“What Are We Going To Do Today?”

13 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”—14 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 (James 4:13-14).

We all love to make plans. “What are we going to do today?” “Where should we go on our trip?” “Where should we spend the weekend?” These would all be common questions in a family. It’s not wrong to make plans but James wants us to think about it a bit differently.

One of the key differences between God and us is that God is infinite and we are finite. He is the Creator. He is eternal. We are not. We are his creation, his creatures. We are temporal. Our physical bodies don’t last forever.

Because we don’t live forever and we are not the Creator, we can’t know the future. Only God does. Since we are not God and don’t know the future we should be humble when it comes to making plans. We shouldn’t speak in such a way that makes us think that we are ultimately in control. It’s ok to make plans. But as we do we should remember that only God is sovereign over our lives. He is the one who is completely in control, not us. If things don’t work out as we planned, it’s ok. We know that God will make all things work out in the end. If we get derailed at times we don’t have to be disappointed. Sometimes God bring interruptions into our lives for a purpose. In those cases we are blessed when we trust him as the one who holds our lives together.

Read Proverbs 16:9

  •  Who is in ultimate control of our lives?
  •  Should we still plan our lives?
  •  What should we remember as we make our plans?

Prayer
Our Father, thank you that we can trust you. Thank you that we can make our plans but know that apart from your sovereign control we’d have nothing. Help us to be humble when things don’t work out as we planned. Help us to trust you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.