Looking Into The Future

“Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil. Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.” – James 4:13-17.

These days, the future is coming faster than it ever has before. Time waits for no man. Technological advancement moves so fast that most people can’t keep up. Industries change seemingly overnight.  Many of the jobs that we know today could well be obsolete in 20 years.  

But our future is about more than technology.  It is about more than jobs, or economic trends, population growth and climate change. The future will change most things and it should change us. Five years will come and go pretty quickly. The time to start preparing for the future is today. But regardless of what changes on our road to the future, we need to seek the guidance or the will of God. And what a future that is: 1 Corinthians 2:9 says, “That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”

When you imagine you in five years, you probably think of a life-altering dramatic change: that your present will equal your future unless you make wholesale changes. In some cases that may well be true, but the rest of us need to remember that the future does not arrive overnight. It is a journey. We start the process of change by knowing what we need to change and then developing a plan over time to make those changes. In other words, we often need to take small steps to build up for a bigger change in the future.  

Your future starts today. Are you happy with the direction of your life or are you merely existing? Are you excited about the future and moving toward a desired goal? Or do you feel as if you are drifting along from day to day hoping that the future will be better?  Through the years, I have met countless people who are living a “settled-for life.” Someplace along their journey, they became complacent and content in their circumstances. They settled for what they believed was adequate or satisfactory. That is not what God has planned for you in five years.  If that is where we are we should ask God about His will, plan and purpose for our life:

“What do You want to do in my life?”

“What do You want to do through my life?”

“What do You still desire for me to experience?”

“What potential lies before me?”

“What could I become?”

“What do You desire for me?”

God works throughout your entire life to bring you to the fullness of both your attributes and your abilities. You cannot do it in your own strength. You can do it only in God’s strength and supply. 

Discussion Questions:

1. What incremental steps can you take to get you where you want to go in 5 years?
2. How can we involve God in your future this week?