Secure While Unsure
Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. Matthew 6:34 MSG
Insight
I have a million questions about the future. I want to know how many days my beloved family friend has left before cancer takes him home to Jesus. I want to know how I will be able to afford graduate school. I want to know if I’ll ever recover from my mental illness. I want to know if my grandparents will find God. I want to know if my uncle will ever be free from addiction. I want to know if I’ll meet my future husband anytime soon. I want to know all this and more.
There is so much uncertainty in this life. There is so much we can’t know until we reach that ever-elusive day called “tomorrow.” No matter how much we worry, there will always be answers that are out of our reach.
We so often make peace into an “if, then” game: if we could only get answers to our questions, then we could live in peace. If God gave us a guarantee that things will go our way, then we could stop worrying.
Thankfully, God doesn’t guarantee that things will go our way. He gives us a far better guarantee: things will always go His way.
Though we can never know what comes next, we can be certain of God’s goodness. His will for our lives is pleasing and perfect—even when it doesn’t seem like it is (Romans 12:2). We can rest in the fact that everything will work out for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28). Our future is good because our future belongs to Him.
It is so much easier said than done to let go of our worries and focus on today. But God, in His mercy, has patience with us as we learn to trust Him and live in the moment.
When we allow ourselves to get tangled up in trying to predict the future, we miss out on a lot. When worries consume us, we can fail to notice the abundant blessings God is giving us throughout our day. When we let our anxiety go unchallenged, we can easily miss opportunities to love our neighbors boldly.
Today, leave the future in the hands of the One who already has it all figured out. Breathe easy, because the God of the future is the same good and gracious God of today.
Reflection
What does it look like to trust God today with your tomorrow?
Prayer
Abba, thank you for giving me assurance that no matter what lies ahead, You will be with me. You are a good Father, so I can rest in the fact that my future will be good—according to Your definition, not my own. You have a better definition of “good” than I could ever dream up. Thank you for writing all my days in Your book, for planning them out so that You could be glorified and those around me could be blessed. God, in Your grace, empower me to let go of my worries and live in peace right here, right now. Amen.
Port City writer Kate Redenbaugh wrote today’s devotional.