What does your future look like? Most of us would like to know or have some reasonable expectation of what life will be like in the years to come. In fact, a lot of people spend money on soothsayers, fortune tellers, horoscopes and the like trying to discover the future and prepare for it. We need to remember that the Bible speaks against consulting such mediums. (Lev. 20:6, 27; Deut. 18:9-13; 1 Sam. 15:23; 2 Chron. 33:6) Such things cause us to change our focus from God to men and put our hopes in things that are temporal, not eternal.

Did you know that God is interested in your future? Not just eternity, but the future of your time on earth. In Jeremiah 29:11, God tells the children of Israel, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (ESV) Their outlook was bleak with no vision of anything good to come, yet God had good things in store for them. In effect, God was asking them to trust in Him just as He asks us to trust in Him, today. David did not know his future, but he believed God would take care of him in the best and worst of times. With enemies around him, David would write, “But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times (the course of my life, gk) are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love!” (Ps. 31:14-16, ESV)

Jacob, running from the wrath of Esau, received a promise from God that He would take care of him in life. Jacob put his trust in God and in his later years acknowledged that God had “shepherded” him. (Gen. 48:15) In other words, God took care of a future Jacob could not see. Yet, Jacob’s trust in God was so firm and unshakable that he followed wherever God led him, believing that all would be well. We sing the song, “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow.” Do we? If so, why do we fret over it?

     Elizabeth Cheney wrote,

Said the robin to the sparrow,

“I should really like to know,

Why these anxious human beings

Rush about and worry so.”

Said the sparrow to the robin,

“Friend, I think that it must be,

That they have no Heavenly Father,

Such as cares for you and me.”

 

-Gary Knuckles lives in Briensburg, KY and is one of the preachers for the Briensburg Church of Christ.