4 awesome steps to navigating uncertainty and finding God's will for your life.

"Is this really the church where God wants our young family?" That's the question my wife asked me about a month before our wedding. I was working at a church plant that was about a 45 minute drive from my home, and was actually in a different city. And I was making about a third of what I needed to support my new family. But not feeling certain about how to answer my wife's question, I regurgitated something I've heard other Christian men say - Let's pray about it. 

Photo courtesy of Adam Ooi at Flickr.com

Three days later, my boss asked me to submit my resignation so they could go a different direction with the music. It wasn't the answer to prayer I was looking for. Immediately, I started looking around for church jobs. I must have submitted my resume to twenty different churches in the month before our wedding. Then our wedding day came, and I still didn't have a job. So my wife married an unemployed musician. I'm sure her family was thrilled.


We all face moments of uncertainty in our lives. Our marriages, careers, finances, even our own wants and dream can shift with the wind at times. And if you call yourself a follower of Jesus, you likely know that you're called to trust God to call all the shots, even during times of uncertainty. We even have a Bible verse that becomes our mantra for uncertainty. 

"You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed." Psalm 139:16

The way God works through uncertain times to make our lives better is always amazing. But we typically only talk about how amazing God's faithfulness is when we're looking at uncertainty in the rear view mirror.

While you're living in unsure times, things can just be downright uncomfortable. And as you're working toward trusting God, it can be tough to know exactly what to do. So if you're going through one of those times right now, or you know someone who is, here are the things that have taken the power away from uncertainty, reassured me of God's promises, and even find His will for my life.

Keep moving forward. This is a line from the Disney movie Meet The Robinsons. It's also a great mantra for overcoming feelings of doubt and defeat. When I lost my job a month before my wedding, I was thinking about these words. It was what helped me get up and back on the wagon looking for a job. And it was the simple persistence of moving forward that God eventually used to bring me to Moon Valley Bible Church. 

Pray while you're on the move. I put 'keep moving forward' at the top of the list for a reason. People have a horrible tendency to procrastinate when they're scared. For Christ followers, this often looks like spending ridiculous amounts of time praying for something, while not taking the clear and necessary steps to move forward. Once you've started taking productive steps with your marriage, job, financial situation, or whatever, prayer becomes the essential ingredient. Because the only thing worse than praying yourself into paralysis is taking big action without looking to God for direction.

Don't rule anything out. The solution is often exactly where you won't think to look. When I was looking for a job, it was a pastor friend of mine who said, "have a look at Moon Valley Bible. Their worship pastor just resigned." The worship pastor he was talking about was a guy by the name of Jeff Merry. He's the president of WorshipNet and Worship!Arizona, and a very reputable church leader in my community. I thought there was no way he'd be leaving his church. And if he was, I was sure there was no way I would be able to fill his shoes. But God thought otherwise, because Jeff has become one of my closest mentors and I have been filling his old role for the last three years. 

Talk to someone who has what you want. When I was searching for job as a worship leader. I didn't just talk to other worship leaders. I spoke with guys who were supporting their families with their worship leader jobs. If you're family is depending on you, then you owe it to them to make the best of your time. That probably means not investing in conversations with people who can't give you useful advice on how to get what you need. 

These are just a few of the things that have helped get the wheels turning as I've looked for God to lead me through uncertain times. But I want to know what's worked for you. 

Please leave your best tips for dealing with life's uncertainties in the comment section below.