Here is the revelation that is shaping my life today – if I allow my eyes to see only today I will live only shaped by this day, but if I raise my gaze I will see the promise of God in my future and it will fuel hope and endurance for these days.
James 5:7-8 TPT
[7] Meanwhile, brothers and sisters, we must be patient and filled with expectation as we wait for the appearing of the Lord. Think about the farmer who has to patiently wait for the earth’s harvest as it ripens because of the early and latter rains. [8] So you also keep your hopes high and be patient, for the presence of the Lord is drawing closer.
Observation
“Be patient,” in a culture shaped by the microwave, where I want everything now, the idea of waiting patiently seems ridiculously foreign. There is a power released in me when I have something to look forward to. Many live from the expectation of one vacation to the next, for this is the greatest future hope they can see on the horizon. Hope in the future enables endurance of the now. God knows that whilst Heaven is advancing on earth, the fullness of Heaven, the new heavens and earth that will come when Jesus appears again, are where we must place our hope.
I can endure hardship when I know that from the perspective of my future it will be but a moment in time in the story of my history. This life is but a moment in the timeline of my eternity. If we can “keep our hopes high and be patient,” for what God has promised is coming, then we will have hope that fuels endurance. Hope that shapes me in the challenges of the now. The patience of the farmer who waits for the ground to produce an anticipated crop. We cannot hurry Jesus’ coming but we can shape our lives in its certainty.
Application
I will live in the promised certainty and the hope that produces, that Jesus will return and my future is amazing. Today is not the fullness of my story, my tomorrow that is coming is more incredible than my imagination has the capacity to grasp. I will shape my present in the hope that is mine of the future in Him.
Response
Thank you that this life is not the whole story, rather it is but the first paragraph of the first chapter in the story of my life. I will not be shaped by the way it reads now without being influenced by the promised chapters that are to come. Thank you for the promise of new heavens and earth, the promise of eternity with you, the promise of a world as you created it to be. Thank you for the promise of a brilliant future story. I know my future and it will fuel my hope and my endurance in the challenges of here. I am blessed to live the future now.
Meditation
Can you grasp the promise of God’s future and does it release hope in you?
JOURNEY DEEPER
