Your Future is Today

Words: Dr. Wayne Cordeiro

Where will you be five or ten years from now? What kind of person do you want to be? Each of us has a preferred future in our imagination:

• A great marriage and healthy family

• A satisfying vocation or job that provides more than enough to fulfill all your financial goals

• A spiritual health that gives you the confidence of God’s favor

But close your eyes and think of what you will be like in five or ten years if you continue to procrastinate? Where would you be if you left everything to chance? Where would you be if you remained lazy and did nothing?

Think about what your life will look like in five or ten years.

• How much debt would you be in?

• How many jobs would you have been fired from?

• How much weight have you put on?

• What would your marriage look like?

• How would you feel about a shallow faith?

If you left everything as it is, all these will be tomorrow’s reality, and tomorrow will arrive before you know it! Remember: if you don’t pursue your dreams with action, it’s not a dream. It’s a hallucination.

Throughout the Bible, I have seen that the smartest and strongest aren’t always the ones who attain fulfilled lives. I know some very smart people stuck in the mud of procrastination.

In fact, it seems like the most basic requirement for God’s blessing is one thing: A willingness to act; to step forward. It’s a person who fills out an application, who sends an email to ask for help, who signs up for a class or clinic.

It was only three months after I became a Christian that I applied to Eugene Bible College (now New Hope Christian College).

• I made a phone call

• I paid a fee

• I gave my notice to the apartment I was renting in Portland

Nothing was guaranteed, but I launched my boat! I didn’t have a job yet in Eugene, but I acted on my dream. I wanted to be used by God, and I knew I needed preparation, maturity, examples of faith, and more knowledge of God’s Word. So, I made a commitment that would shape my future.

Now it is today … and my today was once my yesterday’s future. I can now look back and see that it all became reality because of action, not procrastination. Step into your future, and with each step, your future will no longer be a pipe dream. It will be a dream fulfilled.

“I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “Plans not for your calamity, but for your welfare, that you might have a future and a hope!” (Jeremiah 29:11)