Temptations in the Wilderness of Uncertainty

What if you lose your job? You’ll be humiliated and probably unemployed for months.

Away from me, What If! Jesus says to live one day at a time and who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? 

Oh yeah, but what if you lose your entire career or your industry shuts down and all your training and experience is worthless?  

Away from me, What If! Jesus taught me that He cares for the sparrow and they do not even sow or reap. He cares for me even more, and He has plans to give me hope and a future. My work is to seek first His kingdom, not my own. 

Oh sure, sure, but what if you lose all your money in savings and in your retirement account and you can’t pay your bills?

Away from me, What If! Jesus told the Rich Young Ruler to sell his possessions, to give them away and come follow Him. He taught us to lay up for ourselves treasures in Heaven not on Earth. I cannot serve both God and money. Jesus is my only Master.

Oh, so what if the global economy collapses and you lose your home, your car, and all your possession and have to start over with nothing? 

I’ve learned to be content in whatever state I am, whether I have abundance or very little. I can be grateful for anything that I have because we have been given better and lasting treasures that can never be taken from us. My Master taught me to keep my life free from the love of money and all the stuff and to be content with what I have because it all belongs to Him anyway, and He will never leave me or forsake me. 

Ha! Okay, okay. Maybe none of that will ever even happen, but what if you get sick and you pass it along to your wife or children or grandchildren and they die. You’ll be responsible for infecting them, and you’ll never get over your guilt or sorrow. 

Away from me, What If! The Bible says that our life is but a breath. It’s a mist, a fleeting vapor, the withering grass that fades, and I know I’m going to die and that my children and grandchildren that I love so much will also one day die, but our hope is not in this world. It’s in the one to come – the one that Jesus has promised to those who love Him. I do love my wife and my family, but I love God and I look forward to my redemption whether it’s now or in the future. My hope is that all of my family and beloved friends will overcome their fear of death by faith in Jesus Christ. 

Ha! What if Jesus Christ is not even real? What if you’re found out to be a fool for believing in a fairy tale?  

Well we humans bet our lives that God either exists or that he doesn’t, and I agree with Blaise Pascal that a rational person would live as though God does exist and seek to have faith in Him. If God does not exist, such a person will have only finite loss, but he stands to receive infinite gains in Heaven and avoid infinite losses, and eternity in Hell.

What If, you’re exposed for who you really are! You’re a liar and a deceiver, and you’ve come to tempt me to fear the future, to rob me of my joy today and to try to convince me to forget my confidence in God. Your true identity has been revealed. All along you’ve tried to disguise yourself as MY VOICE! You’ve met me in this Wilderness of Uncertainty and you have tempted me. You want me to become self-reliant, to find my comfort in my job or security in my bank account or happiness in this stuff. You’re relentless! You’re trying to destroy me by causing me to live by sight, not by faith!

No, no, even more specific, you want me to have faith in the Unholy Trinity – me, myself and I! Pride is not my master and it’s not my friend, but now that we’ve identified who you are and what you’re trying to do, I declare today that you, What If, will never have power over my mind. I recognize your tricks and I replace your thoughts with What IS – the living Word of God which are the thoughts of the Great I Am. His are the promises that began with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that were fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ.  He is the one who knows all that is to come, and He’s been tested and found faithful and true. So my life is free from fear and paralysis that you want to use to control me. Faith has overcome your weak weapons. My foundation is on the Rock of God’s Promises, and in the storm, you are nothing but shifting sand. Today, I clearly hear His Voice! It’s crying out in this Wilderness of Uncertainty, “Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight!” The Prince of Peace is with us, and He’s taken your place. 

Written during the Shelter In Place of the Coronavirus Pandemic.