What are you doing to do today? What about tomorrow? Got plans? I know some people who don’t plan anything and prefer to live life spontaneously. I know others who plan down to the last detail. Neither one is better, honestly. I think it just depends on the person. Personally, I think it’s better to plan, but that’s me.
But what happens when your plans fall through? What happens when what you were counting on doesn’t happen? That’s the trouble with planning. You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.
A curving path at the Dallas Arboretum, Dallas, TX
Today’s verses are James 4:13-16.
Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil.
It’s important to keep God in mind when you’re making any sort of plans. Maybe I should be super spiritual and say that you shouldn’t make any plans without hearing from God first. And that would be ideal. I think we should all try that. But honestly there are just a lot of times in life when God isn’t going to “tell” you what to do.
He’ll give you multiple opportunities that are good, and of course you’ll always have multiple opportunities that aren’t so good. And it’s up to you to know Scripture well enough to make an informed decision.
But you can’t always count on your plans. You can’t always rely on the things you think you can trust down here because you really don’t know what’s going to happen.
So as tempting as it is, don’t get too caught up in your own planning. It’s easy to do because it’s nice to be able to say what you’re going to do when people ask. But let’s be honest, folks, do you really know?
Yes, make plans, if you’re a planning sort of person. But don’t set them in stone without consulting God about them. And even then, don’t set them in stone because chances are you still may have to break them out again. You have to be flexible. You have to be willing to change your plans because what God has planned is better–and we just don’t always have the capability to understand all the facets of what He has going on in our lives.
I struggle with this because I really want to sound like a confident person. I really want to sound like I have everything all figured out. And that’s not always the case.
But God does. So instead of trying to be self-confident, I really need to be God-confident. I need to trust Him. I need to give Him my plans and let Him do what He wants with them, and I need to be flexible enough to stay when He says stay and brave enough to move when He says move.
Just something to think about this morning.
Always Peachy 