If the fear of man is a snare for our present, then the fear of the unknown is a shadow over our future. Most of our ‘worry’ is our imaginations applied in unhelpful ways. It’s the act of projecting our current fears into a tomorrow that has not yet happened. We ask ‘what if’ regarding our health, finances, and the state of the world, forgetting that God is already standing in our future and ready to meet us there.
Jesus dealt directly with this tendency in the Sermon on the Mount. He looked at a crowd of people who were likely very worried about basic survival—what they would eat and wear. His counsel was both practical and profound:
‘Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.’ Matthew 6:34.
When Jesus says ‘take no thought’, he isn’t telling us to be irresponsible or to not bother with planning. He’s telling us to stop ‘carrying’ the weight of tomorrow today. We are given daily bread and daily grace, but we often try to process next month’s problems with only today’s strength. This creates a deficit of peace.
The Old Testament provides a beautiful promise regarding the timing of God’s help. In the final blessing of Moses over the tribes of Israel, he says:
‘As thy days, so shall thy strength be.’ Deuteronomy 33:25.
This is a key principle for future-focused courage. Strength is a daily delivery. We may look at a potential future trial—such as the loss of a job or the passing of a loved one—and think, ‘I don’t have the courage to handle that. I don’t know what to do’. And we are right. We don’t have the strength today, because we don’t need it today. But ‘as thy days’, so shall our God-given strength be. When the day of trial arrives, his supply of grace will arrive with it.
Fear of the future is often rooted in the belief that things are spinning out of control. We see a world in turmoil and wonder where it is all heading. However, for the believer, history is not a series of random accidents. It is a directed journey. God spoke to the exiles in Babylon—people whose future was especially uncertain and bleak—and gave them this reassurance:
‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.’ Jeremiah 29:11.
Here, an ‘expected end’ means a hopeful outcome or a promised future. It suggests that God has already mapped out the destination. If he has a plan for your ‘end’, he certainly has a plan for the steps in between.
So, how do we handle the ‘what-ifs’ that keep us awake at night? The apostle Peter gives us the mechanism: ‘Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you’ (1 Peter 5:7).
To ‘cast’ is an active, forceful move. It means taking the mental burden of next year, or next week, or even tomorrow, and deliberately throwing it onto the shoulders of the one who is ‘the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever’ (Hebrews 13:8).
And we must remind ourselves: ‘I have enough grace for today. God will provide the grace for tomorrow when it arrives.’
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