Christian Living

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Waiting Faithfully and Living in the future (For us singles) By Ashleigh S. Welch


Being a single person myself I often get excited about my future (who doesn’t!) It's a wonderful and beautiful thing to ponder, our future family, future house and future spouse. But what about living in the future? Sometimes we can get so future happy we forget the present, our present worries, duties etc, and ultimately our present relationship with God.

It's absolutely wonderful to prepare for the future, and working on becoming someone God would be proud to match up with another one of his children, someone that will be able to raise godly children. But we are first and foremost individuals and children of God...and right now most of us are single.

So what you are probably thinking right now, maybe I do have my wedding and house planned already, so what if the colors of my kids nursery has already been bought even know I am only 17!

Ok so that is probably an extreme but really, this could happen. How many hours a day or week do you plan your future? It is probably a lot if your anything like me, a few months ago it was almost all my time, I dreamed of college, of my future career, of my future family and husband till the point it becomes more real then my present life seemed, I could not wait to escape this horrible waiting period till, that perfect time of marriage and children, the wonderful bliss of a newly wed!

But I felt as though I was in a prison and only when I reached the right age would I be let out. I was living in the future, and I had a rather bad case of a future liver at that.

But what must be done about this? I was getting nowhere in either of my lives future or present, and by living the future that was not yet here I left behind my ever looming present life and that was a precarious position to be in.

Do you feel trapped in the present waiting for the wonderful bliss of the future? I think that most of us probably do, us mega planners need to relies something and it's rather simple when it comes right down to it. Not once in the bible does it say, "Go ye forth and snag thy future spouse and house, and remember to try for the bargains!".

No no no, we are actually very plainly told to wait and trust God with our lives.

So what is really wrong with planning our futures, it does not hurt anyone right? Well yes it actually does, and your biggest strain will probably be on your relationship with God. Have you ever just so badly wanted something and you get really annoyed with God that is was not fed-ex right over? We assume that our plans are going to work out, in a sense we set ourselves up for failure, after all who imagines money issues in their future or a challenging child? When we live in our self created perfect future we often forget the real life possibility that we may happen on.

So when our perfectly planned futures don't work out, who are we going to blame? Of course the blame will fall on God, after all we had this perfect plan, why the heck could He not have granted us our planned future? Well we don’t always get our way and more then often our self thought out plans are not always best for us.

Think about what our present lives would be like and the impact our present lives would have on our future if we were to give our planning/worrying sessions to God, Instead of planning our future now how about bettering our present life or helping someone else in the present?

But what is to be done about this condition we often find ourselves struck with? Like all good questions I turned to the bible and was presently surprised to find a simple answer in,

Matt 6:25
Therefore I say unto you, Do not be anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
MT 6:26
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Mt 6:31
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
Mt 6:32
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
Mt 6:33
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Mt 6:34
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.

Wow, not only are we told not to worry about the future but even further we are told that God will take care of it all! He knows our needs and yes even our wants, every desire of our heart he knows. It might not always be the perfect picture we have but we do not need to worry about that either, God has already done that for us.

So next time you find yourself franticly planning and worrying remember that God says, Tomorrow will take care of itself!

Copyright 2006 Ashleigh S. Welch All Rights Reserved

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