God’s Vision, Your Unique RoleSample

Constructing a life vision requires us to think about the future. But remember that even while we pursue the intentional life, we are very limited. We must get rid of any notions of creating the future. We can influence our futures—what we sow we will reap—but we can’t determine our tomorrows.

The Scriptures ask us to face “tomorrow” in two basic ways:

1. Face tomorrow without anxiety because of divine providence.

Anxiety assumes too much responsibility for the future. The tenor of the Lord’s words brings assurance to the most fearful person (Matt. 6:25–31). “Do not be anxious, do not fear, do not worry” about tomorrow. A good God sees and supervises the future. He will sustain you in the present, just as He cares for the birds and the flowers, and will sustain you as the future becomes present.

2. Face tomorrow with planning, not fatalism.

We do not predict the future, but neither are we resigned to it. We wait, but we also work toward the future. Christian planning sometimes assumes a straight-line cause and effect. Time is linear, but growth is not. Galatians 6:7 says that what you sow, you will reap, especially in the context of doing evil and good. Yet all this is in the context of a personal God who is not mocked. The sowing/reaping law of harvesting is not governed by an impersonal, fatalistic karmic law but by a personal, just God who will always do right.