Tomorrow ?

Acts 9:13 (NKJV)
¹³ Then Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem.

 

“Okay, let’s assume . . . .” What follows is usually a dangerous line of reasoning. Do you ever check your track record regarding assumptions? Another piece of slippery ice is any statement beginning with the words, “I had assumed you . . .” Rarely do we know and understand even our closest friends and family well enough to accurately guess their motives or even their wishes.

 “Wow, if I had known you would react this way, I would never had done that. I thought you would like it.” I think it is far better to ask, than to guess what another person might desire. Ananias had formed his opinion of Saul of Tarsus (Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles) Based solely on his reputation. While it was true that Saul had brought great harm to the believers in Jerusalem, it was even true that his intention was to persecute Ananias’ congregation, Ananias was wrong in his assessment of Paul.

We shouldn’t be too hard of Ananias, had you ask Paul, even then, he would have admitted to his cruel intentions. But that assumption and assessment was based on outdated information. While cruelty was in the heart of Paul just days before Ananias’ words to the Son of God, now Paul was being changed by the inward working out of God’s secret plan. Paul was, in Paul’s words penned decades later, “A new creation in Christ Jesus.”

Jesus warns us to make no judgments before “it’s time.” Fact is, before the next stage of God’s perfect plan is revealed, any assumptions at all would be foolish.

 

I sit here in my new study wondering if I have a future ministry ahead of me or if God is finished with me. Sure, I can find some kind of activity to do in the name of Jesus but will I ever be the pastor of another Church? Will I ever preach and teach regularly? I am tempted to say that I am a man without prosprects. It is far more accurate to say that I am a man who can see no known prospects.

 

One of my favorite phrases in the Bible is one I will use out of its context and apply to life in general: Paul says, concern the afterlife, “It does not yet appear what we shall be.” This can be applied to life in general. Only God can know the future as clearly as he knows the past.

Right now, I am standing by, awaiting the next stage of my ministry. The greatest threat to the peace of Christ is a flood of false assumptions. My frail mind is the headwaters of such foolishness.

What are your prospects? Where does your hope reside today? We can only live each day as it is presented to us by God’s providence. We must trust the promise that “hope does not disappoint.”

 

There is not a heart but has its moments of longing, yearning for something better; nobler; holier than it knows now. Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887)

 

Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows but only empties today of its strength. Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892

 

Anxiety is the natural result when our hopes are centered in anything short of God and his will for us. Billy Graham (1918– )

 

Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father; who cares for you today, will take care of you tomorrow, and every day. Either he will shield you from suffering or he will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Saint Francis of Sales (1567–1622)

 

God never built a Christian strong enough to carry today’s duties and tomorrow’s anxieties piled on top of them. Theodore Ledyard Cuyler (1822–1909)