roadcrew 40|3

Christians, have you ever been in a situation where you had something, let’s say a package of cookies? There are 6 left and you eat three? Then you pause a moment and eat the other three cookies, not thinking much of anything.  Flash forward 1 day and you really wish you had some cookies left, the problem…you didn’t think of your future self.  I know for myself, I have been there many times.  

In today’s society we do not think about our future selves enough.  When we are spending money at the mall, we are not thinking of the future-self who has to pick up extra shifts to pay the bills.  When we’re having that third piece of pie during the holidays, we are not thinking of the future-self running on that treadmill trying to work off those extra holiday pounds.  When we don’t brush our teeth, we are not thinking of the future-self with the dentist’s drill in our mouth.  Too many times we focus on the here and now, our immediate circumstances, and we make decisions that will be affecting our future selves for the next months, weeks, years, or decades to come.  I challenge you to pause, take some time, think about the physical things you “want” to do and think for a moment about the “future” you and how that will affect their life, because it will be YOUR life very soon.

This translates to the spiritual side Christians.  The current self watching TV does not think about the future self that is in a time of testing when you need the Word of God in your life, but you were busy watching TV, not reading the Word.  The current self is not thinking about praying for the future self.  We tend to be mostly “after the fact” type Christians.  Something bad happens, we frantically pray for God to “fix” it or make it better, but what if we could have prevented it?  Different times in the Bible, men of faith interceded with God and changed His mind, Moses for one, Abraham for another.  

Then there is the eternal future self.  In eternity, we will be the eternal “us” forever, but we all too often make so many decisions without thinking about the future eternal us.  Christians, if we could get this reality in our minds, and have it be the focus of our efforts, we could really change our eternal destiny forever.  We could live all surrendered to God, we could walk in power and love boldly.  If we thought about the eternal us, standing before Jesus, ready to receive our rewards, it would motivate the current us to go so much further after God.  Whatever you do, whether it is passing on a piece of pie, or skipping the sale, or praying/ministering/serving.  If you choose WISELY, your future self will thank you, In Jesus Name, Amen.

She defiled herself with immorality and gave no thought to her future.  Now she lies in the gutter with no one to lift her out.  “Lord, see my misery,” she cries.“The enemy has triumphed.”  Lamentations 1:9 (NLT)

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Christ you are serving.  Colossians 3:23-24

Luke 19 is the parable of the Minas.  I believe this is an example of why it’s important to think about the future. God gives us all the same ability to serve Him on the earth. In the parable, the ones who earned minas were thinking of their future self standing before the master, the one who didn’t, was obviously not thinking about his future self, standing in judgement having done NOTHING with what he was given.

“I have seen these people the Lord said to Moses, and they are a stiff-necked people.  Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them.  Then I will make you into a great nation.”  But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God.  “Lord, he said, why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?”  Exodus 32:9-11 (NIV)

written and posted by Daniel Poggensee | 2017