You Can’t Live in the Future

In the last message, we talked about how always dwelling on or living in the past can cause a person to forfeit the plans that God has for them  today…and many people spend their whole lives longing to go back to “the good ol’ days”. It’s sad to hear them constantly talking about the past…their childhood, or when they were a young adult, and they relive those memories constantly. 

But just as sad as someone who lives in the past, is when someone is constantly living in the future…always planning for what they will do “someday”…when they have the right partner or the right house or the right job or just the right amount of money. They are waiting for the circumstances of their lives to be perfect in order for them to do the things they really want to do, and so they wait.

Now I don’t want you to misunderstand me…we need to plan for the future. We need to get the education necessary to have the career we want and we need to save for our family and for the home we desire and for our future ambitions. That is all good, and planning for those things is very important and necessary. 

But what happens to many people is that they put their lives on hold, always waiting for the thing that they believe will fulfill the desire of their heart. Let me explain… 

I always wanted a happy and close-knit family. I believed that someday,  I would marry my Prince Charming, and we would have a beautiful family and our home would be full of love and joy all the time. That’s what I wanted. And so I waited. 

When I did get married, it was far from the story-book marriage I had hoped for, and needless to say, we ended up in a divorce and I was a single mom to my beautiful sons…a job I would not wish on anyone. 

It was hard, but my boys were wonderful and by the amazing grace of God, they  turned out to be great young men and they both married and began to have families of their own. 

But I kept waiting and hoping that someday, I would still find that Prince that my heart had longed for. But guess what?  He never showed up and those dreams of my younger years never came to pass. But one day I realized that God didn’t want my somedays. He wanted everything I had now…today. He had a plan for my life in the present, and I had wasted so many opportunities that I could have enjoyed during all those years I waited for someday. 

Friends, I was 62 years old before I finally began to travel and serve the Lord. I wish I had done it so many years earlier. I could have, and I should have…but I was busy waiting for “someday” when all the circumstances of my life were just right. I thought that Prince Charming was what I needed to fulfill all my dreams…but that was never what I needed. What I needed was to live in the present…to stop waiting for the future and to be everything God wanted me to be today. 

And the same is true of you, too. Friend, it’s fine to plan for the future, but don’t forget to live for today. It took me a long time to learn that we are only guaranteed this moment in time…and all the things that we want for tomorrow may never come to pass. Don’t waste the opportunities you have today. Seek God for His plan and then live it. 

Matthew 6:34 tells us, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” THAT is excellent advice. 

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