The fear of the future (1)

Most of my life I was so anxious. Afraid. Uncertain. I knew I had big dreams. Oh I’m a dreamer. My mind has gone as far as imagining I had my own country somewhere and I was President. I really really dream big! With those big dreams, a plan, praying, I was very fearful of what my future would look like. When you’re in high school you think , “Oh by 25 l will be married with two kids, driving this, living there, doing that.” Then the clock ticks , closer to 24, to 25 and your life looks nothing like you imagined. I mean nothing. You just have a couple of certificates, job today, no job tomorrow, and probably a lousy relationship that even you know, will not lead to the uncles announcing themselves at the gate. And from the boys perspective, even the woman you thought was the one was also someone else’s “the one”. All these things create so much worry about tomorrow because yesterday seemingly failed us.

I know people who laugh now in disbelief if you told them things will change. What did Sarah do?

“So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my Lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?””
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭18‬:‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Sarah looked at her wrinkly skin. Her hair was probably gray white that time. Maybe episodic knee pains. Sore back at irregular intervals. Maybe she couldn’t do what she used to do before, l suppose as couples grow older the less they desire to have sex due to decrease in sexual activity in women, beginning at the onset of menopause in their early 50’s. Considering all the factors involved, when she heard the word , she laughed within herself and accompanied that laughter with a question of disbelief, “Abraham and l are worn out. Is it now that we’re going to have this pleasure?” Is it now that the husband will come? 3 have already disappointed me. Is it now that the job will come? I have had over 50 rejections. Is it now that l will finally laugh? My life has been chaotic since the day I was born. Is it now that things will change?

Let’s not lie to each other, when you’ve not seen results in a long time, holding onto a promise is hard. It requires foolish faith. Faith that is so radical it rides over your many thoughts of why it can’t happen. I can imagine Abraham . The man sat there and received the word. He staggered not upon the promises of God through unbelief. He wasn’t afraid or anxious about the future. To him the future was already sorted. Jeremiah 29:11 is one of the most famous scriptures yet one of the most unbelievable to a stagnated believer in a progressing society. When is this future? How much longer do l have to wait?

I’m not addressing lazy people on this post. This is for those who have put in the work and still there’s no harvest. Those are the people who easily worry about the future. Lazy people no. If they were worried they’d be doing what everyone else is doing. – Casting the net.

So I found out through research that this is called anticipatory fear. It usually kicks in when a disappointment has occurred in the past. It’s also called the fear of the unknown . People have an idea of what their future is like but they don’t know for sure. The bible clearly states that we only key into the future through faith. The only One who knows our future, seen it and has gone past it is GOD! Our future is His past. Our present is his past. Our entire lives, from beginning to the end, not one single moment is guess work for God. Your life right now is not a shock to Him. It may be – for you though because lol the journal says right now you should be a millionaire. How do we deal with this? How do we rid ourselves of the anxiety , the worry, the fear, the uncertainty of what things will look like next week? Next month? Next year?

We do it how Abraham did it. By faith. Read this slowly and understand. Let’s meet again tomorrow for part 2.

“Abraham didn’t focus on his own impotence and say, “It’s hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child.” Nor did he survey Sarah’s decades of infertility and give up. He didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That’s why it is said, “Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right.” But it’s not just Abraham; it’s also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭4‬:‭19‬-‭25‬ ‭MSG‬‬