Psalm 32:7, “You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah”

Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of need.”

John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Trouble. Oh man, there’s enough of that going around for everyone, everywhere a thousand times over, and sometimes it comes in singles, or triplets, and other times in droves and herds.

From the small trifling town of Greatly there was the Trouble family, making the Greatly Trouble family a most well established clan in the area. There was Big Trouble who was married to Pretty Petty Trouble, and they had a child who’s name was More Trouble. Pretty Petty Trouble also had a sister, and therefore a niece named Even Worse Trouble, whom they called “Even” for short. The Trouble family were always bad news, no one was glad to see them and all sighed the sigh of great relief when they left the party. They were always in the middle of some turmoil, in fact, they seemed to literally breathe drama, and they were constantly in the middle of arduous uncertainties. Oh yes, the arduous uncertainties.

There is a subtle dread to even saying, “arduous uncertainties”.

The Bible is absolutely filled with stories of people who faced arduous uncertainties — long, grueling periods of not knowing what would happen next. It seemed to involve prolonged waiting, intense trials, and what appeared to be even silence from God, or what i would call “life altering unknowns” which severely tested their faith. So, for you and i, what will we do in the middle of our times and seasons of arduous uncertainties? And it’s real easy to quote someone a bible verse or two that, if they’d just believe this or that, their troubles would be over. Maybe they are technically correct, but often their scripture quoting is really hard to do. Jobs friends did that and Job called his friends actually no friends at all and the worst counselors there ever was. Job 16:2. But i tell ya’, when we are in the middle of a terrible storm, the mast has snapped, and God appears to be asleep, the miracle that is about to happen doesn’t look much like a miracle until it happens.

“Arduous” meaning steep, difficult, and requiring strenuous effort, and “uncertainty” is the lack of sure knowledge concerning the future outcome of something. It is not just not knowing, but suffering through the not-knowing over time, often with high personal stakes. In other words, if things don’t go like i hope and God doesn’t come through like i wish, i am doooooomed.

We love to quote Psalm 116:2, “Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live“, which is absolutely true, but in the late hours between awake and asleep, we toss and turn and worry to God. We know Jesus is the answer, but actually trusting God to supply help to us in our time of need and us actually coming to full rest in that … Well, yea, that’s another thing in itself.

Many are wholly disturbed in their inner most person. Yes, arduous uncertainties sift through our thoughts and dreams. We love to quote Romans 10:12, “… for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him“, which is absolutely true, yet, there we are in the mirror with worry lines on our down turned faces.

The idea of arduous uncertainties captures seasons where God’s promises seem distant or impossible — like Abraham waited decades for a child, Joseph seeming he would likely perish in prison, regardless of prophetic dreams, and the longer he was there the farther away the possibilities of those dreams would come true. The Israelites wandering 40 years in the wilderness even though God made daily provision, yet they constantly doubted about the promised land, and the longer they were in the wilderness, the farther away the idea of promised land became.  i’ve had my share of arduous uncertainties, but i need to say, 40 years, 40 years! of not merely uncertainty but arduous uncertainty is beyond my ability to even imagine.

For us today, arduous uncertainties might appear as years of job instability, on going chronic illness possibly without diagnosis, many in what i would call “relational limbo”, even global crisis that just drags on and on. The idea of the phrase captures pretty well seasons where God’s promises seem fairly distant or even impossible. Friends, if God said it, we can stand on it.

But think, what is the end result if we trust God as He asked? i believe it all builds resilience, and profoundly builds faith. When clarity is absent, when we don’t know what tomorrow brings, the testing refines our character through sustained pressure. The arduous uncertainties strip away any illusions of control we might have had and builds a deeper understanding of our absolute dependence on God for growth and fulfillment in Christ beyond what we were, of ourselves, able to imagine.

In those long trials, through thick and thin, beyond high and low, we come to see Proverbs 3:5-6 as one of our stabilizers, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.”

One author wrote, “If we don’t learn how to look to God and rely on God, it will be difficult to see the work God does in us, and if we can’t see these things, then the matter of whether or not God exists, whether or not He guides everything in our lives, will, in the depths of our heart, will likely always end with a question mark. Not with a period or an exclamation mark but a question. If, by doubt, distraction, or becoming mired in arduous uncertainties, if we don’t allow our own true belief in God to rise, then the question marks will forever be there with everything God does, and there will be no periods.

God’s absolute, infinite goodness is everywhere. He is not influenced by any people, events, or things, or other distracting elements of this life which we habitually give more power to. As long as we truly rely on God, He will be our ever-present help. It may take a while of struggling forward in faith, but stand firm, He was our ever present help in the beginning, He is our ever present help in the now, and he will be our ever present help in the future. Just as the Bible said, Psalm 18:2, and believe this, “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” That is the truth and i’m not lying. Jesus is Lord and there is not another.

Let us get rid of the question mark at the end of our thoughts about God’s goodness and trustworthiness, and let Him be who He is: God.

i’m Social Porter with Living In His Name Ministries