Have you begun thinking about THE future? It’s only days till the new year. What would you like YOUR new year to be about? Once you think about this, as dispassionately as possible, it’s not really possible to ‘return’ to what was and it may be questionable to continue what currently is. There’s a bit of unknown related to what influence you will have on shaping our society – what everyone is calling ‘the new normal’ (which seems to be fluctuating by the moment). However, you will ALWAYS impact and influence your world (whether you like it or not, accept it or not – it’s always an ‘is’)!
Having said that … I hope you don’t think or feel powerless, hopeless, and/or helpless. You aren’t! You never are as long as you remember Whose you are. The Word tells us so much about our situation and continually reminds us that if God is for us… who can be against us?. I would remind us all that this means 2 things which only YOU/we can do. The first is to make Jesus your personal Lord and the second is that you use that as your basis to think, speak, and act. The Lord is never ‘out there’ but is always with us… but we must believe this and do what’s at our hand. He gave us a mind – use it. He gave us a heart – let it guide how we use it.
The Bible does talk about our future. In Jeremiah we are told that He (God) has a future for us. Proverbs tells us that while we may plan, it is God who establishes our steps. Matthew 6 tells us not to be concerned, that the Father cares for us. There are over 50 verses related to the future – whether to assure us or to warn us (to be aware and attentive to what’s around us).
All we ever really have is NOW. Yesterday is a ‘was’ and we may have been fruitful. Tomorrow is yet to be when we ‘may be’ fruitful. But now, is now – and we ‘can’ be fruitful. While you can’t change yesterday, you can influence tomorrow by what you do today. If you were to have complete control over your today… what would you want to be and do that would also influence tomorrow? So what is your dream about your/the future? If you don’t have one, perhaps this is the problem? We need to dare in order to dream. But what, exactly, do you lose by daring to dream? Actually… nothing. But we lose the joy and the excitement of anticipation when we don’t dare.
Jeremiah 29:11, AMP
“For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Remember Romans 8:31 – ‘…if God be for us, who can be against us…’. When we have God with us, which we always do when we have made Jesus our Lord, then we are always…. more than conquerors and our future is assured. In a way… the future is a present to open then – just like now is the present to open – now. Which doesn’t mean we can’t influence… the future.
