God has plans for us and they are plans for good, plans for a future with a solid hope attached to it (Jeremiah 29:11).  

Now let’s check out Jn 14: 1-6

 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.  And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

The key to this passage is “Don’t let your heart be troubled.” If I am troubled or fear the future, it's my fault. That’s disturbing because when I am anxious and fearful, I like to shift the blame to somebody other than me. For example,  “We were promised a financial Christmas bonus and it didn’t come. Now look at the mess I’m in! I was counting on that money.” See, I can blame the company for my fear and anxiety but the truth is if I actually believed God was meeting my needs as He promised, I wouldn’t need to blame anyone--I would have the peace that passes understanding and figure God would provide another way.

But we live in a world that screams at us that circumstances and people are to blame for our anxiety.  When we listen to that voice, our emotions are imprisoned to the circumstances and people around us and then the best thing we can do is try and ride them out and not get thrown into a ditch.  That’s no way to live.

Jesus’ implication is that we don’t need to be afraid. He implies in those verses we shouldn’t be afraid but rather take control of our heart and not allow it to fear or be afraid of the future. If my fear is because of someone else or some dire circumstance or some kind of world chaos, there’s nothing I can do so I become a victim with a victim’s mentality.  Even worse, if my fear is caused by circumstances or people, I am now without hope and I can only try and control and live with that fear so it doesn’t wreck me. That’s how the devil would want us to live. Sure, I’ve heard people say things like: “Well, if you’d seen what cancer did to my dad you wouldn’t be talking so bravely.” I’m not saying scary things don’t happen, I’m only saying Jesus said to not let our hearts be troubled and to believe in Him. Maybe if I truly believed I’d be OK.

Safely in the care of Jesus, my future is not capable of bringing fear to me unless I allow it. The anxiety of your life is  there because you are allowing yourself to respond anxiously even though there are other options. What did I say earlier: We are imprisoned by our emotions and we are along for the ride if we allow it. Emotions say, “If you feel it, do it!” Advertisers try to move that shiny thing  you see on the television from a want to a need, which is emotional manipulation/motivation. Fear is the same thing--it drives you from the peace of God’s care to being anxious.

So, what’s my alternative if I don’t have to be anxious? Jesus said, “Believe in God.” How many of you believe in God. Do you? Do you really believe in Him or do you just believe He exists out there somewhere. For many, He is just there for the 911 calls. None of us of course.

“Believe” here means to rely on, trust in, abandon yourself completely to God’s care and love. Here’s the choice. Either have an anxious heart driven by emotional responses or abandon your cares to God through a living and true belief in Him. 

You may be thinking, “What about my future?” Shouldn’t we be concerned about what may be coming?  Well, how much of it can you really control? You say, “We are going to lunch after church. I can control that.” Wanna bet? You simply can’t control the future.  How many of you see any similarity in what happened last year to how you had it planned? Plans are good but plans fall apart because all sorts of things are coming in our future that we can’t even imagine--some really good and maybe some bad. 

You may be planning a nice lunch after church but you might get to the restaurant and find out it’s closed for remodeling. Your future isn’t controllable.  What are you absolutely sure will happen tomorrow? Scary isn’t it. 

It’s only scary if the future comes at you without purpose. But what if Jeremiah 29:11 is true? You don’t have some willy nilly future that randomly comes at you like bugs splattering against a windshield--you have a future custom made for you. Jesus is called in Hebrews the  “Author and Finisher” of our faith. The book He wrote with you as the main character has a happy ending.

What if there is a God and what if His future is yours? Jesus said, “Believe in God and believe also in me because I am preparing a place for you.” That’s not way off in the future. That just means there is a future place and that He is coming again and He will take us there, but there’s more to our future than that. Jesus  is saying I have a future for you now. I’m preparing a tomorrow for you now. When Jesus says He is preparing a place for you He isn’t just speaking about a hotel that all of you can come to--it’s a place just for you,  tailor made. When you walk in you will say, “This is home.” Color coordinated, wood floors or whatever it is you want. A future custom made for you.  

The life I have right now I could have never gotten to by my own design or plans and my life right now is absolutely perfect for Jackie and I. When I met her about 48 years ago I never dreamed what our future would be like today. What started off as a normal kind of life with a good job, a few houses & kids, all of a sudden got out of our control and turned into one missionary adventure after another so that over the course of 31 years we often weren’t sure where we would be living, or even sleeping sometimes, or how we would be paying our bills and what God could possibly do next to amaze and surprise us. 

