What if

In the room on the top floor of our home, that I use as a study, I have a notice board where I can pin prayer reminders or telephone numbers or inspiring verses or quotes. One piece of paper pinned on the board carries some words attributed to Corrie Ten Boom. They are, ‘Worry does not empty tomorrow of sorrow, but it does empty today of strength’. Those words are really another way of expressing the words of Jesus when He told us not to worry about tomorrow, because today has enough troubles of its own. But they have caused me to think afresh on how often my own thoughts can drift from the present moment to worrying about something that may or may not happen in the future.

I recently had a routine medical screening that tested for the same condition that took my dad’s life earlier this year. My imagination went to very unhelpful places during the week I waited for the test results. When they finally came, they were clear and showed nothing to be concerned about. My fears and anxious thoughts of ‘what if …’ had been groundless. I had experienced something of the truth of Corrie Ten Boom’s words during that week of waiting.

After God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush and commissioned him to go and deliver the Israelites from their Egyptian slavery, Moses wanted to know who he should say had sent him. He wanted to know God’s name. The Lord’s simple, yet profound, reply to Moses was that he should say that ‘I AM’ had sent him. He wanted Moses and the Israelites, and us today, to know and trust Him as the God of now, the One who is ever present.

In our verse for today’s Seed God promises that, when we go through life’s deep waters, we won’t be overwhelmed, because He will be right there with us. It’s a promise that I so need to allow deeper into my own heart and to hold up as a shield of faith when the unknowns and ‘what ifs’ of the future threaten to rob me of today’s strength. I’ve found these words from the song ‘Your Faithfulness’ by Brian Doerksen so encouraging at times like that:

‘I don’t know what this day will bring.
Will it be disappointing or filled with longed for things?
I don`t know what tomorrow holds.
Still, I know, I can trust Your faithfulness.
I don’t know if these clouds mean rain.
If they do, will they pour down blessing or pain?
I don’t know what the future holds. Still, I know I can trust Your faithfulness.’

Prayer: Heavenly Father, please help me to live each day in the strength You give for that day, and to trust that whatever comes my way in the future, You will be there to uphold and carry me through whatever I have to face. Amen.