DON'T DEFINE YOUR FUTURE BY YOUR PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES.
TEXT:
"You will also declare a thing, And it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways. When they cast you down, and you say, ‘Exaltation will come!’ Then He will save the humble person." (Job 22 verses 28 to 29, New King James Version).
Never allow your present debilitating circumstances of life to dictate your future. Things may look very bad with you now, but as a child of God, that is not to say that it's finished with you. Only God determines what happens to you. Others around you may not believe in your future because of what they see happening to you, but not you. It's spiritually fatal to agree with them and to resign yourself to what's happening around you.
Rather than agree with the devil's plots against you, start making declarations of what you want to see in your life, especially in line with God's Word. That's the meaning of our Scripture reading for today "You will also declare a thing, And it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways." God has promised that as you make declarations, "light will shine on your ways." This is very reassuring! It continues, "When they (your enemies) cast you down, and you say, ‘Exaltation will come!’ Then He will save the humble person." (Emphasis added). In other words, much depends on what you say in response to what you are seeing around you.
This is so important! In 1st Samuel 4 verses 19 to 22, Phinehas' wife, upon hearing that the Ark of the Covenant had been captured by the Philistines became very exasperated about it that she named her new born son "Ichabod", meaning "the glory has departed". In effect, she had named her future by the present event around her. She shouldn't have done so. Alternatively, she could have named him "Yāshūv ha-kāvōd", meaning "the glory will return." Her problem, like most of God's children, is that she became overwhelmed by the ugly event of the moment that she literally capitulated or surrendered herself and her future to it, believing that no good thing lay in her future. By doing so, she had sealed her future by her word.
Remember that God says in Jeremiah 29 verses 11 to 12, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you"
Child of God, in God's agenda, there's a future ahead of you, and a beautiful one for that matter. Don't scuttle God's bright future for you by yourself through your thoughts, words or utterances. It doesn't matter how bad things may look right now. God is your Redeemer, and nothing is too difficult for Him to do (Jeremiah 32 verse 17). Henceforth, learn to name your future by what you desire and expect to see happen to you. In other words, declare instead God's redeeming Word to counter whatever ugly situation you may be in at the moment.
PRAYER:
Father, thank You for planning a future for me, notwithstanding what is happening around me. I resolve to declare your will and blessings for me, instead.