When God Asks for Your Future
Someone I know asks me a dreadful question periodically. They ask, "So, where do you see yourself in five years?". And then I sit, completely devoid of an answer for an awkwardly long period of time. I usually end up fumbling around and finally landing on "It's hard to say..."
That is a truly terrible question to ask a single lady who is trying to live contented in a life that is very different to what she had planned in her younger years. I have tried over the years to learn to set my focus on what God wants me to do now, rather than on what I expect or long for the future to hold. But even at that, being asked to contemplate five years from now can really chip away at contentment if I'm not careful.
And the fact is, none of us can know what the future will hold, but we so very easily pin our hopes to a distant, far-off "someday" that will —according to our carefully imagined picture— be completely perfect. Those hopes and dreams become unspeakably precious to us, and we work and pray towards that bright and shining "someday" in which everything will be exactly as we had planned... but in reality, we have taken our trustful gaze off the Lord, who really does know what our future will be, and has a good and perfect will for us. (Romans 12:2)
Often, that is exactly when God chooses to remind us that our plans are not binding, that we really have no control over any part of our future, and that our trust needs to be in Him, not in our "somedays". He is entirely worthy of our trust, but in order to fully trust Him, we need to surrender our "someday" and release our grip on the expected future we so dearly love.
Abraham knew about this. In Genesis 22, God comes to Abraham and asks him to sacrifice his son.
His only son.
Whom he loves.
The very wording of the command seems designed to remind Abraham of every reason he might have for refusing, yet instead of questioning or even delaying, he got up early and went out to obey God's command. He obeyed God even to the point of putting Isaac on the altar and raising the knife! -But before we allow our minds to jump to the Divine plot twist that comes next, consider with me what exactly Abraham was willing to sacrifice.
Yes, Isaac was his son, and he dearly loved him. But more than that, he was the son of promise, the fruit of many years of waiting in faith that God would at last provide a son to be the heir of the land God had given as well as the one through whose line would come the Savior in whom all the world would be blessed. Also, Isaac was Abraham's sole heir, which meant that he was the one on whom Abraham would depend for care in his old age.
In short, God was asking Abraham to sacrifice his future. And he was willing to do it, too. God stopped him just in time and provided a different and appropriate sacrifice for Abraham to offer. God didn't want Isaac's death, He simply wanted Abraham to be willing to give up that which was the dearest to him, not just his son, but the hopes and dreams attached to him.
I used to think that surrendering my hopes and dreams to God would mean that they would never come to pass, that surrender would be the beginning of a bleak and hopeless existence, but that is one of Satan's powerful lies. Surrender does not bring misery and emptiness, it brings joy and hope and peaceful fulfillment as one accepts what God has planned and learns to find fulfillment in a relationship with the loving and all-wise God.
And lest we be daunted by the reality of everyday life, there is yet one hope for the future that is certain, and that we may always look forward to; a very real "someday" when everything will indeed be completely perfect. For those who put their trust in Christ for salvation, the future will culminate in an eternity with God in heaven, where there is no more sin, no more sorrow, and no more sickness. Best of all, we will forever be with the Lord Himself! That indeed is something to look forward to!