Everyone makes plans in life for the future. But, as Christians, do we always plan wisely? Not always. Sometimes we fail to wait on God and rush ahead without first considering his will and guidance.
James supplies us with some wise principles regarding the kind of heart attitude we must have if we will plan wisely by taking into account God’s holy will and wise providence. This sermon from James, the wisdom book of the New Testament, reminds us that: life is shorter than we like to think; life is more unpredictable than we like to acknowledge; and life is more uncertain than we understand.
Read the full sermon transcript below!
In the New Testament book of James, beginning with 3:13 and continuing through 5:6, James repeatedly addresses the subject of pride in the life of the Christian, the struggle of faith against pride in the life of the Christian. Today in 4:13-17, James shows us a particular way in which pride gets the best of people, which is when people make their own plans without considering God and his will for them.
All of us make plans, and we must. But it is very prideful and dishonoring to God when we plan our steps in ways that do not seek and follow his will. It is as if we issue our own personal declarations of independence: I will make my own plans; I will carry out my plans; I will attain my goals. And God’s will in the matter is hardly considered, if considered at all.
We need to know how to make plans that acknowledge God. In this morning’s Scripture passage—rather than a step-by-step guide for laying plans and making decisions—James shows the general perspective we should have in God’s scheme of things when we lay plans. James urges us to plan providentially, not presumptuously.
The sin of presumption is very serious and can have catastrophic consequences. It happens when we presume that we will carry out our own desires, that our own goals will be reached, that our own agendas will be obtained, whether or not we consider, seek, and follow God’s providence when making our plans.
Allow me to give you an illustration of presumptuous sin. It is found in the Old Testament book of Numbers, chapter 14. In this portion of Scripture, God has led the children of Israel out of Egypt. He has shown them his mighty power and demonstrated that his favor and blessing are with them to defeat all their enemies.
God has stricken Egypt with plagues, bringing that nation to its knees. He has parted the Red Sea, destroying the army of Pharaoh. God has, by this time, given Israel the priesthood, the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, confirming that his presence and blessing are with his people. In fact, God’s presence descended on the tabernacle in a cloud of glory so awesome that Moses and the priests could not even enter it because they were overcome by the awesomeness of God.
Now they were about to enter the land of Canaan. Twelve spies were sent to survey and assess the land and the enemy. Only two of those spies, Joshua and Caleb, came back and reported that the armies of the enemy are great indeed, but our God is greater. Their counsel was, “Let’s go take the land.” But the other ten spies chickened out, as we would say.
Even after seeing the power of God displayed so greatly among them, the people listened to the ten frightened spies rather than Joshua and Caleb. They refused to rally their army to take the land.
God was very angry with the children of Israel for their refusal to go up and conquer the Canaanites, so he sent word to them that they would be punished. The whole nation would wander in the wilderness for forty years and die there except Joshua and Caleb. They had given an encouraging report and urged the people to go and take the land. All the rest of that generation who had refused to go when God said, “Go!” would die in the wilderness.
Now we see what happened next, beginning in verse 39: Then Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly. 40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned!”
What were the people saying? We have changed our minds; we will go up to fight the Canaanites and we will be victorious. Moses warned them not to commit this sin of presumption against the Lord: 41 And Moses said, “Now why do you transgress the command of the Lord? For this will not succeed. 42 Do not go up, lest you be defeated by your enemies, for the Lord is not among you. 43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.”
44 But they presumed to go up to the mountaintop. The Israelites were warned by Moses not to undertake this rebellious action. They had their chance to obey the Lord but refused, so now he will not be with them.
The Bible explains (v. 44): Nevertheless, neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. Moses, the man of God, would not go himself, and the ark of the covenant was not taken with them, signifying that the presence of God was not among them, and the blessing of God was not with them.
The results were disastrous (v. 45): Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that mountain came down and attacked them, and drove them back as far as Hormah.
It was a stunning defeat for Israel, followed by forty years of wandering in the wilderness until they all died. Had they trusted God in the first place, made their plans according to his revealed will, and gone up to fight the Canaanites when the Lord told them to do so things would have gone differently. They would have been victorious and would have settled in the Promised Land. Instead, their defeat was devastating. This shows us that making our plans presumptuously, without considering the will and providence of God is very foolish, and causes great ruin and suffering.
Now, fourteen to fifteen hundred or so years later, during the New Testament day of James, those ancient people still had not learned their lesson. They were still ignoring God’s will and forging ahead with their own plans. And, sadly, in our own day, things have not changed. We all need to learn the lesson of waiting on God and seeking and finding his will—not carrying out our own plans in life according to the misunderstanding of our fallen minds.
