About a week before leaving on a trip, I begin to check the long-term forecast for my destination on a daily basis. It’s interesting that the forecast one day will call for the sun to shine throughout the entire vacation, while the next day rain is predicted every day. Sometimes even the forecast for the very next day is not accurate! What do you do? How do you plan?
A new friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer some months ago. When I met her a week ago, the “forecast” called for sunshine: the cancer was in remission. Before the end of the week, her “forecast” changed. She was diagnosed with some kind of terminal cancer that travels through the cerebral spinal fluid…Yup, the “forecast” changed, and not for the better!
This made me think about the “forecasts” of this world, and how little we can actually rely on them. It is because of these “faulty” forecasts that the Bible advises us to not make too many set plans…“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow…” (James 4:13,14)
Fortunately for us, God knows our future before we even begin to walk it: “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.” (Ps 139:16, NKJV) As a result, we are instructed to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” (Jas 4:15, NKJV)
I don’t know what “forecasts” you have in your lives at the moment, friends. For some, the “forecast” is sunny and bright. For others, it is clouded over with financial difficulties, illnesses, job losses, relationship problems, family difficulties, and a myriad of other things that can darken our lives. May I encourage each of you to stop putting your trust in human “forecasts”? Instead, let’s all remember God’s promises: “If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall fall on me,’ Even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.” (Ps 139:5-12, NKJV)
During our recent vacation, we had checked and rechecked the weather forecast for our daytrip to Luxemburg, and the message was clear: We would have nothing but rain. In the end we decided we preferred Luxemburg “rain” to any other…Nary a drop fell from a completely cloudless sky. Let’s remember that when we leave God is in charge of our future, no matter what we see around us, He will make it beautiful, in His time (Eccl 3:11). We truly will have “Luxembourg Rain!”
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two, Author — “Aboard God’s Train — A Journey With God Through the Valley of Cancer”, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, with Answers2Prayer Ministries. Follow Lyn on Twitter @lynchaffart.