Don’t be presumptuous! Planning is often a part of a new year. If that is true of you, either personally or for your ministry or both, James gives us an essential perspective on that planning: “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15) James doesn’t condemn planning; he calls out those who plan without regard for God and his sovereignty. He tells those who plan independently to remember life's uncertainty and brevity. Considering that uncertainty and brevity, he tells us to plan with humility, remembering: 1) We only live each day by the will of God. 2) Whatever plans we have will only come if God so wills. As we plan, let’s not fall into the trap of our independent American culture that has a “big” view of ourselves and a “little” or no view of God. Instead, let’s plan to utilize James’ advice.

Posted by Bob Schindler - Community Host at 2023-01-03 14:15:54 UTC