If you knew you had just three months to live, what are some things you
would want to do? What plans would you make? What would you like to accomplish
before you die? Whatever your plans might be, you would soon be presenting
them all to God! Realizing this truth is the best way to be thinking while
we are making plans, as James 4:13-17 so clearly teaches...
Vs. 13 says, "Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into
such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:"
"Go to now," is a call to any one to consider his conduct as being wrong.
I hope you are not afraid to do so.... Whose attention did James want
to get? The attention of those who had already made their own plans for
the future! Do you fall into that category today, dear lady? We all have
specific plans that we've made at one time or another, amen? So what more
does James want to say to us?
Vs. 14, "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is
your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and
then vanisheth away."
Ladies, James here is giving us a warning! What warning? That those of
us who have our plans all laid out for the future do not know what will
really happen.... Life is uncertain. I think we are guilty of overlooking
this fact as we busily make our future plans. James brings us back to
reality by shaking up our confidence in ourselves, amen? The truth is,
we can't even see one day ahead! Yet this attitude of having confidence
in ourselves causes us to live like we can...
What else does James point out to us in these two verses we've looked
at so far? He asks, "What is your life?" In other words, the reminder
that life is brief is presented to the reader. We live and plan and dream
as if there were no end to our tomorrows, amen? But do we ever think about
how our death could destroy all our future plans in a split second? James
accurately states that our lives are a vapor - a great word picture, amen?
I think about this verse whenever I pour a cup of tea or coffee and watch
the steam rise ever so quickly off the hot liquid. It is sobering to think
of my life being that short, but in the light of eternity, it is!
What then does God want you and I to consider by bringing to us this sober
perspective on our lives through these passages in the book of James?
What outlook toward the future does the Lord want us to have? What should
we attend to, when we are making plans?
Since life is so uncertain, since life is so brief, we can't afford to
just "spend" our lives, or waste them - we should be investing them in
things eternal! What we should be considering is found in verse 15:
"For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this,
or that."
You see ladies, the Lord wants us to realize that great danger lies in
being OUT of the will of God! The safest place to be is in the center
of God's will - positioned right where GOD wants you. That means forsaking
your plans for His, the One who knows the beginning and the end! There
is no way we can confidently make our plans other than to think and do
as verse 15 commands us - IF THE LORD WILL. This is the mindset you and
I need to have when making plans. Our confidence needs to be in Him, for
He alone knows the future... God reveals His will in His Word, yet most
people are ignoring the Bible - including His own children! The Bible
gives us precepts, principles and promises that can guide us in every
area of our lives. Instead, we go forth most often with our own plans
for our lives, rarely mindful of how uncertain life is, nor stopping to
consider how brief life is. God wants such a dangerous outlook toward
the future to change!
Verse 16 goes on to show us what sinful attitudes often accompany the
act of making plans that God is left out of:
"But now ye rejoice in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil."
Ladies, what we end up doing is planning for our futures pridefully! God
however, would rather have us plan with humility, and in faith, with a
submissive dependency upon and total confidence in Him. How vain it is
to look for any thing good without God’s blessing and guidance! We don't
have the wisdom to see or the power to control the future, yet we brag
and boast of our plans - we act as if we ourselves were God! All such
boasting is evil, it is sin the Bible says. It is important that you have
the right attitude toward the will of God and this is NOT the right one!!
Consider your conduct, dear lady.... What would you say IS your attitude
toward His will today? What has your attitude been in times past? Do you
totally ignore God's will as you make your daily plans and decisions?
Or, do you know God's will and simply refuse to obey it?? Both attitudes
accompany the boastings that are called evil! Though you may disagree
with me today, one day, when you present your life plans to God, you will
see them as such. We have in our possession the law of God, which is a
rule to all; let us not presume to set up our own notions and opinions
as a rule to live by. Let us plan instead with attitudes of humility and
faith. "If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that", sounds
so much better, amen? God thinks so too!
Vs. 17, "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to
him it is sin."
The attitude pointed out in the above verse expresses more pride than
does the boasting! Sometimes people act as though God's will were an option,
we treat it lightly! In actuality, we believe that our plans for our life
will bring happiness while God's plan for our life will bring only misery
and hardship! Ladies, disobeying God's will is what brings us misery,
not yielding to His plan!! You are sinning when you choose your will over
God's will for your life. This is the incorrect way that humans are going
about their planning. It's time we determined in our daily lives what
is sinful and what is pleasing to God and do what we know to be right
according to the scriptures. Again, not to live this way is sinning -
plain and simply put!
So dear lady, what can you do to place your plans for the future in God's
hands? What aspects of your life plans do you need to present to God in
prayer? Where do you need to do the good you know you ought to?? What
accomplishments from your life do you desire to confidently present to
God one day?
My closing thoughts are these.... Apart from the will of God, life is
a mystery. When you know Jesus Christ as your Savior and seek to do His
will, then it is life starts to make sense, amen? God loves us and desires
the best for us, He has a perfect plan for each of our lives. Don't be
so confident in your own limited perspective... Don't look at His will
as bitter medicine that you have to swallow! That's nothing more than
a foolish, sinful way to go about living your life and it will be filled
with many regrets. Perhaps you've come to that place already as you look
back on the various times you've left God out of your plans. As you turn
your face toward the future, turn your face toward the Lord.... Our times
are not in our own hands but His! Trust the Lord, yield to Him and humbly
say, "If the Lord will...." and then proceed to make your plans governed
by the Word of God!
God Bless,
Pam
Isaiah 60:1&2
Copyright 2000
Pamela A. Iannello
