Beware the Crosses of Anxious Foreboding

Fenelon 1651-1715

The crosses of the present moment always bring their own special grace and consequent comfort with them; we see the hand of God in them when it is laid upon us. 

But the crosses of anxious foreboding are seen out of the dispensation of God. We see them without the grace to bear them; we see them indeed through a faithless spirit which banishes grace. So, everything in them is bitter and unendurable; all seems dark and helpless. 

Let us throw self aside. Tolerate no more self-interest, and then God's will, unfolding in every moment in everything, will console us also every moment for all that He shall do around us, or within us, for our discipline.

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The crosses which we make for ourselves by a restless anxiety as to the future, are not crosses which come from God. We show want of faith in Him by our false wisdom, wishing to forestall His arrangements, and struggling to supplement His Providence by our own providence. The future is not yet ours; perhaps it never will be. If it comes, it may come wholly different from what we have foreseen. Let us shut our eyes, then, to that which God hides from us, and keeps in reserve in the treasures of His deep counsels. Let us worship without seeing; let us be silent; let us abide in peace.

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Let us then think only of the present, and not even permit our minds to wander with curiosity into the future. This future is not yet ours; perhaps it will never be. It is exposing ourselves to temptation to wish to anticipate God, and to prepare ourselves for things which He may not destine for us. If such things should come to pass, He will give us light and strength according to the need. Why should we desire to meet difficulties prematurely, when we have neither strength or light as yet provided for them? Let us give heed to the present, whose duties are pressing. It is fidelity to the present which prepares us for fidelity in the future.

Henrietta Louisa Sidney Lear

A constant anticipation of evil which perhaps never will come, a foreboding which takes away life and energy from the present, will simply hinder and cloud the soul, and make it timid and sad. If troublous thoughts as to the future will press, darkening a bright present, or hurrying on coming clouds, the safest thing is to offer them continually as they arise to God, offering too the future which they contemplate, and asking for grace to concentrate our energies on the immediate duties surrounding us. Many have dreaded troubles which they thought must come; and while they went on ever expecting to make the turn in their path which was to open out fully to the evil, lo!, they found that they had reached the journey's end and were at the haven where they would be.

Elisabeth Elliot

To take on the burdens of tomorrow

is to sap the strength needed 

to carry out the work assigned for today.

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It is not for the flock of sheep to know 

the pasture the Shepherd 

  has in mind. 

It is for them to simply follow Him.