God's perception of the future

The past few weeks have been filled with many activities. I recently read this posting from Pastor Steven Furtick and felt I should pass it along.

Outside of money, I think the most difficult thing to trust God with is our future. More and more I’m coming to see that the root issue isn’t necessarily control. It’s perception. There is a significant discrepancy between our perception of our future and God’s perception of the future.

For us, our future isn’t really our future. Our future is our perceived future. An imagined future. A possibility.

For God, the future isn’t really the future either. But that’s because He is not in time so the future is right now. Present. Happening.

It’s hard for us to get on the same page with God about our future because the future we’re concerned about might not be the future God is living in. Or it is the future God is already living in and therefore has no anxiety over because He’s simultaneously there and every step that it takes to get there.

It’s interesting that when people got a glimpse of heaven in the Bible, it was usually in circumstances where the future was uncertain. Isaiah was dealing with the death of an effective and efficient king. The Christians in John’s day were dealing with persecution and the possibility of being killed for their faith. They had reason to worry. To be concerned. To wonder if God could be trusted with their futures.

But isn’t it telling that in all of these scenes, God is never panicking. Never anxious. Never trying to plot the best course for the future based on His best estimation of what’s going to happen. That’s because He doesn’t have to deal with the present uncertainty that comes with future possibilities. God knows where things are going because He’s already where they’re going.

The reason we trust God with our future is because He’s the only one who has ever experienced it. As limited beings, we have to let go of a future that might be for a future that is. A future where God is already present and therefore knows how to best prepare us for it and guide us to it.