There are two basic ways to look at tomorrow. The first way to look at tomorrow is with worry and fear. We let our minds race over what possibly could go wrong in the future. When we look at tomorrow with worry and fear, we are expecting tomorrow to be worse than today. God does not want us to look at tomorrow with worry and fear.
The second way to look at tomorrow is hope and faith. Our minds think about the dreams we have for a good tomorrow, both for ourselves and our church family. Hope dreams of a tomorrow that is better than our todays. Faith looks for a tomorrow in which dreams are fulfilled. God wants you to look at tomorrow with hope. Which way are you looking at tomorrow, with worry or with hope?
We’re going to see that paradoxically, the key to looking to the future with hope is looking to the past with thanksgiving. The difficulty in facing tomorrow is that tomorrow is full of challenges and the unknown. Unknown challenges can be scary. Will you be up to the challenge or will it be too big for you?
How can you deal with the challenges of the future? We might call the challenges of the future the giants that we must face. When you are called on to face a giant, it’s easy to be terrified. However, God wants you to face giants and challenges with hope and faith. The message today can be applied to challenges that you may be facing in your own life and family. Likewise, the principles we’re going to talk about today can also be applied to the challenges that our church will face in the future.
Let’s look at a story from the Old Testament found in 1 Samuel 17. I’d encourage you to read the chapter this week. In this chapter, the army of Israel was facing the Philistine army when out of their ranks emerged a giant of a man named Goliath. He challenged anyone in the Israel army to fight him alone. Goliath was over 9 feet tall and a strong warrior. How would you like to face Goliath in hand to hand combat?
1 Samuel 17:11 (NIV) On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.
However, there was one Israelite who was not dismayed or terrified at the thought of fighting Goliath. His name was David. Here’s what he said.
1 Samuel 17:32 (NIV) David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”
King Saul replied to David.
1 Samuel 17:33 (NIV) Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.”
How could a boy have the courage to face a monumental challenge like Goliath without fear? How could David have the faith to face a fearful tomorrow? We’re going to look at how David thought about his challenge to learn how we can meet our own challenges.
Listen to my October 4, 2009 message “Looking Back With Thanksgiving” (message notes).