The Road Ahead

The Road Ahead 

by David Brenneman 

‭"James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom (skill), let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." James 1:1-12.

Our finite minds can get us into so much trouble. We can easily justify our thinking in regards to pretty much any and all situations. Short of God sending someone into our lives to help correct our direction of travel, we would easily be over a cliff.  

Some believe the science fiction of the ability to build time travel equipment. To see what's coming with utter clarity. All the while no science fiction writer to date spells out the truth that such knowledge would drive a person insane. The futility of such things! The audacity that people might believe they are up to such a task! For when such a view is seen, it's immediately at risk of being changed! An endless loop is created. Such skill, such wisdom, can never reside within the mind of mankind. It belongs solely to the God of Heaven, to our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Why talk about such a scenario? Most people would like to know what's coming in order to avoid or change it so it's not so unpleasant. 

If we looked at the reality of it, a person with such an ability to know the future...would never trust in the Lord with all their heart. If they weren't driven insane from trying to understand every nuance of change and how it impacts the next they would not rely on anyone else. 

Dr. David Jeremiah, in his study Bible, says in the beginning of the book of Proverbs the word wisdom is translated skill. If you reeally read the opening passage from James, you will see (skill) after the word wisdom. I added that.  

We often do not know exactly what's coming in our daily lives. 

We who are in Christ are to trust our Great Shepherd with these things.

We build trust in Christ with our experiences in our lives. Dr. Charles Stanley writes of, as well as Dr. David Jeremiah, the need to remember our faith history. History, not our future. We can establish a good train of thought on how things might go by our history.  

I am often fascinated by science fiction writing, but I don't live in those worlds. They don't build me up in Christ.

We have no end of streaming video, movies, television, podcasts, audio books, internet search results that are available in this world.  

With wisdom, aka skill, these can be used to our advantage. To our detriment they can be our downfall.

The highest priority in the life of a Believer is to obey the Lord in all our ways. To not lean on our own understanding. 

We are to go through things to build us up for those things yet to come. Those things that are yet to come, had we known about them...and their enormity...would probably scare us to death at face value. Well they would had the Spirit not been teaching us bit by bit on dealing with lesser things.  

I am very fond of the first Karate Kid movie. The scene where Miyagi is explaining his training technique to a very dumbfounded Daniel who didn't see any of it until Miyagi finished explaining.  

We aren't going to understand much of what we have been through until later or we may be like Job and not know at all. Note that Job's experience did not cause him to stop trusting in the Lord with all his heart.

You, today, might be facing uncertainties. You might be face-to-face with unknowns that resemble mountains. 

You got where you are today, hopefully, through obedience to God's Word and through trusting God.  

These things are no different. 

I am facing some huge things, situations as Dr. Stanley always referred to them as, and I know from my Spiritual history that God's got this. It's not on me to worry. It's not on me to be impatient and grab the reins from Jesus to go a direction He’s not going all because it looks safer or better. 

Standing firm is what the Believer is to be doing. I liken that statement to "not giving ground". When military forces advance they stand firm. They hold their position until its time to advance again. They do their best to not give ground to their enemies.

How firm are you standing? How well are you in your relationship with Jesus? How much are you trusting in Him rather than yourself?

You who are in Christ have something that He wants of you to be doing. Are you doing it or have you been fighting it? Are you still waiting because you think you don't know enough about future things to choose? Trusting in the Lord means its ok to not know.

The Road ahead of you and I leads to Heavens gate. We must truly trust in the Lord with all our hearts and minds. Keeping the helmet of salvation in place to protect our minds from outside influences. Holding firm the shield of faith. Keeping the breastplate of righteousness over our hearts. 

All NASB 1995 and NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission. (C) Lockman Foundation.