Planning Days
How far ahead do you plan your life?
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money." Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin. Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you. - James 4:13-5:6
James reminds us that God may have a say in what we get to do with our lives.
You may have heard the expression God laughs when we plan, and that is what James is trying to get us to think about.
It is not that we shouldn't have plans. Planning is a great way to refocus and realign ourselves to our purpose in life, if we even know what that is.
We are not granted a set time in this life. We are born as a result of the actions and desires of our parents, and we die when something or someone takes that life from us.
It is a harsh world, but as we make our way through it, it helps to realize we are not alone.
God has us on His radar, and that makes a big difference.
Remember that even after Jesus no longer walked the earth with us, He came to Saul to help him become Paul, a new identity, with a new purpose and mission.
God can do that for us, if we stay focused on Him.
Plan away, but add God to the plan, and then listen for His guidance.
He always has something to share.
More to come...