Fear of the future—also known as anticipatory anxiety—is one of the most common struggles in the Western world, plaguing both young and old. This fear manifests itself in a variety of ways, including trouble focusing, decreased motivation, low energy, high blood pressure, and insomnia.
Perhaps you’re experiencing it now. You’re looking at your calendar and to-do lists for the next few months, feeling your stomach churn at the mountains ahead of you. Maybe you’re thinking about a relational conflict that will come to a head soon. Your heart rate rises as you consider the myriad of possible outcomes. Perhaps it’s a big life change on the horizon—a move, a new job, a child going off to college—that’s keeping you up at night.
Beyond the physical effects, fear of the future wreaks havoc on our spiritual lives, filling our time with stagnant anxiety when it could be filled with spiritual vitality and growth. As Corrie ten Boom observed, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.”
What can we do when we find ourselves paralyzed by anticipatory anxiety?
Battle of the Mind
Psalm 64:1 is a prayer we all desperately need to keep close—especially with a new year full of unknowns upon us: “O God . . . preserve my life from dread of the enemy.”
Most of our lives are spent not actually fighting our enemies, but only the dread of them. Often our deepest anxieties are not over something in the past—or even something in the present—but something in the future. The idea of what might happen. Something hypothetical in our mind.
Afraid of what might happen tomorrow, our joy is stripped in the present.
Afraid of what might happen tomorrow, our joy is stripped in the present.
Yet we’re called to take refuge in God not only when the future comes, but right now with our fears about the future (Ps. 64:10). As Paul writes to the Corinthians, we’re to “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).
If we don’t take our thoughts captive, they will take us captive. And that’s exactly what the enemy wants. He wants you to be ruled by your worry and taken captive by your fears. Satan wants to double-dip. He wants you to live in despair while you’re in trials and live in dread while you’re not. As long as he can keep you in dread or despair, he can keep you from joy.
Fortunately, we have a defense for both kinds of attack. God’s refuge stretches beyond the battlefield and into the barracks, where the battle of the mind is often fought.
Taking Thoughts Captive
The primary way we take our thoughts captive is not by suppressing them or distracting ourselves from them, but by informing them—especially with God’s promises.
Satan wants you to live in despair while you’re in trials and live in dread while you’re not.
There are many promises we can turn to in our worry, but one of the most important (and oft-repeated) is God’s promise of daily provisions (Ex. 16:4; Lam. 3:23; Matt. 6:11, 34; 2 Cor. 4:16; Heb. 3:13).
Be careful not to miss the timing contained in this promise. If you don’t feel the strength right now to handle what will happen tomorrow, don’t be surprised! God hasn’t given you today the strength you need for the rest of your life. He doesn’t promise that.
God does promise to give you today the grace you need for today, and he promises to give you tomorrow the grace you need for tomorrow.
Our mission is clear: Live for God today, trust God for tomorrow. The only thing that’s certain about tomorrow is that God will give you fresh mercy for it (Lam. 3:23).
Ultimate Hope
We can have hope not because we know the future, but because we know the character and promises of God.
Our ultimate hope isn’t in our ability to figure out the future; our ultimate hope is in God, who holds the future in his sovereign and loving hands. God is for you (Rom. 8:31), he has good planned for you (Rom. 8:28; Eph. 2:10), he will never leave you (Heb. 13:5), and he will stop at nothing to deliver you from your enemies (Rom. 8:32). Let’s commit to trusting him today!
Prayer: Heavenly Father, forgive me for the countless hours I’ve spent needlessly worrying about the future (Matt. 6:34). Help me to trust your wise rule and loving heart when fears about the future arise. Be an anchor for my soul when the waves of life threaten to upend me (Heb. 6:13). Thank you for your presence, your promises, and your salvation—let me rest in these today. In Christ’s name, Amen.
The Gospel Coalition