As a college student, I think about the future constantly. What am I going to do after I graduate? Will I go to graduate school? Will I take a gap year? Will I get a job somewhere? The future is scary because no matter how hard you try, you can't plan for it. God did not design the human mind to figure out the future. He crafted it for continual communication with him. Talking to him about your fears, your hopes, and your plans is the best way to plan for your future. God calls us to turn from the path of planning to the path of peace. He created us to do so much more than we can imagine, but we will never experience it if we try to plan our life on our own.
Proverbs 16:9 says, "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." This says to me that even if we try to plan our life out, God will always have his hand on our lives. He created us for a purpose and that purpose will be revealed to us when we surrender attempting to plan our lives. God has put desires and passions in our hearts to ultimately glorify him. He wants us to pursue those passions by taking delight in him. "Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4
Fantasizing about future happiness will never bring fulfillment because fantasy is unreality. God is so much more real than the world we see around us. His reality is eternal and unchanging and he wants us to be happy now. He wants us to rejoice in his presence now and leave tomorrow in his hands.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:25-34
