“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:17-18
I read a book in high school about a time machine. What an incredible concept. Then I watched the movie series entitled BACK TO THE FUTURE, about traveling into the past and into the future. Very exciting, but not reality.
“No one can know the future.” You’ve heard that said, and so have I. And to a large extent, it’s true. For the sake of full disclosure, I don’t believe in fortune tellers, but I do believe that there are things that are “knowable” about our future. Our future is not a matter of reading tea leaves or paying a soothsayer. It’s a matter of understanding what God has to say about it.
Revelation 21:4 says, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” When you’re not sure how everything will work out, it forces you to trust in the one who knows the future. This theme is found throughout the Bible. We’re told to rest or find peace in the Lord.
Hours before Jesus’ crucifixion in John 16, Jesus talks about the immediate future. He gives specifics about His death and persecution that will come upon Christ-followers, including the pain and sorrow. He tells them that the best place to face an unsure future is to place their trust in Him. Believers are encouraged to look forward with great anticipation to the end of this world that will usher in a new day, a new Earth, and a new life. Revelation 21:1 is pretty clear…” Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.”
It’s interesting to me that many respect and believe the profound moral and ethical teachings of Jesus, but when it comes to what he says about the future or how to prepare ourselves, they reject it. John 1:12 tells us, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”
What a blessing to know the option of God’s presence in the future by making heartfelt choices of love and obedience to God.