Jeremiah 33:3 – ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’
One of the things I regularly think about is the future. It might be a future week, a future year or even a future decade. It might be that I’m thinking about a significant life event, like my 30th birthday in February. I spend a lot of my time, I’m realising, thinking about the future.
If you’re a futurist like me, Strengths Finders (http://www.strengthsfinder.com/113647/Homepage.aspx) suggests:
“Partner with someone…who can remind you that you do not discover the future, you create it with the actions you take today.”
“Surround yourself with people who are eager to put your vision into motion. They will feel exhilarated by your Futuristic talents, and you can harness their energy to propel the vision toward reality.”
Normally I dislike “self help concepts” or “lead the best life yet” type of teachings, because they are often void of Scriptural foundations or Biblical principles. For instance, Jesus did come to give us abundant life, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a certain salary per year, 3 holidays and a caravan. Jesus was mainly referring to the abundance of knowing freedom from condemnation…the abundance of a life being a child of God. Having said that, there are elements of helping ourselves in our co-working with God ( 1 Cor. 3: 5-9) that have to form part of our devotion – i.e. budgetting wisely, being careful to avoid laziness or slovenly habits that don’t encourage others.
So for us in 2010: I pray that instead of just temporary NY resolutions that fade that we have some new thoughts about how we can improve ourselves this year or some new ventures that will mould our presents into the futures we dream about. Some things are outside of our control but I know I want to get to grips with some things this year that I have God-given control over.
Ask God to help you find your strengths. Think about them, invest in them, build around them and determine this New Year, with the Lord, to make your future. The God who knows everything, and specifically everything about you, invites you to pray Jeremiah 33:3 that He might help you make your future.
firebrandnotes.com 
ah mate, good word. anna and i have just been talking about the state of our lives right now and what the heck is our future about – where are we going? why? and so on…and then there you are – nick franks – hanging out on wordpress talking about the same thing. reckon the holy spirit is on the move mate. 2010, what will it bring? change mate, i hope for change in our hearts and a new hope. a hope that we’d see change where we struggle and strength where we have become weak. perseverance where we think about giving up a little too much and joy in abundance.
go get em mate. what a special year this next year is for you. x
Indeed mate…strength where we’re weak, vision where we’re short-sighted and perseverance for sure. It’ll be fantastic to see you guys in April – sure we’ll talk before that.
please forgive me if this is too forward
my church is sponsoring Bible2010, an initiative to read through the whole Bible next year
we’d be honored if you and your church would join us on this journey of spiritual growth
either way, blessings on your upcoming marriage!
futurists – think i am one too. main problem is i keep surrounding myself with other futurist 😉
so i married the most practical and down to earth [and most beautiful!] person on the planet, who is so unflustered by the future that it keeps me sane, real and helpfully grounded!
looking forward to the big day!
rob