When you think about the future are you scared or hopeful? Have you ever noticed how most movies about the future make it out to be a terrible place?
Madmax…we are all out of water in a world filled with violence. Terminator…our technology has turned on us and is trying to annihilate us. Even Disney got in on the doom and gloom with Wall-E…we have become an obese society living in outer space on a cruise ship because our planet is destroyed.
I have a suspicion that the older you get the more fearful you grow about the future. When we wonder what type of world our children or grandchildren will grow up in our thoughts are rarely full of hope.
But I’m hopeful about the future.
In fact, I want to lay out for you why I’m an optimist and why you should be too.
Let me ask you a question. It’s a simple one, but how you answer it will determine whether you are an optimist, not just about the future, but about anything that you are presently facing.
Here it is…
DO YOU BELIEVE GOD IS IN CONTROL?
Yes or No. Not kinda. Not I hope so. Yes or No.
How you answer this question will determine whether you’re an optimist…
When it comes to cancer.
When you want a child.
When you’re single and don’t want to be.
When you get passed over for the promotion.
Do you believe God is in control?
If you don’t believe He is…despair…anxiety…fear…depression…will follow.
On the other hand if you believe that God really is in control of His world then you can lay your head on your pillow and sleep with a peace that defies your circumstances (Phil 4:7 ) knowing that God has good in mind (Rom 8:28).
I bet most of us would say… “Yes, I believe God is in control.” But the reality is we don’t really act like it.
I have some friends who are atheists and I love them dearly. They don’t believe in any form of God or a higher power. Everything we see and know is the unplanned and unintended result of two atoms smashing together. When you die there is nothing. You’ll never see anyone again. If you suffered on this earth…it was just the cruel results of the evolutionary process. Your life has no ultimate meaning. Good and bad are really social constructs.
The bottom line…there is no one in the pilot’s seat.
The crazy thing to me is not that my friends find themselves on an airplane that no one made or that the airplane is pilot-less. The crazy thing to me is that they aren’t worried about any of it!
If I found myself on an airplane and the stewardess came over the intercom saying the pilot is dead. The pilot was all a delusion. There never was a pilot. I would be terribly worried about what would happen on this airplane, but my friends aren’t.
As a Christian I look at it from a different perspective. I believe there is someone who made the plane and He is also sitting in the pilot’s seat. Yet, I still finding myself at times worrying and fretting because of a little turbulence…that’s not just crazy, it’s silly!!!
Because God is in control…whether I believe it or not.
I’m tempted at times to believe that a little turbulence means the whole plane is going down. It’s a lie.
We tend to forget that God has done great things for us in the past. We tend to forget the times God came through for us when all seemed lost and hopeless. Never once have we been left alone.
It’s a tendency of people of faith to forget God’s faithfulness.
When we forget His faithfulness we become pessimistic worry warts following in the steps of Chicken Little.
Knowing our tendency to forget, God wanted Israel to remember His faithfulness for future generations so He had them create a pillar of stones as a tangible reminder (Josh 4:6-7; Deut. 4:9).
What could you create or make to remind you of God’s past faithfulness?
Financial commercials tell us that past performance doesn’t guarantee future results. While that may be true of your IRA it’s not true with God. Past performance is the very thing that gives us confidence about the future. He is in control. He has a plan and He is working to bring about good. He is in the pilot’s seat.
What do you have to be afraid of? If you believe that God is in control you can sleep like a baby.
Maybe the problem is not that you aren’t trying hard enough. Maybe you are trying too hard.
When you think your job is to be the pilot you’ll always be stressed out. Sit back, relax, and let God do His job. Like He always does.
It will turn you into an optimist every time.
