CHAPTER
SEVEN
What Does
Your Future Hold?
For I
know the plans that I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans for welfare and
not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:1 I NASB
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For I
know the plans that I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans for welfare…”.
Jeremiah 29:11 NASB
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The question “What does the future hold?” is one to which we would all
like clear- cut answers; however, God does not always give us a look at the
future when we would like to have it.
Many teenagers feel pressured because people keep asking them about
their future: “What are you going to do with your life? What kind of career are
you going to pursue? Are you going to college? If so,
which school have you chosen and what will your major be? If not, where
are you going to work?” The questions seem to come continually, but many times
teens don't know the answers themselves yet.
I have
seen teens actually become very depressed because they don't have a clear-cut
vision of their future. They sometimes become deceived into thinking they are
the only ones who don't know what to do with their life.
If this describes you, you should realize that you are not the only one
in that situation. Even the people you know who seem to have it all together
may be in for some surprises.
When I started out in life, I thought I was going to be a bookkeeper.
That was what I studied for and what I did on my first few jobs. Now I am a
Bible teacher and television evangelist. I don't think I could have been any
more wrong about what I thought my life's direction would be.
Actually, my direction was correct at the time, but like everything
else, our course in life is progressive; finding God's will for us is
progressive — we find it one day at a time, one step at a time.
I even took some wrong steps along the way to discover what the right
ones would be.
If you don't know what you want
to do, try some
things and you will begin the process of elimination. You might try
nursing and find you don't have the stomach for it, or you might try accounting
and find it bores you. At least you will have eliminated two things you know
you definitely don't want to do.
I am not advocating wildly trying all sorts of things without giving any
serious thought to any of them, but I am presenting a positive way to move
forward without fear of failure.
It is
best to do something rather than to do nothing. People respect you for trying,
not for sitting idle filled with confusion. If you don't know what you want to
do for a career in life, then take some time to make your decision. Get a job
of some sort so you can support yourself and wait for direction or desire. In
the meantime, enjoy yourself.
If you are eighteen years old and just out of high school, you don't
need to worry about retirement just yet. You have some time to make up your
mind about the future. Don't make your present miserable by worrying about your
future.
Don't be pressured by other people who seem to demand answers from you
that you don't have. Tell them that you don't know, and you can't tell them
anything if you don't know anything. Also, don't feel stupid because you don't
know. As I have already said, there are lots of people who don't know. It is
much safer to admit you don't than to pretend you do
The
important thing is that you do something, not that you know at the ripe old age
of eighteen what all of life holds for you.
If you
recall, I mentioned earlier that my son Dan did many different things in the
ministry before he actually was released by God into the call on his life.
The same
thing happened to the apostle Paul. He was called into the ministry and did
different things for several years before God separated him and Barnabas for
that to which He had specifically called them. (Acts 13:1-3.)
We all have a call on our life, something specific we are supposed to
do, but we find out what it is as we go along. God knows the end from the
beginning,1 but we don't — we get to trust Him. If we do that, He will see to
it that nothing in our life is wasted.
All the office experience I gained during my bookkeeping years is a
great benefit to me in helping me manage the large ministry we have today. I
also spent some years in management in the business world. That time too has
been very beneficial in helping me know how to manage hundreds of employees
today.
Don't think you are wasting your life if you don't feel that you have
really hit upon “The Thing” you want
Too many people are hurrying through life trying to get somewhere
without even knowing where they are going. In the process, they never enjoy
where they are right now.
I think it is a tragedy of the worst kind when we don't enjoy every day
that God gives us. Until I learned to enjoy each day as it comes, I spent a lot
of my life sad and confused. I hope and pray that my encouragement to you will
prevent you from making some of the same mistakes I made.
Both of our daughters thought they wanted to work
with the handicapped, so they obtained jobs at the Missouri School for the
Blind. Each of them worked there about a year or less.
