A Brighter Tomorrow is Possible

A Brighter Tomorrow is Possible

posted in: Inspiration | 0

A Brighter Tomorrow is PossibleI watched Disney’s Tomorrowland last night with my family. And while the story telling was a bit halting at times, the underlying message was compelling — what we believe about our future has a lot to do with what our future becomes.  If you believe there is a brighter tomorrow, a brighter tomorrow is possible.  If you believe there is no hope, there may be no hope.

At the heart of the narrative, this paradox of perception and reality intertwining is summarized by Britt Robertson’s Casey Newton, who tells the story of two wolves.

There are two wolves who are always fighting.
One is darkness and despair.
The other is light and hope.
The question is: which wolf wins?

The one you feed.

There are many variations of this old Cherokee fable — and every time I’ve heard it, it reminds me of the story of Jesus and the fig tree.

In the morning, as Jesus was returning to Jerusalem, he was hungry, and he noticed a fig tree beside the road. He went over to see if there were any figs, but there were only leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” And immediately the fig tree withered up. The disciples were amazed when they saw this and asked, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.” – Matthew 21 (NLT)

What you believe — truly, deeply, persistently — has an enormous effect on what you can accomplish.

If you wake up every morning and say, “oh no, not another day” you are actually holding yourself back from uncovering everything that God has in store for you that day.

On the other hand, if you roll out of bed every morning with, “God made today special just for me.  Let’s see what I can accomplish today!” then you are actually opening the door to a better today and a brighter future.

The battle for your mind is fought by the enemy to see if they can get you to give up, give in, accept defeat, retreat into despair, and stop believing.

You have the choice of what you are going to believe.

“You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”

I can tell you, if you are waiting for someone else to give you that faith, it is not going to happen.  It is a choice.  It is your choice.

You have seen the medical report.  You have been put on a performance improvement plan at work.  You have told your spouse it just isn’t working out between the two of you.  You’ve seen the financials, and your business is two weeks away from insolvency.

The question isn’t what the world is telling you.  It isn’t about the facts that are presenting themselves to you.  It isn’t about the emotions you feel about the situation you are in.  It isn’t about any external influence.

The battle for your mind is just that, a battle.  And unless you accept the premise of the fight, unless you realize the definition of victory, you will be defeated before you even start to fight.

Too many times it can seem simple to accept the input as the output, the stimulus as the response, the emotion as the answer, the circumstance as the outcome.

But I am here to tell you that,

“You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”

If you have faith.

Prayer is not effective if you are just telling God about all of the ways that you don’t believe He can make a difference.

How many prayers have you prayed that started with, “I don’t know if you care about this, but…” or “I know you’re busy running the universe, but…” or “I know I’m just one person, but….” — the list goes on.

The scariest step of faith, is accepting that we have faith.  “God, I know you love me.”  “God, I know you are invested in my success.”  “God, I know you are passionate about every human being you create.” — the list goes on.

“Who am I?” you might ask. “I don’t want to seem presumptuous.”

Isn’t it more presumptuous to ignore God’s explicit instruction to believe and impose upon Him a belief system and worldview that He doesn’t endorse and never taught?

God said,

“I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more.  You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen.”

Notice, He didn’t say, “You can ask me to move this mountain” or “You can pray and hope that this mountain will go away”.  He said, “You can even say to this mountain“.

What are you speaking over your life today?

What are you believing are the actual facts of your situation?

What do you believe is possible?

What are you saying to your mountains?

“If you have faith and don’t doubt”

How many times do you want the safety in your own mind of preserving your own doubts?  You feel like you want to be able to say, “I don’t believe this is possible, but if you want to do it, I’m listening.”

What God is saying, is that you need to step out of that fear.  You need to boldly place your faith in God, and tell your problems that they are not going to define you anymore, they are not going to scare you, hold you back, hold you down, or paralyze you anymore.  They don’t have the power of God in them, you have the power of God in you!

“You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.  You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.  No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” – Matthew 5 (NLT)

If you choose not to have faith, you are choosing to empower the enemy, not just in you, but in the world.

If you choose to step boldly into the light and declare your faith in a brighter day today and a brighter future tomorrow, you are choosing to accept the power that God has given you to change lives, change circumstances, and change outcomes — starting with your own.

 

Follow Steve Simons:

Bible Believing Follower of Jesus Christ. Preacher. Conservative. Republican. NRA Member. Chevy Truck Guy. "God's Answers Are Always Simple. God's Answers Always Work." #GraceRevolutionGeneration #IAmNotAfraid

Latest posts from

Share a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.