Future

The future is not ours. So why is it that we tend to spend so much time thinking what will happen here or what will happen there, and our anxiousness about all the what if's? You too have been in those situations where things are in chaos or maybe a crisis has hit. We sit there stewing about all the things that may happen in the future. The future belongs to God and only God. He knows what the road ahead looks like in all of our lives. Having a coke with my friend Jan, she passed on an analogy that she had recently heard. When you are in chaos or a crisis has hit, it is like being in a huge traffic jam. No easy way out or off the road of distress or difficulty. We cannot know what is ahead, we just are to sit patiently or creep along in slow motion and wait for the obstacle to be removed or pushed aside so that traffic can continue to flow. God sees the whole event and he knows just when things will clear, how long you will have to wait, and just what lies ahead. And he will move us according to his will for what lies ahead.

But too many times we get too tucked in the need to know, and it overshadows our trust that God will oversee the things that are causing us the grief and either help us cope through them or help us raise above them. In a perfect world, we could live within the boundaries that God has proclaimed, without having to carry the baggage of emotions or disappointment or imprisonment, but we don't and our only clear resource of resolve is to trust God, fully and completely. So easy to say especially we don't happen to be the ones who are embattled with situations at the moment. But trusting God in all things and in all situations is our only recourse for a peaceful countenance.

It is our true and utmost dependence on God that will set us free of the anxiety that befalls us. An absolute devotion to him. Oh but the reality is: we are called to submit our bodies to God, which is really hard if hampered by the tangles of adverse dependencies, we are called to submit in mind, which is hard if hampered by long term or even fresh wounds, and we are called to submit to in spirit, which is hard when there is an inner spirit of defiance demanding a proper position. My devotion to Christ is prefaced by "I can not do what he have asked me to do"! In body, mind or spirit! And I really can't, my power is not great enough and my flesh is too weak. We can read the word and know its truth but we do not have the strength to overcome the flesh. It has to be a true desire of the heart, motivated in a love for Christ that generates a deepened sense of wanting to get life right...God's way and relinquishing my way.

This all sounds like a bunch of jumbled jargon, but true devotion to Jesus Christ is something that I truly wrestle with each day, and self everything keeps getting in the way. Self centeredness, self preservation, self motivation, self control, self reliant, self satisfaction, and self awareness. Just like Paul said:

Romans 7:14-16
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

I want to do the right thing, but I know there any many more times than not that I don't end up doing or saying the right thing because I have taken the reigns to be the controller of my life instead of handing them over freely, not reluctantly to God. My insides rebel and seek to be independent of Christ. And I know that I, if being a Christian try to struggle with sin in my own strength, I am only slipping into the grasp of sin's power.

I don't know the future, I can hardly grasp my today, but God does, and as long as I prayerfully and consciously submit to his truth, I know that he is working in me to strengthen me and guide me through the lessons of today that I will need for my tomorrows. I don't have answers, just questions and desire for clarity of my requests that I have offered him, and counsel that I desire from him.

I, just like everybody else am journeying through life loving Christ in my limited ability and hoping and trusting that he is molding me gradually for his purposes for this day and for the future. I can only hold tight and trust that God is faithful. I continue to allot my quiet times to God throughout my day, and pray that he will generate within me the ability to listen, and to know what he is guiding me to do and say, where he is guiding me to go and trust he will go before me and pave the path and leave his traces along the way for me to follow. For my future remains steadfastly in his hands, always has been, always will be.

I love the following verse because it talks of hope for the future but as a side note, just a couple of nights ago my husband and I were talking about honey and how good local honey is supposed to be for allergies. I had forgotten that the bible also references honey as an analogy of wisdom.

Proverbs 24: 13-14 Eat honey, my son, for it is good;
honey from the comb is sweet to your taste. Know also that wisdom is like honey for you: If you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

As I was turning to this Romans verse in my bible, I stumbled on Romans 8:14-17 which I had underlined years ago. This truth is what we have to stand on when we are in the middle of a traffic jam of the hearts. For this is a truth from where all things must flow for us to have peace in the midst of turmoil. God will raise us above our circumstances if only we trust in our knowledge that we are heirs of a king, the King of Kings. There will be suffering....oh but there will be ultimate glory.

Romans 8:14-17 14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Dear Lord, You and you only know what is up ahead on our journey. Give us your tools and bless us with your lessons so that we can stand devoted to you in all that we do. Amen

Praise God wherever you are or whatever situation He has allowed you to be in . . . For His Glory will shine through!

website: www.cathyjodeit.com
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