To Encourage You

James 4:13-14 “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.”

So, what are your plans for today? How about for tomorrow, next week, next month, or even next year?   Have you told anyone about them?  What about God? Have you told Him? Have you asked Him about any of it? 

In the passage above James speaks to us about the folly of living our lives as if it’s all up to us.  He’s speaking to those who may have the attitude penned by William Ernest Henley in his famous poem “Invictus” which ends with the following words: “I am the captain of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.” Well, according to James, there may not have ever been any more foolish words ever written.  You see, the problem with planning is not the planning itself. Rather, it’s planning that is done in a vacuum.  It’s the thinking that what we do and when we do it can be done as if the sovereign God of the universe doesn’t exist.  It’s the height of folly.  The Bible even calls it arrogance in James 4:16. James warns us – “you do not know what tomorrow will bring.”  We all know this, don’t we, but how often do we act as if it isn’t true? 

Jesus warned about this attitude in His parable of the rich fool in Luke 12, where He said, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully,and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Sober warnings, aren’t they? Yet, how many of us heed them in our day-to-day life?  How many of us heed the wisdom of Solomon who told us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6)?  Do you hear that?  He says, “Do not lean on your own understanding.” In other words, hold your plans loosely. Your understanding is deficient. You don’t know what tomorrow will bring.  You don’t know what’s best for you.  You don’t even know if you’ll live out the day!  So don’t act as if it’s otherwise.  Rather, in all your plans keep the Lord first and foremost in your life. 

Jesus said, “Follow me.” Therefore, we should do just that.  We should pray.  We should read God’s Word.  We should seek first and foremost to bring our desires and actions into line with His desires for us.  We should be people who live in a way that is committed to the One “who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14).  You see, that’s the life of wisdom, as opposed to the those about whom James warns us, which is the exact opposite, i.e., the life of a fool.  As we go through our day, we should hold our plans loosely. We should make the most of every opportunity to glorify God, opportunities that God sovereignly brings across our path.  If we live every day like this, with an attitude that “whether (we) eat or drink, or whatever (we) do, (we) do (it) all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31), then our days, although they be “as a mist,” will be a mist that shines to the glory of God.