teaching and coaching. Summer: those precious days and weeks when we squeeze in fun and frivolity with family and friends on a more consistent basis.

In Life And Death Christ Is Present

However, June started out with a wee hour of the morning voicemail from my father who wanted me to call him as soon as possible. Nothing like receiving a cryptic voicemail first thing in the morning to get one’s heart rate rising. The long and the short of it was that my then eighty-year-old mother had three brain aneurysms one of which had just burst and all three of which would eventually require brain surgeries. Fast-forward following the ten days my mother first spent in the ICU to a six-week recovery period before the second surgery was completed. That almost fatal incident (and others like it) has been descriptive of my life for the past several years.

To be precise, our family has grieved the loss of three dear loved ones who took their own lives leaving family and friends struggling to make sense of the immensity of their pain that compelled them to give up on life completely. My son moved across the country and his recent wedding landed right after my mom’s first brain aneurysm surgery and ICU stint.

In Trials And Suffering Christ Holds Us Close

For my part, I was experiencing troubling physical symptoms that required multiple uncomfortably (read: painful!) tests to determine the problem (and remedy.) I freakishly contracted cellulitis in my index finger after being pricked by a thorn while weeding which required yet another powerful course of strong antibiotics. All the while my two primary freelance jobs had ceased due to editorial and magazine shifts. To say that I felt a sense of free falling in every area of life is an understatement.

Just as I was regaining my emotional equilibrium one of my dearest friends fell hard in a parking garage and broke her hip right after we had parted ways after attending an evening baseball game. I awoke the morning after our lovely evening out to a distressing phone message telling us that my friend had fallen minutes after we had said goodbye and was in a local hospital awaiting hip surgery. The painful irony is that my friend and I had been discussing how difficult aging is…and she had just undergone a DEXA scan that very morning to determine if her osteoporosis had progressed. Honestly, because of the circumstances I felt a wee bit shell-shocked myself about the whole situation as I was again reminded of the frailty of life.

Our Weakness Is God’s Opportunity

Each of these situations contains their own specific challenges and solutions. Alone any one of them may be considered traumatic. Adding all these scenarios together is what tips a normally cool, calm, and collected woman over the edge. Physically. Emotionally. Mentally. Spiritually. To be clear, I thought I was handling everything (everyone) just fine, thank you very much.

Until, that is, I began awakening in the middle of night with heart palpitations and my days had me feeling irritable, and sometimes weepy. All three are my personal tells that I need to rest and regroup. Easier said than done when you’re A) a woman. B) a caregiver. But God. This is the precise moment in time when God reminds me (again and again and again) that He isn’t counting on my strength to cope and get the job done. I’m counting on His power and strength to see me through today (and all my tomorrows.)

* * *

I often refer back to the quotation above by Randy Alcorn because I need frequent reminders of its truth. We all do want to love and serve and minister to those around us from the “power position.” We want (expect?) to be healthy, wealthy, and wise as we seek to meet the various needs of those we love. But in the real world, God often allows us to suffer some pain and endure seasons of genuine weakness smack dab in the middle of our responsibilities and callings. I hate that.

God Does Provide For Our Every Need

I truly want to be able to give my best in service to others…but please don’t expect me to serve while I’m sick, weak, emotionally drained, or feeling not up to the task. When I’m feeling bombarded by bad news from every side, I long for God to shelter me in his loving arms. The very last thing I want is to sense God nudging me out and about into the battlefield of service.

But I’ve learned something in the past several years. There are seasons of rest and everyone needs them. Then there are seasons of service when we are forced to lean in hard to receive the grace that God promises and put the full weight of our trust in Him as we seek to meet others’ needs through God’s strength and power alone.

God’s Power Flows Through Us

In those situations where we are called upon to go beyond what we believe we are capable of doing, we are necessarily activating and strengthening our faith muscles and God is pleased. I have to honestly ask myself if I truly believe the promises God has made to supply all my needs (Philippians 4:19) not in a purely material sense but in regard to giving me the strength to serve despite my inherent weaknesses?

This begs the next question then…do I trust God with the uncertainties of life? Only when I accept what God allows (the good, bad, and unexpected) and trust Him as the Blessed Controller of all things can I sleep in peace and awake with the confidence that God is and always will be my shelter in the time of storm. Because He is. Because He always will be.

Take-away Action Thought

When I feel overwhelmed by unexpected pain and suffering, I will grab hold of a promise from God that will remind me that God promises to never leave or forsake me.

My Heart’s Cry to You, O Lord

Father, Only You can fully understand how hard these past months have been and how shaky I feel inside. Each day, I am expecting to hear another tragic story or another heartbreaking scenario of loss and suffering. Please shelter my heart and mind against evil ponderings. Help me to follow your command in the Philippians 4 to think about that which is true, right, noble, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. I cannot change these life events, but I can choose to focus on You and Your promises. I choose to rest in You. Amen.

Faith Steps

I will search for God’s promises that reassure me that He is my shelter in time of storm and write the verses out to carry with me today.
I’ll look for someone who needs this same kind of encouragement and share the verses with them via email, phone, or text.
Today, I will make a list of ten specific accounts of God’s faithfulness to me and review it every day this week. I choose to be a good remember-er of all that God has done for me.

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About Michele Howe

Michele Howe is the author of 31 books for women, children, and families. She has published over 3000 articles, reviews, and curricula. Her newest book, Brave Faith for Hard Things, helps Christians find the inner strength they need to face down even life's hardest seasons with peace and grace. You can read more about the author here.

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