Present or Future - 24 April 2008

For I am convinced that …neither the present nor the future will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8: 31-39 NIV

In this part of the reading there are two attitudes that I suspect I am not the only one to find chillingly familiar. First of all there is the fear of the present or at least that the problems and situations we are in today will be with us forever and never go away or get solved and that somehow God is not able to change those things.

And then there is the fear of the unknown future, that it will bring something that we will not be able to cope with. Much of the world’s obsession with fortune telling and astrology is based around these fears.

Recently I was talking to a young man who was threatened with a court appearance over a crime which could result in a custodial sentence; he was distraught and convinced that if this occurred he would commit suicide because the future would be impossible for him to cope with. But around that time I also received a letter from another man who was serving his sentence for something similar. In his letter he shared that he knew that God had put him in the prison for a purpose and was able to trust God for his provision both in prison and when he was released. And since I wrote that I have discovered that while he was in prison he had an amazing experience of God’s presence. Both are Christians but one has learned that today or tomorrow nothing will happen that he and God cannot handle together. Yes, of course I shared that letter with the young man in order to encourage him.

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 The Message