January 2, 2018 BEFORE MAKING YOUR PLANS
James 4:13-15: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”
We are quick to make our plans and proceed full speed ahead as if we are in full control and as if we know what the future holds. We are also quick to forget that our life is like a vapor that can vanish away in the blink of the eye. In the above section of scripture, James was reminding the believers that because they did not know the future, they must not live as though they did know what the future held. We know this mentally, but we also must know in our spirit that only God knows the future. The reality is that God does not only know the future, He creates the future! It is certainly a good thing to make plans, as long as the plans are pleasing to the Lord, but we must acknowledge that God is ruling and reigning at that if it is His will, our plans will come to fruition. It is wise to have a permanent mind-set for all of life-‘If the Lord wills.’ If it is our heart to live and work within the Lord’s will, then we can be assured that He will confirm whether or not our plans fit in the plans He has for us. The Lord is pleased when we seek Him and He is quick to guide us in the steps He has for us. The important thing for us is to be willing to change our plans if the Lord closes the door for what we may have planned-no matter how strong our desire is to do what we planned. To choose to live according to God’s plans and desires is wisdom in action. Each of us at times have forged ahead with our own plans without consulting the Lord and have suffered the consequences of doing it our way. But God has grace for those times and He uses our bad decisions, and even what may have been a sin, to draw us to Himself. To acknowledge ‘if the Lord wills’ and trusting God go hand and hand. What the Lord wills for us is the very best, even if we do not understand how that is so. And because He is our Father, we can fully trust and be confident in the direction in which He leads us. Colossians tells us that God cares for us and that He knows what our needs are and that He will provide for our needs-He even feeds the birds of the air and causes the flowers of the field to grow. As we enter a new year, let us pause and acknowledge that only God knows the future; that life is like a vapor; that His ways are always best; let us say from our inner most being that we will do this or that only if the Lord wills. May 2018 be a year when we seek Him with all our heart.
Proverbs 19:21: “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’S purpose that prevails.”
Isaiah 30:21: “And your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right or to the left.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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