thoughts and ruminations while in exile (1 Pet. 2:11)

Kevin DeYoung, in his book, Just Do Something says Christians get anxious about the future because they try to live "out the future before it gets here." In chapter three of his book, which is cleverly entitled, "Our Magic 8-Ball God," DeYoung writes:

"Our fascination with the will of God often betrays our lack of trust in God's promises and provision. . . . We don't just want His word that He will be with us; we want Him to show us the end from the beginning and prove to us that He can be trusted. We want to know what tomorrow will bring instead of being content with simple obedience on the journey. . . . And so we obsess about the future and we get anxious, because anxiety, after all, is simply living out the future before it gets here."

Focus on James 4:13-15:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”