The future can be a problem to people with a lot of unknowns. Especially if you have a series of potential disasters looming and don’t know what the future will hold. Will it get even harder and will you be able to cope? What will your life be like then? The future is a big concern, especially for people with physical trials like cancer. I know that in my long trial of illness, I wondered what the future would be and thought that if I just knew what was coming I could handle it better. But, was that what I really wanted? What if God revealed it to me and it was even worse than I had imagined? I could crumble at the thought. No, better leave the future to God and get grace for each day. The future is too big of a weight for anyone to carry except God.

In dealing with unknowns, I found that I needed to change the way I thought, to think outside the box. The trial was hard enough in itself without my making it harder by all the conflicting emotions that could trip me up. In order to lighten my heavy burden I needed to learn to think about things in a different way. I could know the future, at least some of it. When the future became ‘today’ I could know that God would take my hand and walk me through whatever was appointed for me, giving me His strength and aid, then working good through it all. That was a fact I could hold onto now. I could know that much of the future.

God doesn’t give grace for the future because it is not real yet, so I was not to go there, unless a decision had to be made. I was to walk day by day, hour by hour with my hand in His, knowing He was in perfect control, and everything would ultimately be okay. He would get me through, no matter how hard, and His idea of victory and mine weren’t necessarily going to be the same, but that wasn’t my concern. I just needed to hang onto the promises that God is good, He is in control, and He will never leave me nor forsake me (Hebrews 13:5). He will make sure that the trial is not more than I can bear (I Corinthians 10:13). That is all I needed to know about the future. God can even trump dire statistics and my gloomy premonitions if He wanted to. When I looked at the future in this light, it was just one less stress I had to carry, which would ease my overall burden. It was realizing that part of the burden I was carrying was also in my mind, and I wanted to minimize what I mentally carried by actively giving over to God the burdens that I was never meant to carry.

Another way I could think differently about my situation was to completely admit how weak I was, and how utterly dependent I really was on God. He created our frame and knows that we are but dust. That is no mystery to Him, but in our self independence and reliance, we can often forget this, especially when things are going well. It truly is a relief to realize our inherent weakness and our need to lean hard on God in everything, especially in how we are handling the trial emotionally.

Since our bodies and emotions are tied together, it is not surprising, nor a sin for our emotions to be ‘low’ when our bodies are down. The important thing is what we do with our mind in that state. A person who is feeling low is a sitting duck for being tempted to sin (giving in to worry and despair), so the person must be prepared to fight all the harder to not go under. I find it amazing that God asks us in our weakest state to fight our hardest mental battles. It is like taking a person from the intensive care unit of the hospital and putting them out on the front lines of a battle and expect them to keep standing. This would be a certain disaster, except for one thing. When you are weak, then you are strong because God is strong on your behalf and the victory is completely His.

“And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:8).

You will have to fight all the lies that there is no hope and that you might as well just give up. But on the other hand, you have a God who asks you to fight by believing in faith that there is hope even when you can’t see it. And after you obey, He starts to give you eyes to see what He says is true.

“who, contrary to hope, in hope believed,…” (Romans 4:18a).

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you ay abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

What does it mean to fight? Ephesians 6:16 shows us, when Paul states:

“above all taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”

Whenever a doubt or anxious thought is lobbed at you, you get out your shield of faith and believe God’s promises. You are countering the doubt with scripture. You are fighting lies with truth. When you put your shield of faith up, you are standing behind that truth and the doubt will fall to the side.

In a battle, you have to choose what you believe and where you will stand, and then you remain there to the end. You have to learn how to fight and lean on His strength to become stronger. And as you become stronger, you are up more than you are down. Being down is when a doubt or worry gets past the shield and you end up slain in a puddle of worry. Have you been ultimately defeated? No, only momentarily, because of the power of Christ behind you. Therefore, you confess your sin, take God’s hand, stand back up. You take up your shield again and fight, by believing the promises of God. You listen carefully to your heavenly coach as He teaches you how to stand strong.

 “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5b).

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).