Predicting the future

My times are in your hands (Psalm 31:15).

Forecasting the weather is hardly an exact science.  Meteorologists go to college for specialized training.  There are satellites in orbit and data collection stations scattered over the landscape.  There are powerful computers equipped with sophisticated programming.  Yet despite all of our advances, predictions for the weather over the next 24 hours is sometimes wrong, three-day forecasts often miss the target, and looking more than a week into the future is usually a waste of time.

Some years ago, scientists concluded that accurate weather prediction would always be impossible.  This is because the weather is influenced by more things than any computer or forecasting model can fully take into account.  Weather patterns are affected by wind-blocking hills, the temperature of lake water, snow on the ground and pollution in the wind, zones of differing air pressure, the radiant heat given off by a city or industrial complex, as well as many other things.  All these elements combine in unpredictable ways, meaning that only general trends can be forecast, and only a short ways into the future.

The same is true when it comes to predicting the financial market.  Prices fluctuate based on fear and confidence, supply and demand.  Just one piece of bad news can quickly cause a drop in the stock market.  Who can predict when an oil refinery might go off-line because of a terrorist attack, pushing up gas prices?  How can you anticipate the amount of business revenue lost due to a major winter storm or a hurricane that makes landfall?  As with meteorology, economics will always be an inexact science where predictions are often little more than educated guesses.

It would be nice to know what the future holds.  Accurate weather forecasts can save lives.  Good economic predictions could protect livelihoods.  But there is simply too much chaos at play in the world to permit accurate forecasting.  Thankfully, the future is in God’s hands.  He knows what’s going to happen.  He offers you the safe haven of His mighty arms so you don’t have to know the future in order to feel secure. And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28).