08
Living In The Cone of Uncertainty
Jon Burgess“and if you say, ‘No, we will go and live in Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the trumpet or be hungry for bread,’ then hear the word of the Lord, you remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there, then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow you into Egypt, and there you will die.” Jeremiah 42:14-16
Like the leaders who approached Jeremiah we will often declare obedience to Gods instructions but what we're looking for is God's agreement. Obedience and agreement are not the same thing. They felt certain they already had the answer for the future and it was escape to Egypt. Jeremiah makes it clear that when fear is writing your future the only thing you can be certain of is destruction. Fear becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy- "if we go to Egypt we won't be destroyed". Faith was calling them to listen to the actual prophecy- "if you stay you won't be destroyed". The very thing they wanted to avoid they actually walked right in to. We often do the same. When we don't obey God's leading in the present tense, whether we agree or not, then our future gets really tense because it's filled with uncertainty led by fear.
Meteorologists are on the main stage in our country right now. Where most of the time we pay the weatherman little mind, all eyes are on them and we hang on their expertise as they track the trajectory of Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Jose and more. They have being using the phrase "the cone of uncertainty" when describing the different models being used to predict the future of the storm. In hurricane forecasting the current location of the storm is certain, and the future path of the storm becomes increasingly uncertain. When following God if our current location is sincere obedience then our future path will become increasingly certain as well. The moment I begin to make my decisions based on the fear of the future rather then faith in my Father is the moment I enter the cone of uncertainly. Here's the amazing thing about our God- He's not just a weatherman from the outside looking in, He's in the middle of the storm with me. So even when all else is uncertain I can be certain I am right where I'm supposed to be.
Lord, instead of allowing fear to become a self-fulfilling prophecy in my life I'm going to lean in to Your prophetic voice. Instead of looking for your agreement to my pre-made decision I'm going to look for Your direction and obey whether I want to or not. You are both outside the storm and in the middle of the storm with me. I pray that Irma would dissipate and that no lives would be lost in Florida, Georgia or any other place. There is so much uncertainty around me, but in You I can be certain I'm right where I'm supposed to be.