Actually,
I don't think any of our children were thrilled at the thought of working for
their parents in the ministry. The ministry part wasn't the problem; it was
having Mom and Dad for a boss.
By the time children are grown, they want to have some distance and
space to make their own decisions. I am sure our children thought they might
lose that right if they worked for us.
We did not push any of them. We told them we would support their
decision no matter what they
chose to do. But we also told them we felt it was God's best for all of
us to work together. Today they all work with us in the ministry along with
their respective spouses. I am sure our grandchildren will also work for us
someday.
The first time we offered our son-in- law Steve a job, he did not want
to work with us. He thought it might create problems in the family if there
were any issues on the job that needed confrontation. We just let it go.
Shortly afterwards he was laid off and changed his mind about working with
family. Today he realizes that it took that drastic change in his life for him
to recognize what God's perfect will was for him and that he needed to get into
it.
A similar thing happened to me after God called me into the ministry. I
was working at a full-time job, and, I might add, it was a good one. I made
good money, the company paid for my gasoline and there were other “perks” and
benefits.
Then God
began dealing with me about the call on my life and about preparing for it. I
kept trying to do that but never seemed to have enough time. Finally, I went to
a part-time job even though I knew in my heart that God wanted me to quit
working entirely and trust Him and my husband to take care of me.
Since I was only doing part of what God was telling me to do, I was out
of God's will. I got fired! I was accused of doing some things that I
definitely did not
do. Actually, the whole thing was ridiculous, but then things can easily
get that way if we are not being totally obedient to God.
What am I trying to tell you through all this? Simply this: We are all
prone to take the long route in getting to our destination in life. We do the
best we know how, but our “know-how” is limited until we have lived long enough
to get some experience.
When you feel as if you are wandering in life from one thing to another
with no direction, don't be discouraged. It is not lost time because you are
getting experience, and that is part of growing up.
Our children loved us but did not want to work for us. Now they all love
their jobs and their parents. Admittedly we had to go through some difficulties
to get from where we began to where we are now, but it was worth it.
Anything worth having is worth going through some discomfort to obtain.
Trade Reasoning For Trust
Trust in the LORD with all your
heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He shall direct your paths.
Proverbs 3:5,6 NKJV
Proverbs 3 says we should trust God with all of our heart and mind and
lean not on our own understanding, promising that He will direct our steps if
we acknowledge Him. This means that we must stop trying to figure out things we
can't figure out, worrying and being anxious about them. That includes our
future. None of us has a guarantee about the future, so we must all learn to
live one day at a time.
For many years, I was addicted to excessive reasoning, and that
addiction was causing me to live a tormented life. Due to being abused in my
childhood, I learned early in life that the best policy was to take care of
myself and not ask anyone for anything.
I was always one step ahead of my life mentally, trying to plan out the
next thing. In this way I felt I had control of what was going to happen to me.
I thought that was the only way to prevent people from hurting me.
God had
to work with me a long time before I finally learned that even though I was
trying to figure out everything, I really was still not controlling my future.
Often I thought I had things figured out and was sure they would happen a
certain way, and then they did not occur that way at all. The only thing I had
accomplished was wasting a lot of time with all my reasoning and figuring.
I finally realized that I had to trade worry and reasoning for trusting
God if I ever wanted to be peaceful and enjoy my life. It took an entirely
different approach to life, but I am very glad I made the transition.
Are you doing what I used to do? Are you so busy trying to figure out
the future that in the process you are becoming more and more confused? If so,
you are getting the same result from reasoning beyond the point of sensible
planning that everyone else gets
— confusion! If you will make a decision to trust God and wait on Him,
He will give you discernment — He will give you spiritual understanding.
Discernment comes to us in a supernatural way apart from what we know in the
natural.
Sometimes we say, “I don't know what it is, but I just feel this is what
I am supposed to do, or not supposed to do.” What we feel right about in our
hearts is usually more correct than what our thoughts tell us, unless the two
agree. Be sure you feel peaceful inside about your decisions.