We started in Pompano, Florida, a beach town, and went all over the world and God brought us back to another beach town, living in our mobile home here in St. Augustine and God says, “I have prepared a place for you.” I’m living in the place God prepared for me before Creation happened right now, and tomorrow I’ll be in the place He prepared for me then. Do you understand. It was within our ability to step into His future as He brought it to us. It wasn’t us designing a future and begging Him to make it come true.

 You can’t design your future: all you have is now and when that goes by it is gone and you can’t get it back.  I know that the future happens later on and you can’t reach out and grab “later on” until you get there. You only have the present and all God wants from you today is to be present with Him and ready to trust Him.

That’s why we must do today, well. When you do today well, you will be prepared for the future He brings you tomorrow. He gave you today, it’s a gift to you--embrace it.  You might say, “But my husband is a pain in the neck.” Well, welcome to the human race. All husbands are a pain in the neck once in a while--except for Jackie’s. The way you do today well is to make the next right decision. That’s how you do it.

Christ will always bring to you in your today opportunities. He puts the option right in front of you. Usually, it’s small. It’s not always something life-changing or magnanimous. 

Then how does the Holy Spirit deliver you from all the terrible stuff that goes on, you wonder? He does it by intercepting your life today and showing you right decisions, redemptive options. That is the sovereign power of God working on your behalf.  It’s not just His power it’s Him bringing options we can choose. Every right choice opens more just like wrong choices usually lead to 5 more bad ones. That’s how it is for right choices, too. You make a right choice today and it leads you to make another one tomorrow. Before long, you look back and realize you are going in the right direction, away from the chaos of your wrong decisions. You have today. Live it well. Make the next right decision. God gives you everything you need for today. When Jesus said, “Take no thought for tomorrow…,” He may have been serious. 

For some, the next right direction is to really believe in God. To believe in Him so much you really trust Him with today and tomorrow. That you trust Him in your pain, the questions, the uncertainties, the things you don’t know how to grapple with, the brokenness, the family crisis, economic impossibilities. We must believe in God through Christ. We do that because Jesus is the only way to get to God.

If I didn’t know, I might ask, “Which way do I have to go to get to Palm Coast?” You’ll reply, “South on I-95.” “But I don’t want to go south on I-95. South is hot, dry and ugly. I prefer going north because it is so much cooler and nicer. Who are you to be telling me I have to go south to get to Palm Coast?” “But don’t you want to go to Palm Coast?” “Of course I do, but you are being narrow minded and  telling me I have to go south. Is there only one way to get to Palm Coast?”   

Jesus said He is the way, the only way to God. Jesus brings you to God and God comes to you through Jesus. That’s it. “Well I don’t want to go that way. I don’t want to get to God through Jesus. I like Buddha--He’s cooler.” “But Jesus is the only way to get to God.” That’s not being narrow minded--that’s just reality. If you want to get to God, you can’t get there through Buddha. I didn’t make the rule, Jesus did. If you want to go to Palm Coast, hop on a bus and go north and see how that works out for you! Just don’t get mad at the bus driver when you wind up in Jacksonville.

How do I make it through the day. Jesus said He’s the way. How do you handle broken relationships. He’s the way. A family crisis? He’s the way. Unemployment? He’s the way. I can’t tell you how God will meet your needs. I don’t know. He meets mine and I’m not even sure how He does it at times. I can just tell you what He said: “I’m preparing a place for you.” 

Deep inside of you is a place where no one else can come and you can’t describe, but it is deeply and utterly you, below your outward facade, your fears, emotions, that place where you can discover Jesus, the Way.  It’s there where you will hear the next right step. It doesn’t come as a blast but rather as an impression or a gentle nudge, something you could probably pass off. That’s the way Jesus takes you. Hear Him. Don’t work so fast or network so fiendishly that you miss you and Him in that soulful place because Jesus through His Holy Spirit is the only one who can prepare your future because He has already been there and knows how everything works out.

If you don’t invite Him into that soulful place you will feel empty, lonely and like an orphan. Invite Him into that inner space where you two can live together. 

In Christ, Your life is no longer singular but plural--Him and you facing each day as it purposely comes to lead you to your future hope.

I’ll close with  Hebrews 3: 6-8  

But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ. That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.''