MORE FUTURE

More Future for the Young

How does your future look to you? Do you see limitless opportunities stretching ahead as far as you can see? Or is your future filled with fearful uncertainty? How can you enjoy more future?

The truth is God wants you to have a bright, wonderful future, and He promises to provide all your needs through life- so your future holds a lot of promise. But in this world there's a lot of risk and danger getting there. In a lot of ways it's like an incredibly cool amusement park built in a field of landmines. If you walk along the right paths you will be able to enjoy all the rides God has in store for you. But if you feel indestructible and take shortcuts to those rides you'll run into landmines which will keep you from enjoying your future the way you should.

Making our future more fulfilling is difficult because we don't know where all the landmines lie in our path- and even worse, we often don't recognize them as landmines. Many people think alcohol, drugs, sex, money, popularity, pride and power are the keys to a richer life, a fuller future. But how many have sacrificed their careers, their families, their futures and their lives for these thrills?

But there is Someone who knows all about the dangerous landmines of life, and where we need to step to have more future. The God who made your heart, soul, mind and body knows which things will bring you true joy and contentment in life- more future- and which things will explode under your feet and leave you feeling empty and hollow. He wants our lives to be rich and fulfilling. The problem is our desires often draw us to the very things God knows will devastate our future.

It's like the little child who sees the pretty blue flame on the gas stove and wants to touch it. His parents may startle him by yanking him from the stove, or scare him with a stern "NO!" but they aren't trying to spoil his fun- they are trying to protect him from a danger he doesn't recognize. That's what God does in His law. He doesn't want to ruin your joy and keep you from finding fulfillment in this life- He wants to protect you from life's landmines so your lives can be fulfilling, and to guide your footsteps into the path that will make your future everything it can and should be.

But something bigger than your earthly future is at stake. Jesus said, "What good is it to gain the whole world but forfeit your soul?"

If the only future you ever think about is what you can enjoy today, or even what you can enjoy for the rest of your life on this earth- you will be greatly disappointed in the end. Your future is about more than just today, or the few years you will spend on this earth. Your future extends beyond this short life to an eternity in either heaven or hell.

John wrote,
¹⁵Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15-17)

What is the will of God? He wants you to believe He sent His Son Jesus Christ as your Savior (John 6:28-29). While He was still a young man Jesus gave up His earthly future and died on the cross for all your failings so that you can enjoy a glorious never-ending future beginning in this life, and stretching past Judgment Day to all eternity.

How can you find God's path through your life to the next? Read your Bible, join a Bible study group at your church and worship regularly at the Lord's house. You will learn how God guides His people, and restores them when they step off the path into the minefield.

If you have been detonating the landmines in your life, that doesn't mean it's too late for God to give you a brighter, fuller future. If you see the damage and regret going against His ways God will give you peace and forgiveness for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ. You may have to live with some consequences from the landmines you already detonated. But when Jesus returns He will heal your heart, mind, soul and body so you will enjoy perfect health forever, and He will restore God's creation by removing all the landmines and giving you an absolutely perfect eternal future.

More Future if You Have Traveled Further Down Life's Path-

How does your future look? That might depend on what your life looks like in the present. If times are going well, your health is good, financial issues are lining up nicely, and relationships are strong your future might be looking pretty fine. But if you are struggling with health issues, finances, relationship problems or grief it may look like you are on a downward spiral that will never end.

We probably couldn't see it in our youth, but we've traveled far enough down life's road to see that our earthly future isn't quite as bright as it may have looked back then. The gray hairs and wrinkles shout it back at us each time we step in front of the mirror. The stiff muscles and aching joints after a ball game or yard work tell us our youth is over. Maybe that's why we often start looking back at the glory days of our youth and try to recapture them in a mid-life crisis. But what does that say about the future- except that the best part of our life is already over?

And if you look several years ahead- our earthly future doesn't look bright at all. If we are lucky we will hold on to our health for a few more years or decades, but sooner or later our body will wear out. We will experience increasing weakness and suffer from diseases that hold on longer and are more difficult to break. Perhaps diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, and emphysema will be in your future- perhaps one or more is already in your present.

Then there is the inevitable grief to come. Even if you enjoy a long, healthy and full life, many of your family and friends will not be there to see your life end- but you'll be there to see their end, stand by their coffins and struggle with the realization that you will never see them again.

It sounds like a pretty gloomy future I know. But it's important to remember that this was never God's plan for the later years of our earthly life. He created us to enjoy a long, completely healthy life. But Adam and Eve's sin changed all that. Now we do grow old and within seventy or eighty years- if we even reach that age- we grow frail. And in the end we die.

The good news for our future is that God was not content to let his plan for our unending healthy life crumble into dust forever. In Fatherly mercy He sent His Son Jesus Christ to earn our place in eternity by His perfect life, and to suffer and die on the cross to remove the curse of death which hung over us because of our sins.

Because of Jesus' life and death- and even more than that, because of Jesus' returning to life again, our once gloomy earthly future now has a silver lining:

• Though our body will grow old and frail in this life -- Christ Jesus will restore and renew this body to enjoy perfect health in glory forever in the next life.
• Though we may struggle to make ends meet in this ruined world -- the new heavens and the new earth will be a land of plenty in which there will never be poverty and despair.
• Though we will grieve at the graves of loved ones in this life - Christ assures us that those graves are only temporary- we will share eternity with those who died trusting in Him.
• Though we must face our own coming death on this earth unless Christ comes first -- we can be sure that death will not be able to hold us any more than it was able to hold Jesus.

It may not always look like it, but you have a glorious future stretching out forever before you - both in this world but especially in the world to come. Trust in Jesus and His salvation and it will be your future forever.