To Encourage You

Isaiah 46:8-10 “Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old;  for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’”

Acts 4:24-28 “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’— for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place”

John 19:23-24 “When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom,so they said to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.’ This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, ‘They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.’  So the soldiers did these things.”

Do you read the horoscopes in the daily newspaper?  Do you ever watch any of the mediums on television? Have you ever paid money to have your palms read or have your future prophesied by some other means?  If so, you may want to consider that there is only One in all the universe Who knows the future.  Any other effort to go elsewhere to find out what’s around the next bend is nothing more than an exercise in futility at best, and at worse, a wicked deception. 

As the Scriptures above well attest, it is God alone Who knows the future.  What He has said will happen will happen, to the very minutest detail, regardless of whether people know it or not or whether they believe it or not.   

The Romans and Jews of the first century plotted and schemed to do away with Jesus. In their unbelief they completely rejected the living Word of God, but in so doing they exactly fulfilled the written Word of God.  This goes from the trial and crucifixion in general terms to the fine details, such as the soldiers coming to a decision to not tear Jesus’ tunic but to cast lots for it but of the other garments, they divided them among themselves.  Did they know they were doing exactly what God had said they would do through the words written by King David in Psalm 22 approximately 1,000 years earlier? Absolutely not – but they did it just the same.  Did Caesar Augustus know when he decreed that all people return to the place of their birth for a census that Joseph and Mary would go from Nazareth to Bethlehem and there Jesus would be born, as predicted by God’s prophet Micah over 700 years earlier? Not a chance – but it happened, nevertheless. 

So, what does this say to you and me?  For one, it is foolish to go anywhere but to God’s Word for our information about the future. No one knows but God alone, so it’s a waste of time to look elsewhere.  But what’s perhaps more important is that we should read and believe what God has said about the future. He’s told us everything He wants us to know about what’s coming, and we can hold on to what He has said as the absolute truth. 

In John 14 Jesus told us that He would return and that He would take all those Who have believed in Him to be with Him in Heaven. He has told us that those who reject Him will end up in the lake of fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41).  He has told us that if we trust in Him with all our hearts and not lean on our own understanding and that if we acknowledge Him in all our ways, He will direct our paths as we walk step-by-step into the future (Proverbs 3:5-6).  In the gospels, in Daniel, and in the Revelation, He has told us that calamity is coming to this world in a seven-year period of tribulation in which one called the antichrist will first rule, then be destroyed.  Although a politician has recently predicted that if we didn’t immediately act to address climate change the world would end in 12 years (such foolish predictions from one who cannot know), God has told us that the end will come someday, and it will be just like in the days of Noah (Matthew 24:37-39).  The world mocked God’s prophesy of a flood then, and God has told us that “Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Peter 3:3-7).  Of that time God’s Word says “While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3).  Jesus told us that that time would come on the unbelieving world “like a thief in the night.” But then God has told believers “But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief” (1 Thessalonians 5:4). 

You see, believers are not in the darkness because they believe the Truth of the Word of God.  It’s the only way anyone can be truly prepared for the future, i.e., to read and believe everything that God has said about it.  So, are you ready?  Are you trusting God for your future because you believe what He has told us about it?  Are you living as if you believe Him? Or are you trusting something or someone else? God’s warning to you is that whatever that is, you should definitely not be trusting it, for no one knows what tomorrow will bring – except the One Who has declared the end from the beginning.