Fear of the Future (But not in the Way You’d Expect)
Everyone fears the future to some degree. It’s kind of a given. Ask a group of people what some of their greatest fears are (besides snakes and spiders etc.) and you’ll probably hear more than a couple answers about the future. We fear that we will never figure out what we love to do and be stuck in a job we hate. We fear never finding a spouse. We fear losing our jobs and not being able to provide for our families. We fear. We fear. We fear.
But why do we fear the future? We fear the future because we can’t control it, and we can’t see it coming. Humanity, as a general rule of thumb, has a VERY hard time relinquishing control. We love being able to choose what we do, where we go, and how we get there. When this ability to control gets threatened, we are thrown into a spiral of uncertainty and fear.
I am fearful too. I fear all of those things about the future, but my deepest, most heartfelt fears about the future manifest themselves in a different way.
I read an article today about a Pastor in Jacksonville, Fla. who was just arrested and accused of molesting a 12 year old girl up to 5 times a week. You can read the article here: https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/crime/rafael-cuevas-multiple-counts-of-sexual-misconduct-jacksonville-crime/77-a2a61032-396e-4d1e-be1a-4bc2a0d53d20
These kinds of things scare me.
The sheer number of pastors and ministers who fall to these types of sins is appalling, but it really makes you wonder how they got there. No one wakes up one morning with this kind of temptation and gives in to it. It is usually a slow fade into the depths of depravity. I’m sure this man started his ministry with his heart in the right place, wanting to minister to his community for the glory of God. So how did he come to doing this to an 11-year-old girl? That question freaks me out.
When I hear these things, My mind immediately asks the questions: “What am I capable of?” “What, if given enough time, enough slipping, and the wrong circumstances, could I be capable of doing?” “How far could I go?”
If “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick…” what is keeping me from giving Satan a foothold and conceding tiny losses until I look up and realize that I have done something deeply sick (Jeremiah 17:11a)?
If I think too long on these questions, I inevitably spiral.
But what if that’s the point?
What if, through my deepest fears comes my deepest reliance? What if my deepest insecurities are really my greatest assets in learning to lean on God? What if His power is perfected in my weakness? What if my weakness is a blessing?
Could it be that my fear of future failures is actually an act of grace because it forces me to cling to Him?
I can say from my own experience that this is true. Recently, when I have been overcome with fear and anxiety over the possibility of future sin, I have been forced to look at What God has promised me in His Word. I have been specifically encouraged by promises of His presence with me.
In this topic, there are a few specific passages that come to mind. The first is Isaiah 41:10 which reads,
“Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
If He will strengthen me, why do I fear myself? If He will uphold me with His righteous right hand, then why do I think that it’s all up to me?
The second is the entirety of Psalm 16 which I will not write out here. The verse that is particularly helpful though is verse 8b.
“Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”
Something about picturing God at my right hand is so powerful. If He is at my right hand, then He is walking with me. I don’t have to be afraid of my future being left up to me.
This concept is echoed in Paul Tripp’s book Sex and Money on page 206. Here he says, “The presence of the Lord with me always belies any personal assessments of aloneness or inability.” In other words, if God is with me, then I can face any struggle or temptation with courage knowing that my strength is not my own, but is Christ’s.
For more on the idea of God’s presence, Here is a helpful resource:
https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/what-does-it-mean-to-live-in-gods-presence
