Prepare for the Future

Anybody can prepare for the future, but not everybody has faith. One of the main purposes of faith, if not really the only purpose for faith, is to prepare for the future. Most people, if they can, lay a little aside for the future, hoping to retire, or send their children through college, or buy that real estate that will afford a second home or maybe hit it big in the stock market, etc. But if you examine obituaries, grave sites and other memorials, the rich and the poor die alike. It is true, the rich have more to spend on their prolonged deathbed and their gravestones, but the poor die of the same diseases, accidents and disasters that the rich die from, only their deathbed is much shorter on average and the state disposes of their remains. If you ask some poor people, they will even tell you they used to be rich, but as the proverb says: "Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished, but he who gathers by labor will increase." Some of the poor who used to be rich prepared extensively for their future by investing in this or that scheme, but as happens only too often in this uncertain world, they were had. They have nothing to show for all their efforts.

But by and large, the ones who go after money obtain more wealth than those who don’t. They are in control of a lot more things than the poor. They can obtain better medical benefits when that cancer begins to eat away at their bodies, and they can feel good that they are leaving all their wealth to their loved ones. This is a fiction, of course. If we look at the record, someone else gets the wealth and the children end up with nothing because their parents are sickly, and doctors and lawyers are sucking up all that inheritance. Much elder care law in this country has to do with children abusing their parents in order to "get their fair share" of wealth from them before the doctors, lawyers and the state take it all!

This lesson seems to make no difference to most Christians, who continue to lay up treasure for themselves and are not rich toward God. They assure themselves they are planning for the future, doing the godly thing. But they fail to notice that their concern is for the things of this earth and not for the kingdom of God, which is not of this earth. When Jesus tells them to sell everything, give it to the poor and come and follow him, they assume it is a lesson for a rich man who thinks he is obedient to God and yet has a large problem with his possessions - not a lesson for themselves. They are deadly right on the first assumption: that this lesson is written to the wealthy; they are deadly wrong when they assume it is not a lesson correctly applied to themselves.

Jesus said not to worry about earthly gain. He said it in the Sermon on the Mount. But, you may say, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) was not written for us lamebrain Christians, but for somebody else in some future dispensation. You are a Dispensationalist, then, and you have a private interpretation for every prophecy in the Bible and you are ambivalent about every word written in the Bible. Can’t be helped, except by seeking God and asking for repentance.

But for those of us who seek a heavenly kingdom, and not an earthly fulfillment of things spiritual, we read that we are to seek the kingdom of heaven, first and only, and then food and clothing will be added as necessary by God. It takes a certain wisdom to understand and obey such commandments of Christ. It takes faith, doesn’t it? When we are attacked by the world for walking and talking the gospel, it usually takes the form of fear of the future. It also involves devilish advice on how to prepare for the future. But if we are to believe in God, then we must put our life here on earth in jeopardy, just as a small child trusts his father to catch him after he throws him into the air. Some children are not so sure. When they grow up into malicious adults, they conceive of all sorts of fakery to convince others they are Christians, all the while gobbling up all the worldly wealth they can maneuver out of some other brother’s hands.

If the reader thinks I’m extolling laziness, know that in my opinion, covetousness is better than laziness, but that’s just my opinion, and not scriptural at all. A man that doesn’t work shouldn’t eat, and that is scriptural. The church is loaded with culprits on welfare who waste that money and then try to leverage more out of the congregation. The church should let them starve. But I’m not talking about those people. I’m talking about people who make plenty money, more than necessary for food and clothing. Their gospel says that God doesn’t want them to suffer does He? Didn’t He bless them with all this worldly wealth anyway? Isn’t God in control of everything? Don’t all things work to the good of those who love God? I ask them, Didn’t the devil tempt Christ himself with these very ideas? These all claim faith and love, and yet the poor go neglected and the wicked remain comforted as a direct result of their selfishness and lack of faith.

But we will all stand before God on judgment day and give an account of things. If we were preparing for that, and that alone, then we would certainly change most of our behavior. But if the devil were able to trick us into thinking there is no judgment day for believers, then we would stop preparing and just love everyone and everything in our fakery, as witnessed by the modern church. Simon the Sorcerer believed and was convinced of the truth, but it did not do him any good. His covetousness kept him from going on in faith, and Peter said to him, "Thy money perish with thee!" Acts 8:20. And so we will all perish who put our trust in money, who envy others their wealth, who are in the gall of bitterness. We become like Simon, a man who wanted others to pay attention to him, who had a lot of people fooled for a while that he was the very power of God; but we will stand naked before God on judgment day and all these things will count against us.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We can be clothed upon with the righteousness that comes by faith. Our good works can adorn us, so we can have confidence in the day of judgment (1 John 3:19; 4:17). Instead of trusting in a righteousness that comes by trying to fool God we are worthy of His praise, we can humble ourselves before Him and cry out for mercy. He will lift us up and put us on the right path. We will be preparing for the future by living lives of obedience today. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! 1 Peter 1:3.

- Chris Simonson

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