We continued yesterday in our series, “Fear Less, Live More; How to Go Through Life in One Peace,” by dealing with the fear of the future.
We dealt with the common reasons why we’re often afraid of the future. The two that are on the top of my list is that we’re afraid of the future because we fear losing control. That really is almost laughable, given the fact that there is not much in life that we do control. We don’t control events, we don’t control markets; we don’t even control our own health in many ways. But we do control our choices. And those choices do indeed help create a bright future, or a future that looks bleak and hopeless, because much of what we think about the future resides in our mind and heart, not in the cold, hard facts.
We also fear the future because we fear the things we don’t understand, or are not familiar with. That’s why we often fear people who have different religions, or skin color, or background; not because those people are bad, but simply because they are unfamiliar. They are not the things we have grown accustomed to. So when you put those two things together – loss of control and the lack of familiarity – the future often arrives with its own intimidation factor built in.
From God’s perspective, the future is bright. So yesterday we talked about the future from God’s perspective. When I was a kid going to church, I learned two hymns that have stuck with me all these years: “This Is My Father’s World,” and the little ditty, “He’s Got the Whole world in His Hands.” I’ve learned as an adult, that’s more than just Sunday School truth; it’s real truth.
Another hymn I learned is, “Standing On the Promises.” And so yesterday I talked about the five promises that God makes about our future. These aren’t religious ideas, ideas only for church, or good sermon material. This is truth and reality. Identify them and work them into your life and you’ll never regret it.