Of Americans, 81% are worried about their future. We want to get beyond this and instead
embrace our future. This allows the
people who are worried to see something different in our lives so that we are a
light to them. What I’d like to
emphasize is that your past or present does not necessarily determine your
future. God sees a different picture of
your future. Even if you have a good
outlook of your future, God’s picture of our future is BETTER. You have to choose to be part of it to see it
in your life. We want to get unstuck and
stay unstuck, taking action to change things for the positive for our future. Things will get worse left on their own (the
laws of thermodynamics say things tend to disorder).
Proverbs 3:5 says that if we trust in God and let Him direct
us, He will make our path STRAIGHT. I
like a straight path. God didn’t say
your path would be easy or short, but a straight line IS the shortest distance
between two points. It might not go as
fast as we would like, but if we’re on the path God has for us, it will go the
fastest it can. A straight path is also easier
to navigate (would you rather drive in an unfamiliar place on winding roads or
on a grid system?). God’s path is direct
and clear. We just have to let Him lead
us in His direction.
Stuck Factor #1—worry and fear. Studies have shown that if you put very
intelligent and competent people in a stressful environment, they will have a
difficult time solving a problem, but if they are in a peaceful environment,
they solve it quickly. Fear causes us to
make bad choices, which causes us more worry and fear, and so on. We can’t trust God and live in fear, because
God is always faithful.
Stuck Factor #2—making assumptions about the future. There is a difference between standing on the
word of God and believing He will come through and assuming that where we are
is where we will be forever or something like that. The assumptions we want to avoid are ones
that limit where we can go. Where we are
today does not determine where we can go tomorrow.
Stuck factor #3—Planning without prayer. If we do this, we are stuck with the work of
our own hands, with only what we can do.
Begin with seeking God in small decisions so you can learn how to hear
God in the big decisions that come up.
God’s plan is bigger and better than what we can imagine, so when we
fail to seek God in a decision we limit ourselves to a smaller future. God knows your future and will make sure you
make the right decisions if you consult Him.
He is not a fortune teller but instead knows how to get you where He
wants you to go. Obviously, we can go
overboard with this, but the more we can practice learning to hear God’s voice,
the better we’ll do.
Stuck factor #4—procrastination. Perfectionists like me procrastinate because
if you don’t start, you can’t fail. When
I had my own business doing web development, I put projects out until the
end. God showed me later that I could
have had more jobs had I done them quicker.
I was never without work, but the next job would never come until I was
done with the first one. I limited how
God could bless me by my procrastination.
Unstuck factor #1—recognizing that you’re stuck and
why. The reason is usually sin (sin is
falling short of God’s best). I’m not
saying God is punishing us but that often we get stuck because of poor
decisions. Sometimes circumstances
happen, but we can’t change that, so we have to focus on what we can change
instead. We need to know why we are
where we are and admit what we did to get there so that we can change our
future. 1 John 1 says that if we confess
our sins, God will forgive us and help us to change ourselves and do better in
the future. Falling short (sin) in the present
leads to uncertainty in our future.
Following the principles of God’s word give us certain results, but not
following them leaves us in uncertainty.
Unstuck factor #1a—stop looking for life to be fair. If you’re looking for life to be fair, you are
focused on circumstances you can’t change and will miss out on something
better. Fair is the enemy of greatness in our life. It can become a cop-out to keep us from
seeing why we are stuck. Notice that
fair and fear are interchangeable in scripture (there is no fair in love—was
Jesus dying fair?; God has not given us a spirit of fair).
Unstuck factor #2—remember God’s faithfulness in my
past. If we remind ourselves that God
was faithful before, we’ll know that He will be faithful again. If we’re stuck because we’ve blown it before
(not because God was unfaithfulness), we need to remember He will lead us the
right direction as we trust in Him.
Psalm 42:5 shows us how David did this.
His soul was downcast, but he reminded Himself of God’s faithfulness. In the Old Testament, when God did something,
the Israelites built memorials and altars to remind themselves of what God
did. If you can’t find something God did
for you, find something He did for someone else. If He did it for someone else, He’ll do it
for you. Deuteronomy 7:9 tells us to
remember who God is, a good God who pours out His blessings to us.
Unstuck factor #3—refocus my mind on the hope of
heaven. I don’t mean that we hold on
until we get to heaven, but instead pray like Jesus commanded that God’s
kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven.
We will not necessarily see this worldwide, but you can see it in your
life. Philippians 4:8 says to focus on
the good things. The key to changing our
lives is what is going on in your head. Let’s focus on thinking about the best that
can happen. Producing our future begins
with thoughts, which produces desire, which produces results in our lives. If you do this, when trials come they will
not drag you down. Isn’t the worst part
of a bad circumstance the way you felt?
So we can choose to feel differently and see ourselves through the trial
with joy. If I focus on what God will
do, it won’t stay that way.
Unstuck factor #4—respond obediently to God’s
direction. When God is leading you to do
something, respond obediently and do it NOW.
Delayed response may change the results.
Timing is everything. This is why
we train our kids to have first time obedience.
Unstuck factor #5—replace your thoughts with God’s thoughts
(see #3). Focus on His thoughts about
you. Reframe how you look at yourself
and your life by what God says, instead of what you hear or see.
Notice we’ve been talking a lot about our thoughts and not
action. Moving toward a sure future
starts with thoughts. That will produce
the action needed to go forward. Of
course, we plan and set goals, but first we must start with how we are
thinking, because nothing will change if our thoughts do not change. Jeremiah 29:11—God knows His plans, to
prosper us and give us hope. We will
find God if we seek Him with all our heart.
I would encourage you to make church attendance part of your habit. God has something to say to you every week,
and you’ll miss out if you’re not there.
God has given a word to your pastor for every person in their
congregation, so that will lead you in the right direction and get you excited
and encouraged to lead the life God has for you.
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on
online media. To learn more about Living
Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
