When Life Is Uncertain, God’s Promises Are Not

I’m in the early stages of a new chapter in my life. In fact, most things in my life feel like they’re in their infancy.

My husband and I have become empty nesters, sold our business, moved, made many new friends, and joined a new church.

Now, I’m building a career as an author, and just this week, I also launched another business, Cancer Care Package, created to bring comfort, encouragement, and hope to people facing cancer.

We’ve even started doing some crazy things, like dressing up as pirates and performing on stage a few times a year to raise money for foster children. Who would have seen that coming?

And with all these changes come uncertainty, confusion, and often doubts and insecurities.

Don’t get me wrong. I love it!

But when nothing looks the same as what you’ve known before, and you’re walking an unfamiliar path, you sometimes feel unsure of what you are doing and of where you are going.

My husband and I like to say we’re throwing spaghetti at the wall these days just to see what sticks!

So, this is what I cling to: This path may be unfamiliar to me, but it is not to God.

I might not know where it’s leading or always see clearly. And what I think success looks like might not be success at all.

In the past, I measured success by sales.

But yesterday, at a book signing event, I met a young mother of five who was shopping for my new book, Cancer, This Means War. She had just finished treatment for breast cancer after discovering her cancer while breastfeeding her baby.

As we talked, I felt God’s presence so strongly. I shared words with her that God had spoken over me eight years ago when I faced breast cancer myself. Words of hope, encouragement, and truth that had carried me through some of my darkest days.

I signed copies of my book and workbook for her.

As she was leaving, she told me she thought maybe the reason she had come to the festival that day was just to meet me.

I felt the same way.

It was a divine appointment.

I knew God had prepared that path for me. Not to sell a bunch of books, but to meet her. To cry with her. To pray with her. To share the hope God had given me eight years ago.

And that brings me to a promise in Scripture that has become a lifeline for me lately.

Isaiah 42:16 says:

“And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.”

I love this verse, but it became especially meaningful to me when I looked at the original Hebrew.

In the King James Version, God says, “These things will I do.”

But the Hebrew words can also be translated as, “These things I have done.”

Not I might do. Not even I will do. I HAVE DONE. I know. Wow!

The Hebrew uses a verb form that describes completed action, even though God is speaking about what He promises to do for His people.

It's a powerful expression of certainty. God speaks of His promise as something accomplished.

He will lead His people on paths they don’t know, turn darkness into light, and make crooked places straight. And He will not forsake them.

His promise is not a possibility. It’s a certainty. Firm. Settled.

I don’t know about you, but I need that reminder.

When I’m confused, He knows the way. When I can’t see what’s ahead, He can bring light into the darkness. And when the road seems impossible, He can make a way.

I think about that young mother I met yesterday. Eight years ago, when I was going through my own cancer journey, I had no idea God would one day use my experience to encourage others going through the same thing.

But He knew.

I may not understand where every unfamiliar path is leading, but I can trust the One who does.

My uncertainty doesn’t change the certainty of His promises.

My part is to stay close to Him, walk in faith, and follow where He leads, even when I can only see the next step.

So, if you’re in a new season, facing uncertainty, or wondering how something impossible will ever work out, hold on to the promise in Isaiah 42:16.

God knows the path, even when we don’t. And when He makes a promise, we can count on Him to keep it.

And while I may not know exactly where this new chapter is leading, I’m so grateful that the Author of my story does.