By studying Luke 21, we can discover at least 4 things God wants you to do if you have any
fears about your future. And if you haven’t heard, there’s only
one more week to enroll in this semester at AGW University. AGW University is where I
offer in-depth, biblical relationship training courses. So if you want me to help you prepare
for your future marriage through these courses, the private one-on-one email coaching, and
whole lot more I won’t mention here for the sake of time, make sure you click the
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1. By Giving God All You Have Before You Lose It in the Future Anyways, You Will Overcome
Your Fears If you give God what you are afraid to lose,
you won’t be afraid to lose it anymore. You can’t lose what you’ve already given
away. In Luke 21:5-6, Jesus tells the disciples
that the temple they are marveling at will be destroyed. In Luke 21:7, they then ask
him, “Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things
are about to take place?” Jesus then spends the rest of the chapter explaining how they
should deal with the unknowns of the future and how they should prepare for it.
While this chapter is not about your personal fears about the future like, “Will I ever
get married?” or, “Will I ever find my calling?” or, “Will I ever make enough
money to provide well for my family?” – this chapter in the Bible does teach us some important
principles about dealing with fears about the future.
One point that is easily overlooked, however, is that Luke 21 doesn’t start out with Jesus
answering his disciples’ questions about the future. It actually starts out with a
lesson about a poor widow. Luke 21:1-4 states: “Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting
their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper
coins. And he said, ‘Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For
they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she
had to live on.’” When I was child and I heard this story, I
felt afraid for this widow. I though to myself, “How will she survive if she literally just
gave away all the money she had?” Now that I’m older, I now realize that was Jesus’
point. It makes sense that this story comes before Jesus’ instructions about overcoming
fears about the future. Through observing the actions of this widow, Jesus is teaching
us the key to overcoming our fears about the future. Remember, if you give God what you
are afraid to lose, you won’t be afraid to lose it anymore. You can’t lose what
you’ve already given away to God. The rich people in this story had yet to fully
trust in God to the level that this poor widow was trusting in God. She was not depending
on her money for survival. She was fully depending on God. She was able to give away all she
had because she knew all she had was never going to be enough to get her through the
trials ahead. She knew her only hope for survival was God providing for her.
In a way, all of us just have “two small copper coins.” We might think we are the
rich people in this story, but really we have nothing that will sustain us for the difficulties
ahead – we just haven’t realize it yet. Our only hope is God.
Are you afraid of losing out on a life of marriage? Give your relationship status to
God so you won’t fear losing this anymore. Are you afraid of missing your calling? Give
it to God so you won’t fear losing it anymore. Are you afraid of not having enough financially?
Dedicate all your finances to God so you won’t fear losing what you have anymore.
Whatever you are afraid of losing, dedicate it all to God. When you give your whole life
to him, you will lose the fear of losing it. 2. When You Accept Jesus Alone Has the Answers
You Need, You Won’t Fear the Future Anymore False teachers love to talk about the future
because they know people are afraid of the unknowns ahead. People want to know what will
happen next, so they are willing to listen to people who seem like they have the answers.
One sign of a phony is that they always make bold predictions about the future but they
never circle back and revisit those old predictions. They just keep making new predictions about
the future. They keep you listening by keeping you hoping. But they are liars, so they end
up just producing a false hope in you. Notice what Jesus said in Luke 21:8 to prepare
his disciples for the future, “See that you are not led astray. For many will come
in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them.”
Nobody knows the future but God. A good Bible teacher will not tell you what your future
is. A good Bible teacher will teach you how to prepare well for the future no matter what
that future is. A good Bible teacher will point you to Jesus because the only way you
can prepare well for the future is to follow God because he’s the only one who knows
your future. I may not know what he’s preparing me for,
be he knows. And that’s enough for me. 3. When You Accept that Your Future Will Have
Trials But God Will Use Them for His Glory, You Won’t Fear the Future
I don’t know the details of your future, but I know you will have your good days and
you will have your bad days. You will have your seasons of peace and you will have your
seasons of war. You will have your seasons of companionship and you will have your seasons
of conflict. You will have your seasons of new things coming and you will have your seasons
of old things leaving. You will have your seasons of abundance and you will have your
seasons of little. You will have your seasons on the peaks and you will have your seasons
in the valleys. We obviously don’t fear the good days, the
peace, the companionship, the new things coming, the abundance, and the peaks. We fear the
bad days, the wars, the conflict, the old things leaving, having little, and the valleys.
But notice what Jesus said in Luke 21:13-15 when he was telling his disciples they would
be persecuted. He said: “This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle
it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give
you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.”
The opposition in your future is really your opportunity to bear witness about Jesus. You
don’t need to prepare for every possible trial that could come your way in the future.
All you really need to do is settle it in your mind beforehand that you will rely on
God and not yourself no matter what happens. When you know deep down that no matter what
happens you are going to keep living for Jesus, fear about the future vanishes. The future
is widely unpredictable. It’s useless to try to predict the exact trials you will face.
Rather, it’s much wiser to simply prepare our hearts and minds to endure anything for
the name of Christ. As Jesus said in Luke 21:19, “By your endurance
you will gain your lives.” 4. By Paying More Attention to Your Own Heart
Than All the Noise on the Face of this Earth, You Will Lose Your Fear of the Future
There are always two struggles going on: there’s the internal and then there’s the external.
While we should not minimize the external trials in this life, we must not forget that
the real battle is for our hearts. Who will you listen to? Where will your attention
be? Will your focus be on everything around you? Or will you be taking care of your own
heart so you can follow the Lord well. In Luke 21:34-36 (NIV), Jesus said:
“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties
of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. For it will come on all those who
live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able
to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son
of Man.” Prayer in the present is the solution to fears
about the future. As I said at the beginning of this article,
if you are a Christian single person who wants to enroll in AGW University this semester,
the deadline to enroll is next Sunday, May 30th. These courses are not for everyone.
They are actually for a very specific type of person who is looking for help in a very
specific part of their life. So feel free to click the link in the description of this
video to see if this is something that would benefit you.