Trusting God When Everything Else Is Shaken

Even in uncertain times, we can face every trial with confidence, because we trust the God who is for us is greater than anything that stands against us.

There is a saying that “April showers bring May flowers.” Just as rain is necessary in April to water the soil that produces flowers in May, the discomforts we experience in life are the prerequisite for personal growth. It recalls the adage, “No pain, no gain.” Yet, pain is the very thing we seek to avoid despite our awareness that trials produce triumph, tests produce testimonies, and setbacks become setups.

Trials and Trauma

It would be fair to suggest that we live in very trying times. The global order is in disarray, the stock market is in constant fluctuation, corporations and institutions are gripped by the paralysis of analysis, and humanity appears to be in a period of trauma. We need a response to our uncertainty, but no matter where we turn, no one seems to have an answer.

Anxiety fills the air from churchmen to workmen, Wall Street to all streets, and the White House to your house. But anxiety is a symptom of a much bigger issue: a lack of trust in God. When we allow worry to weary us, it is because we have forgotten that God is sovereign, all-knowing, and faithful. He controls everything, knows everything, and is consistent through everything. Therefore, we have no reason to fret or fear, because we serve a God Who stands above His creation while He sustains it, both at the same time. Thus, it becomes our responsibility to remember who we are and Whose we are.

God Is on Our Side

We used to sing a song back in the day entitled Whose on the Lord’s Side? But the better question is, Whose side is the Lord on? In these trying times, we need a protector and a provider. This is why the apostle Paul emphatically asked, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31, NET).

In this battlefield analogy, Paul juxtaposes the participants. One participant is defined (God), while the other is indeterminate (who). God stands on the side of the believer; He is for us. God being for us is “a marker indicating that an activity or event is in some entity’s interest.” In other words, God operates in our best interest. He fights for us against our enemies and adversaries, be they many or few, human or angelic, persons or problems. And He is for us because He loves us (Romans 8:39).

The second participant is not identified. Who stands in opposition to believers and is against us. Someone or something being against us is “a marker of opposition, with the possible implication of antagonism.” Who could be he, she, it, they, or them. It doesn’t matter. Who could be one, one hundred, one thousand, one million, or one billion. It doesn’t matter. Paul depicts God on one side of the battlefield, shielding and protecting us. At the same time, our opponents stand in array as far as the eye can see—prosecutors (v. 32), condemners (v. 33), tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword (v. 35), death, life, angels, principalities, things present, things to come, powers, height, depth, and any other created thing (vv. 38–39). Even with such overwhelming opposition, it doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter who or what opposes us because God works all things together for good based on His eternal purpose and plan to conform us into the image of Christ (v. 28–30). He chose us in eternity, predestined, called, justified, and glorified us. Thus, we live our lives in the present based upon our guaranteed victory in the future, rooted in God’s plan in eternity past.

Don’t Be Afraid

One thing is clear: we don’t know what will happen next week, month, or year, but we know Who does. God has already declared the end of history from the beginning of time, so we must trust Him as His eternal plan unfolds itself right before our eyes.

The media and the markets will seek to stoke anxiety for their purposes, but there is no need to fear; God is on our side. He is for us, and He is with us!

Dr. Isaac Hayes is an Assistant Pastor at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, Illinois, and author of Men After God’s Heart: 10 Principles of Brotherly Love. He also has a Doctor of Ministry degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Follow Dr. Hayes on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube at @RevIsaacHayes.

1. William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1030.

2. Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 801.