Read: James 4:13-17
What are your plans for tomorrow? “Ok, tomorrow I will wake up, take a shower, get dressed, have some breakfast, go to school…” How about your next vacation? Will it be soon, or next year? Are you planning to go visit family, visit a National Park, or to travel internationally? What about the distant future? Do you have aspirations and plans for what your life will be like in twenty years? Where you will live, the quality of your life, and the kind of job you will have?
Planning for the future is wise. Desiring good things for yourself and actively taking steps to bring those desires to fruition is good. For instance, if a person desires to be a doctor, doing well in school so that they can get into medical school is not just wise, it’s necessary. Planning out a trip to Europe, booking hotels and flights early and planning an itinerary, is again good and wise. Having a trip planned out in advance takes out the unnecessary stress of having to figure everything out when you get there and in making sure you’re able to do everything that you want to do.
What Happens When Our Plans Don’t Work Out?
But, what if the time for the trip has come around and you have pneumonia and can’t go? What if your plans for being a doctor are dashed because you were rejected by every medical school you applied to? How would you react if it seemed like all your hard work was wasted? What would your heart feel in a situation where your plans didn’t work out as you hoped they would?
How we respond in those situations is the fruit of how we view our future. Many people view their futures as their own possession to do with as they will. As James writes in our passage, the businessman is confident that he will make a certain profit over the next year (v. 13). But as James writes, the businessman doesn’t even know if he’s going to live to see tomorrow (v. 14). Do you? Of course not. Our lives as human beings are but a mist (v. 14). It’s there in the morning and then it vanishes before the sun has even fully risen. It is both fleeting and finite, and we cannot presume to know its length or what it’s going to contain. It’s the height of pride to think that we know what even tomorrow holds for us (see also Prov 27:1).
Don’t Presume on the Future
Now, there aren’t many people out there who would actively say, “I know exactly what my future is going to look like twenty years from now.” Not even self-proclaimed psychics talk about themselves like that. However, most people say things like, “Next year I’m going to Cabo for a week.” Or, knowing our income level, we say, “I’m going to take out this amount of debt to buy this boat/house/car because I can easily pay it back with my salary over the next couple of
years.” We speak out of our hearts (Matt 15:18). How we talk about our future is indicative of whether we are entrusting our future to God or whether we are trying to take it by our own hands and shape it the way that we want it to be. Taking out a loan for a car or a mortgage for a house might be necessary, but presuming to know your future with those things is foolish and prideful. Instead, we must leave our futures in God’s good hands and put our hope in him alone.
When expressing our plans to ourselves and others, we should be vigilant to always remember and recognize the Lord and his Sovereignty (v. 15). If the Lord wills, you will go to Cabo next year. If the Lord wills, you will become a doctor. If the Lord wills, you’ll keep your job and be able to pay off your loans. What is wonderful about this truth is that our hope in the future is not grounded in ourselves who fail, or things that fail, or situations that change.
Entrust Yourself and Your Desires to the Lord
When we entrust ourselves and our future to the Lord, not presuming we know his will in it, we are entrusting ourselves to the One who is working all things out for our good to his glory (Rom 8:28). Though our personal plans may come to naught and though our future may be different than we had imagined, those changes will be for our better. Therefore, let us rip out any pride we may have concerning our tomorrows and instead humble ourselves before the Lord who holds our tomorrow in His sovereign and good hand.
Ponder and Pray: Consider how one can plan without being presumptuous. For example, how can one plan for a future vacation in a way that glorifies God? Finish by sharing some desires for the future with the Lord and laying those before his throne.