Today Is the Future You Were Worried About
Hoy Es El Futuro Que Le Molestaba Ud.
by
Mary Hunt Webb
Posted Tuesday, January 30, 2024
When animal owners are worried, their pets can often pick up those anxious feelings. [Photographer: Martine Auvray. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com.]
Early in our marriage, my husband and I were in a Sunday School class one Sunday morning during which our teacher used newspaper headlines of recent catastrophic weather events to support his premise that the return of Jesus would occur soon. That prompted tears from a recent bride because she feared that she and her new husband would never have the opportunity to raise a family. She was upset because of someone's opinion about something that might not happen during her lifetime!
After we left our Sunday School class, my husband, who is a meteorologist that was employed as a weather forecaster for the National Weather Service of the U.S. government, explained to me that the number of disastrous events had not significantly multiplied over the years. Instead, the increase was in technological advances in communications that made more frequent reporting of such occurrences possible.
During the decades that have passed since then, the technology for communications has improved still more. There are even more means of communicating calamitous events than there were then. With those improvements, predictions of the end of the world and the return of Christ have increased, but Jesus still has yet to return!
We humans waste our time and energy worrying about possible events and happenings in our daily lives that might not even occur. In a way, worrying is like riding a rocking horse. It requires a lot of energy but it doesn't take us anywhere!
Worrying is similar to riding a rocking horse. We expend a lot of energy on it but we remain where we started!. [Photographer: Irina Kukuts. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com.]
Both my mother and my mother-in-law were world-class worriers although both were Christians. I sometimes wondered why they worried when they both had accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Their actions in worrying did not support their spoken beliefs.
Those of us that claim to trust God can demonstrate our confidence in Him through our actions and our words - including the words that we speak in our prayers. Since God is the only One that knows the future, we demonstrate our faith in Him when we refuse to give into the temptation to worry about it.
We can thank Him that we don't need to worry about the future because Jesus taught us how to demonstrate our confidence in Him when we pray, "Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." (Matthew 6:9-13, KJV)
BIBLE VERSES USED IN THIS POSTING
Matthew 6:9-13 — 9) After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10) Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11) Give us this day our daily bread. 12) And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13) And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (KJV)
Mateo 6:9-13 — 9) Vosotros, pues, oraréis así: Padre nuestro que estás en los cielos, santificado sea0 tu nombre. 10) Venga tu reino. Hágase tu voluntad, como en el cielo, así también en la tierra. 11) El pan nuestro de cada día, dánoslo hoy. 12) Y perdónanos nuestras deudas, como también nosotros perdonamos a nuestros deudores. 13) Y no nos metas en tentación, mas líbranos del mal; porque tuyo es el reino, y el poder, y la gloria, por todos los siglos. Amén. (Reina-Valera 1960)
This prayer has calmed many worriers through the ages. [Photographer: Public Domain Pictures. Photo courtresy of Pixabay.com]
