FUTURE FEARS

The future is a fear-filled place—or at least our perception of it usually is. Not only do we hear repeatedly about the many threats that lurk in the future, either near or far, but we also have our own mortality to reckon with, as well as that of everyone we care about. On the whole, the future is not a safe place for us to be, yet we keep progressing toward it at a steady and relentless pace. Jesus did warn His followers about disasters, deceptions, persecution, and disappointment in their future and ours. But rather than reasons for alarm, these would become reminders of Jesus’ foreknowledge, not to be celebrated in themselves—they are tragedies, after all—but to be noticed as signposts that God already knows the road.

He has seen and heard our fears in the future as surely as He has seen and heard the present suffering and injustice endured by His people.

The point of Bible prophecy is not so much predicting the future but recognizing God at work in our present and past, thus growing our confidence in His presence with us as we step into an uncertain future. When we recognize the patterns and fulfilments of the prophetic sayings of Jesus and other biblical prophets, we are reassured about other aspects of what they said and taught. Bible prophecy is also about how we live in the present, illuminated and shaped by our beliefs and hope for the future. Many aspects of our future can be fearful and fear-filled, but God is there with us. We are not to be fixated on the future, certainly not focused on imaginings that feed our fears and stoke those of others. Instead, we entrust our futures to God and, with Him, turn back to the needs around us in the world today, which is the most faithful way of waiting for the hope He has promised.