James 4:13-15
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 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. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”
Reflection
Think about your summer plans. Do you have any? Our plan is to go to Myrtle Beach. We have our lunch menus already in our head. We know what restaurants we want to eat at. We have planned out the itinerary… and everyone knows that we are in the car at 4:00 AM to be poolside by 10:00AM. Everyone knows we are going to a miniature golf place once, and that we are going to rent some chairs at the beach. Broadway is planned one night as is Bearfoot Landing. And all these plans are just for Myrtle. We plan to try to go to Disney if we can squeeze it in (for just a couple days). We plan to go on some short weekend trips here and there. I would like to go to Colonial Williamsburg if we can manage it. Plans. Plans. Plans.
Then… reading through James I am reminded that planning as I do has its negative side. Planning isn’t wrong. Indeed, the Bible states clearly that a person who wants to build a barn should plan and count the cost (Luke 14:28). We should be good stewards of planning. Planning isn’t the problem. James says the problem is the planning without the necessary heart that says, “if the Lord wills.” This is not an insignificant thing. In other words, James is not nitpicking here. We ought to make plans. However, we should have a heartbeat that accounts for the fact that there is a God. We should account for him… knowing that ultimately, he has the final say whether or not I am heading to Myrtle this summer. He is ultimately sovereign, is he not? We should make plans! I am not changing my Myrtle Beach plans anytime soon, I assure you. However, I should do that with an underlying humility and posture of the heart that says, “Lord, I am making these plans but I humbly account for you. If you will, then these are my plans. Bless the plans that I make for your glory.”
Prayer
Father, we want to account for you in our everyday. Help us to make plans understanding that you are ultimately God and sovereign over our lives.
