Making Plans for Tomorrow - 04/28/2024

When it comes to making plans, James gives some excellent advice (James 4:13-16). We all make plans for tomorrow, but James is telling us that we need to keep in mind that our plans are subject to God’s plans; we are not the one with ultimate control in life.

James acknowledges the fact that life cannot be lived without making plans. He writes about “going into a city” and spending a year there doing business. But, James makes a very honest and brutal statement. We “do not know what [our] life will be like tomorrow.” While acknowledging this intellectually, we do not always put it into practice.

James paints a very good picture by saying, “You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” When visualizing these words, we see how short life really is. From God’s perspective the length of our life is but a “vapor … [that] vanishes away.”

James gives us the proper attitude toward making plans. He says we should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” Regardless of whether we literally say the words “if the Lord wills” out loud or not, we should always have the attitude that our actions are always contingent upon “the will of the Lord.”

If we keep this concept in mind, we realize that God is ultimately the one who approves or disapproves of every action people make. God is not necessarily making the decision, but all decisions are subject to His plans.

When James says we “boast in [our] arrogance,” he is identifying our attitude when it comes to making plans for tomorrow. To “boast” is to talk with “excessive pride” about what one has accomplished or is doing. Having pride is not the issue here, but rather “excessive pride,” which in this context is manifested in thinking we control every aspect of our lives. This is not true. Our plans are always subject to the decisions God will make. For example, how long will the world continue to exist? Only God, the Father, knows.

We are not in control of what will happen in our lives medically. We have no control over the actions of others who might cause an accident, or how another’s actions might change the plans we have made for tomorrow.

Based upon the fact that we do not know what tomorrow will bring, everyone, especially Christians, should be living their lives with the understanding that our plans can never be “cut in stone,” they are always subject to change. Having this attitude and understanding, we can make plans for tomorrow as we are living God’s way. - cgm

Scriptural quotations from the NASB1995.