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She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
Proverbs 31:25
I catch a few moments of a news program featuring guests who are talking about the future. One predicts financial doom. Another shares a new medical condition that’s sure to wreak havoc on lives. The next encourages viewers to stockpile because you never know when the next natural disaster may strike. By the time the show is done, I’m ready to hide in my closet and never come out.
Yes, I believe in being wise about the future as well as what’s happening in our world. But there is a difference between wisdom and fear. That’s especially important to note as a new year has just begun.
So how do we live without fear of the future?
The ultimate God-sized dreams girl shows us how in the well-known Proverbs 31 chapter.
Here are a few of the God-sized dreams she pursued . . .
Being a wife of noble character
Real estate investing
Running a vineyard
Making a difference in the lives of the poor
Having a family who’s respected in the community
Living a beautiful life
Building a profitable business
Gaining wisdom
Scripture tells us, “She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks” (Prov. 31:17). This woman has a life full of verbs. She brings, selects, works, gets up, provides, considers, plants, sees, holds, grasps, extends, makes, sells, supplies, speaks, watches, and fears the Lord. While her virtues are often praised, it’s clear that all of them are more than simply beliefs. She’s a woman of action. Even in the small things, she’s always taking the next step.
When you are always taking the next step of obedience, fear of the future diminishes.
The only way to cure fear of the future is to be faithful with what’s been entrusted to you today—and to actually do it. Most of our fears are based on fantasy, “What if I release this book and no one wants it?” “What if I go to that get together to build relationships and no one wants to talk to me?” “What if I take this next step and it doesn’t work out the way I want?” As long as we stay in that stage, fear can reign because there’s no reality to conflict with our perception of what will happen.
Faith trumps fear not by simply wishing it away but by action. Many times when God says to His people, “Do not fear,” it is followed by some kind of specific instruction. He’s reassuring them and then showing them what they will need to do to replace that fear with faith.
In the life of the Proverbs 31 woman, we see this in two specific ways: strength and dignity. She is “clothed with strength and dignity”; therefore, she can laugh at the days to come.
Strength conveys that she’s willing to do whatever it takes to see God’s purposes for her life fulfilled. She doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk.
Dignity describes her character—how she conducts herself as she takes action.
Doing what you need to do right now and becoming who God wants you to be a little more each day are two of the best ways to face the future without fear.
I imagine the future trying to taunt the Proverbs 31 woman by telling her that she doesn’t have what it takes, that God’s plans for her will never unfold, that she is getting older by the minute. Her response? Laughter. “You silly future,” she might say, “I’m too busy to worry about you. I’m living what God has for me today—and I will do the same tomorrow too.”
We can join her as women who are confident our future is in God’s hands. And that means we can focus on what He has for our hands to do right here and now.
XOXO
Enjoy more encouragement like this: You’re Made for a God-sized Dream
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