Neither you nor I need to be reminded that there is plenty of uncertainty in our world.

The things that we once thought we could depend on, far too often fall short of our expectations.

One clear area of uncertainty is that of finances.

I was reminded of this on a very personal level last week when I received a piece of mail regarding my home mortgage. I always make my payments in full on time, so I knew that I had no concerns there.

As I read the letter I found that my loan is now being serviced by another company. In our day with banks and other financial institutions merging and changing ownership frequently, I did not think it odd to find out that I would now be making my monthly payments to someone else, but it did seem a bit strange to me that I received the letter after the transition had taken place.

Thankfully, contact numbers were given for both the old company and the new, so I proceeded to call to find out what to do since I had already sent my payment in early to the original lender—and after the surprise change of servicing that I had no clue about.

I found another surprise when I called the old company and no one answered. The picture got even fuzzier to me when I called the new company and got a recording that stated that they were not taking calls.

With my curiosity at a heightened state, I did an Internet search and found an article from The Wall Street Journal that was published very recently that helped me make sense of the whole deal: my old mortgage company (which is not some obscure outfit but a large, well known and much used one) had suddenly filed for bankruptcy!

What does all this mean for me?

Hopefully nothing more than surrendering my funds to a different financial institution each month.

Will I lose anything?

I really do not think so. (After all the painting and remodeling I have done recently, I plan on being here for awhile!)

It does, however, remind me that there are so many things in our world that we thought we could trust, but we cannot.

Thankfully, though, we can rest assured that God is unchanging and is always in control.

The Bible assures us of this in Numbers 23:19: “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?” (NIV).

In like manner, the New Testament also assures us of the trustworthiness of God: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, Who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17).

If we focus too much on the numerous and rapid changes, uncertainties and disappointments in our world we can become fearful and depressed. But if we will give our attention and devotion to God’s trustworthiness and proven reliability, we can experience His joy no matter what happens in the world around us.