Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.” Joshua 3:5

 

Friend, what are your plans for tomorrow?  You are not sure, right?  Some have is the attitude, “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die!”  If that describes you, the something important is missing in your life–it is hope, hope that tomorrow will hold the answers to the questions and problems that have you baffled today.

Is it presumption to pin your hopes on tomorrow?  Not for a moment.   Some 61 times the Bible speaks of tomorrow.  While it warns about being presumptuous, about avoiding your duty or responsibility today, thinking that you will get around to something tomorrow – it nonetheless speaks of tomorrow as a new opportunity to see God do things which aren’t going to take place today.    Long ago Joshua told Israel to cleanse and purify themselves because Joshua told the people, (in his words) “tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you” (Joshua 3:5).

Is it only wishful thinking to focus on tomorrow?  No, and here’s why!  God doesn’t always give you instant solutions to the problems of today.  Some things can’t be fixed with the rapidity of making instant coffee or just saying the words, or waving a magic wand in the air.  But because you believe God is still in control – that the promises of His word are true – you rest your hope on tomorrow and face the day as best you can.

Read the biographies of those who have been unjustly imprisoned and you will learn that hope for tomorrow–that undying, unflagging belief that tomorrow things may be better–was the only thing that kept them alive.  In prison, men and women look out through the bars and the barbed wire and think about tomorrow.  People on hospital beds recover, at times from illnesses that should have taken their lives, when they refuse to give up and believe “tomorrow I will feel better.”

Today is the bridge that takes you to the sunrise of tomorrow!  And with the rising of the sun, there is new hope that your life can be different – that your life can be beautiful!

Do you remember the Broadway musical Annie?  There is a haunting and penetrating song sung by the heart-capturing redheaded little girl that goes, “Tomorrow, tomorrow.  I love you, tomorrow. You’re only a day away!”

The very good news is that nothing that ever happens in life comes as a surprise to our Heavenly Father, so when tomorrow arrives God will be there to welcome you and to take your hand and help you understand tomorrow can be beautiful!

Never, ever give up hope that tomorrow’s sunrise will bring tomorrow’s blessings and that as today’s dusk turns to night, there is rest and sleep to give you new strength to face tomorrow!

If you are one of those wonderful friends who often hear or read Guidelines, you know that I stress the importance of focusing on today and making the most of it; but I am also thankful that no matter how we have failed or fallen short of our potential today, as long as there is God and life, there is hope for tomorrow!  Hope is a marvelous medicine to your soul and a reason to keep on keeping on today, doing the best you can, leaving what you cannot change to God, who is in control of tomorrow.  The words of Joshua long ago, “… tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you” helps you get through the day and perhaps a long night as well.

Yes, tomorrow can be beautiful. As Annie sings, “Just thinking about tomorrow clears away the cobwebs and the sorrows till there’s none.” Friend, walk across the bridge of today and meet God as a new day dawns tomorrow.

Resource reading: Joshua 3: 1-17