Fear and the Future

A man ruled by fear cannot live in the present or face the future, and so he escapes into fantasy, dreaming of a painless tomorrow where responsibility, judgment, and consequence no longer exist, yet this dream world is only the refuge of sinners unwilling to face the truth about themselves as creatures under God. Such fantasies whether personal or political reject causality, deny judgment, and attempt to outlaw God Himself, but they only deepen fear because they are rooted in evasion and guilt. Only the man who confesses his sin and lives by the grace of God in Jesus Christ can face time honestly past, present, and future because judgment has been borne for him and death itself has been conquered. Living in reality under God, even amid trouble, is far better than the false comfort of sinful dreams, for the Christian knows that God reigns in the real world and therefore can meet each day without fear, saying with confidence, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Ps. 118:24).