There are those who are obsessed with trying to learn the future. They look into crystal balls, study tea leaves, and horoscopes. The truth is no one knows the future, except God. Solomon said it this way in Ecclesiastes 8:7, “For he does not know what will happen; So who can tell him when it will occur?” God can. God is outside of time and can see it all at once. God is the only one who really knows the future.
When it comes to our future, we simply have to trust in God and do what He tells us to do. One of the things God doesn’t want us to do is to presume anything about tomorrow. James 4:13-16 teaches believers: “13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”
God also doesn’t want us to be anxious about tomorrow. In Matthew 6:34 Jesus tells us “do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Presumption and anxiousness aside, “to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin (James 4:17).” God doesn’t want us to procrastinate. If we keep waiting for just the right conditions, we’ll never get anything done. Solomon said it this way in Ecclesiastes 11:4, “He who observes the wind will not sow, And he who regards the clouds will not reap.”
So, God doesn’t want us to presume, be anxious, or procrastinate. Instead, we are to seek God’s direction and plan, obey God’s Word, and step out in faith. These three things are seen in God’s instructions to Joshua as he was given charge of the children of Israel in Joshua 1.
In Joshua 1:2-3, God gives Joshua instructions and a plan; God says, “2 “Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.” In other words, God appears to Joshua and says to him: let Me tell you what to do. And if you’ll do these things, I guarantee you success! While God will not appear to us and speak to us instructions and a plan, God has given us His Word which contains His instructions and plan for us.
God then tells Joshua to obey His Word. In Joshua 1:7, God tells him to “be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.” This is something that every Christian can do 100% but we often miss the mark. The solution is to find out what God’s Word commands us and then do it. Recalling that “faith without works is dead (James 2:26).”
This leads us to the last thing that we want to notice that God tells Joshua to do and that is to step out in faith. God tells Joshua, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success (Joshua 1:8).” The reason Joshua can “do according to all that is written in it” is because he trusts God.
Joshua had the kind of faith that allowed him to follow wherever God led him. As Christians, we are to have a faith that is fully trusting in Jesus and follow Him wherever He leads us.
While it is true that no one knows the future, we have faith that God knows. This means that facing the future is possible with Christ. This is because He has given us direction and a plan. All we need to do is obey God’s Word and step out in faith.