Discernment is what we also call intuition or revelation. We know
something that we don't know the ordinary way, through learning and education.
We
desperately need discernment in our life. It is one of the best ways to stay
out of trouble and not waste time.
Discerning of spirits is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit described
by Paul in I Corinthians 12. Discerning of good and evil is another function of
this spiritual gift. With it, not only can we tell who is motivated by good and
who by evil, but we can discern what would be good for us and what would not.
This gift is closely related to wisdom.
In our
society today, everyone is seeking knowledge, but knowledge is of no real value
without wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to properly apply knowledge. One
definition of wisdom is “common sense.”2 We all do some things that really just
don't make any sense.
Recently,
I offered to take one of my daughters shopping and buy her some clothes. At
first she did not know if she wanted to go out, but then she said, “I guess it
wouldn't make much sense to turn down an offer like that.” I responded that she
was right; it wouldn't make any sense. So we went shopping. Her body did not
want to get up and go, but her spirit helped her discern what the wisest action
would be. At another time going shopping, even to get free clothing, might not
be the best because you have another priority that is more important.
You can learn to live by wisdom in every area of your life. You don't
have to live by just doing what everyone else thinks you should do. You can
hear from God, be led by His Spirit and make quality decisions that will lead
to a greater future.
The major thing that blocks discernment is using our own reasoning to
try to get by logic answers God is trying to give us through discernment.
Settle down, be patient and start trusting God to lead you into the future He
has already planned and prepared for you. Don't worry or feel pressured if you
don't know right this minute what you want to do with your entire life. Do
something productive now, but be open to change.
As I mentioned previously, I was addicted to reasoning excessively. When
we speak of addictions, we usually think only of drugs or alcohol, but there
are mental and emotional addictions as well.
Some people, for instance, are addicted to approval. They need
everyone's verbal approval to feel emotionally stable.
I had
that problem as well as an addiction to reasoning. I could not feel comfortable
and stop worrying until I felt I had the answer to everything. Often I thought
I had the answer, but then God surprised me. When I finally learned to stop
wasting my time trying to figure out things that God was not ready to show me,
I was delivered from my addiction to reasoning.
I
remember having withdrawal symptoms like a person might have when withdrawing
from a substance addiction. The only difference was that my
I can
remember how hard it was for me to refuse to think about all the things in the
future to which I did not have answers. For example: “Where will we get the
money to pay the repair bill on the car when it is due next month? What will we
do if Dave gets laid off from his job? What will happen if I go in this certain
direction with my life and it turns out wrong? What will people think of me?
What will they say?”
The list goes on and on.
My mind was whirling with activity like this all day long and far into
the night. I had such a habit of doing it that I was actually bored when I first
began changing. I did not know what to do with my mind. I have since learned
that I can think about things like how good God has been to me and what I can
do to bless someone else. Actually, there are lots of great things to do with
the mind that are productive; constantly reasoning to try to figure things out
that we can't, however, is not one of them.
Learning to trust is also progressive. Like everything else, it requires
stepping out a little bit at a time. This is especially frightening for those
of us who have trusted others and been hurt repeatedly by them.
God is not like people, but having no experience with His faithfulness
and goodness, we have nothing on
which to base our faith except His Word. God's Word, of course, is
enough, but initially we don't know that, so learning to trust God and His Word
is not always quick or easy.
Don't be discouraged if these transitions I am speaking of take time.
Also, don't be discouraged if they seem hard, or perhaps even almost
impossible. Just don't give up. If you keep trying, you will make the changes
necessary for a great life, trusting God being one of the major ones.
Previously,
you may have felt that you had no answer to give people when they questioned
you about the future. But now you have the best answer in the world. Just tell
them, I don't know what the future holds, but I do know the One Who holds the
future. God has a good plan for my life, and He will reveal it to me — little
by little.
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