Focus Pt 6 - The Future

Here we are again on the topic of Focus. As we have seen in the past 5 weeks, focus is vitally important for us especially now, the times we are living in with the pandemic, the economic pressures, the uncertainty of what’s next, and basically bad news all over the place. Today we are going to see what the word of God has to say about us focusing on the plans God has for us in the future.

Jeremiah 29:11–14 NLT

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. 14 I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”

1. Two things God has planned for us: future and hope!

We don’t know the future. Oh we can predict what we think will happen by looking and present trends, or the latest research, but when you get down to the real nitty gritty, no one knows the future. No one that is except God. He knows our future!

Now here’s the kicker. The future God has planned for all of us who trust in Him, has to be good. Why? Because His planned future for us gives us hope. A future and a hope is what’s promised to us. Notice He didn’t say a hopeless future, He said a future and a hope. I don’t know about you, but only a great future is able to give me hope. Is it the same for you? Meditate on that right now, God has planned a future for us that doesn’t build doubt, doesn’t breed fear, no, it builds hope.

One last thing on hope. Here’s the definition of hope from Webster’s dictionary: to cherish a desire with anticipation : to want something to happen or be true; to expect with confidence : trust

Psalm 37:34–38 The Living Bible

34 Don’t be impatient for the Lord to act! Keep traveling steadily along his pathway and in due season he will honor you with every blessing, and you will see the wicked destroyed. 35 I myself have seen it happen: a proud and evil man, towering like a cedar of Lebanon, but when I looked again, he was gone! I searched but could not find him! 37 But the good man—what a different story! For the good man—the blameless, the upright, the man of peace—he has a wonderful future ahead of him. For him there is a happy ending. 38 But evil men shall be destroyed, and their posterity shall be cut off.

2. God’s future is definitely wonderful!

I like to watch movies that have a happy ending. I guess we all do. That’s why the Hallmark Christmas movies are so popular. They all have a happy, fairytale ending. Well, God’s plan for our future for us, the upright, following God, family of God, Christian, also has a happy ending. Only this is no fairytale. This is true!

Notice the criteria for this happy ending. We have to live blameless lives, live upright lives, and live peaceful lives. No we don’t live perfect lives, but we have to strive to not do things that bring blame and shame on not only us, but God and His family. we must live upright, marked by strong moral rectitude or moral integrity, and we must strive to be a peacemaker and full of drama and enjoying that drama. The result of living life this way? A wonderful future and a happy ending.

Galatians 6:7–10 The Message

7 Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—8 harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life. 9 So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. 10 Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.

3. When we “plant” the right things, the future looks good!

A farmer knows that in order to get a good harvest, you need to plant good seed. If the seed is defective, the crop will not be good.

In the same way, we can expect the condition of our future based on what kind of things we “plant” today. If what we’re planting with our attitudes is not Godly but selfish, worldly things, the future is not looking good for us. But if we continue to do good with a Godly attitude, then our future is very good. What does this have to do with focus?

What we focus on creates our attitudes, which in turn create our motivation which produces what we plant. Now it’s more than just the work, it’s what’s driving the work. You can be a philanthropist, someone who makes an active effort to promote human welfare, for the right reason and for the wrong reason. Both are helping people but one might be doing it for recognition, either from others or from ourselves. Man I’m good! One is pleasing to God, when He gets all the credit, and one is not. So we must focus on doing good God’s way so our future is awesome.

1 John 3:1–3 ESV

1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

4. Jesus will reveal Himself as He is in the future!

When we focus on the future that God has for us through His word, it’s brings not just hope but excitement. Why? Because we will see Jesus as He is.

Not the babe in the manger. Not the pictures of Him with the disciples teaching them or as a shepherd with some sheep.

No we will see Him seated on the throne. The King of kings and the Lord of lords. We will see Him as He really is. The ruler if heaven and earth. The Redeemer in all His glory. It is going to be awesome. So let’s stay focused on Jesus and on the future He has prepared for us.