Don’t you wish you knew the future?
Right now, I am in a battle with my body. It wants to do things a body should not be doing. I want it to stop doing those things, but to get that to happen will require outside intervention unless the LORD brings about a healing. “Inquiring minds want to know” if healing will happen, how it will happen, when it will happen, and will there be other “side effects” to deal with. I want to know the future!
We celebrated Pentecost last Sunday, and I was reminded that the disciples also wanted to know what the future held for them. So, they asked Jesus: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” [Acts 1:6]
They probably figured that if Jesus were ready to restore God’s absolute rule here on earth, they would be a big part of it. Instead of telling them the future, Jesus told them that certain things – like the future – were within God’s authority alone. “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.” [v7]
It is not knowing the future that will make everything okay. It is knowing the God Who holds the future. Had we known last year what this year would be like, we more than likely would have messed up trying to fix it. We certainly would have been miserable all last year in anticipation.
What is happening now in our cities, states, country is frightening and tragic. What will we be like in the next months, or the next years as a society or nation? I do not know the answer to that. Only God knows. As I write that again, I think about the implications of those three words: Only-God-knows. I am comforted because I have placed my faith in the God who knows and who holds the future—whatever that future may be.
Bless His Holy Name. Amen