Rabbi Schneider - Why You Should Not Fear the Future
Great scripture, beloved one, something that you and I really wanna warfare into through prayer. What do I mean by warfare into, through prayer? I mean like sometimes we hear scriptures and we say it's a great scripture, but we don't really meditate on it. We don't really focus on it. We kind of let it roll off our back. It's like, oh, that was good and we move on. But listen to this word that I'm gonna read from Romans 8:39, "neither height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus". Nothing can separate us from God's love. The scripture writer goes on to say, "things past, things present, or things to come. Nothing can separate you or I from the love of God", why is this such a big deal? Because what this means is that wherever we go, God is there.
A lot of times we spend time worrying about the future, worrying about what might happen tomorrow, worrying about what might happen in this conversation or in this situation. And the reason we spend time worrying about it is because when we have these diluted thoughts, these defile thoughts about the future in those defile thoughts, God is not there. We have these vain imaginations about what's gonna happen in the future that produce fear. But if you'll examine those fearful thoughts that you're having about the future, you'll notice that God is not in those thoughts.
But here's the secret, when you get to the future, God's gonna be there. You're not gonna face the future without God, but wherever you go, you're gonna face the future with God. And because you're gonna be with him, he's gonna be there with you. You'll never be separated from his love and his love will be sufficient to guard us and protect us. I remember an incredible story about, I think he was from China and he was being tortured for his faith in Jesus. It was brutal torture for years in prison. And eventually he was released and he was able to move out of the country. And he literally missed those times that he was in prison being beaten and tortured cause he said he experienced the intimacy of Jesus in such a great way when he was there.
I wanna close by sharing this story with you, I not too long ago, heard a story about a woman that had a fear of getting fired. Week after week after week went by, she was afraid of getting fired. Finally, after all this fear that went on for so long, her boss called her in one day and he told her, I'm sorry, we're going to be releasing you. And she said, when the boss called her in the office and released her, she wasn't even afraid. Why? Because God was there. Let's reign in our thoughts, beloved. Let's cast down every thought that exalts itself above the knowledge of God. And when we're worrying about the future, that's a thought that needs to be cast down because neither heighth or depth, breath or width, things present, things past, or things to come will ever separate you or I from the love of God. We can face the future with confidence because we're always in the Lord.