Notice the admonition of James 4:13: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit.’” They sound just like their stiff-necked forefathers who went up against the Canaanites, don’t they? “Come! Let’s go conduct business for a year in the city. Let’s go big time! We will make big money and have great success!”
It is easy for us to shake our heads at the foolishness of those first-century people whom James is warning. They are cock-sure of their own success, whether or not God and his will are considered in the process. But, folks, if we are completely honest, we must confess that it is all too easy, and more frequent than we like to think, that we may make the same mistake.
Now, again, our purpose today is not to show the framework for how to lay plans and attain God’s guidance; that will have to come in another sermon. What James is teaching us here today is what should be the attitude of our hearts when we make our plans. In summary, our attitude should be one of humility before God and not pride in our own selves.
James lays down three very important considerations that should characterize all our plans and actions. I will inform you that, regarding the three following principles, I am borrowing from Jay Adams’ commentary on James, the Christian Counselor’s Commentary.
Life Is Shorter Than We Like to Think
First, in all our doings, we need to remember that life is shorter than we like to think. James rebukes those who fail to consider this fact. He points out (v. 13) the tendency of people to make their plans as if the outcome were chiseled in stone, being certain even of what will happen a year in advance.
Then (v. 14) James points out the folly of this kind of thinking: You do not know what will happen tomorrow. “You can’t even know what is going to happen tomorrow,” James says, “and here you are bragging about what you are going to do a year from now!”
We need to make plans, no doubt about that. But we must not lose sight of our own mortality. Like it or not, we are all going to die! Unless you are one of those who are alive and remaining at the time of our Lord’s return, someday you are going to die!
Your life is not in your hands; it is in God’s hands. The same God who gives life takes it when the appointed time comes. And we have no way of knowing with certainty when that time will be. To fail to consider our common human limitations in the plans of life is pridefully presumptuous.
People stubbornly try to deny their mortality. But try as we might to evade it the fact remains the same: life is shorter than we like to think. Every birthday that rolls around reminds us that it is true. Every serious illness reminds us. The fatigue and the aches we experience now that we did not used to have remind us. Every time a friend, a relative, a family member dies, we are reminded. Especially when a young person dies, then we are jolted to remember. Death shouts to us all, “Someday you too will take your place among those whose lives are past, and it is sooner than you like to think.”
James makes it clear that life is much more brief than we realize. He asks in verse 14, “What is your life?” Then he continues, “You are merely a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”
We like to think of life in terms of what we perceive to be long stretches of time—80 years, 90 years, 100 years. I had an uncle who lived 109 years and a great-grandmother who lived to 104. But what is 100 years compared to eternity? Less than a snap of the fingers.
We all enter the grand world stage called life. On this stage, we each play our little role, thinking we are the star of the show. Then we exit the stage, and the show goes on without us. Somewhere in a field, there remains a marble or granite marker with our name, date of birth, and date of death etched into it to remind others of the fact that, “Once he was here—once she was here—but they are here no more.”
We are like a mist that rises on the mountain top in the morning and rejoices in the warm sun for a brief time. Then the same sun whose warming rays caused the mist to rise consumes it with its heat. And that mist is gone forever, never to be seen again. Others like it will rise, but that particular vapor is gone. How shortsighted we must be to boast of our long-term plans and future accomplishments when we consider the short-term reality of life on planet Earth.
Life Is More Unpredictable Than We Like to Acknowledge
Next, James reminds us that life is more unpredictable than we like to acknowledge. This is a fact that must be kept in mind when we make plans. We are not prophets; we have no way of knowing the future. We try to look into the future, but once that future day we envisioned finally arrives, we find that it is so vastly different than we had anticipated.
Think back over your life to the time when you were a youth. How different are things now than you envisioned they might be 50 years ago, 40, 30, 20, even 10 years ago? How many of you older folks who grew up in this beautiful mountain valley ever envisioned Buncombe County being as it is today?
Middle-aged people, and younger folks too, how many family members and friends are gone now that you fully expected to be here with you today? How different today are the interests and careers that you are now pursuing from what you expected, even planned for?
We cannot predict or control the future over the course of years. In fact, as James reminds us, we cannot even predict with certainty what will happen tomorrow. We can speculate, but speculation is all we can accomplish. We will not know what tomorrow holds for us until tomorrow arrives, and then we will not know about the next tomorrow. So how foolish and how prideful to make our plans presuming the outcome without seeking and following God and his infinitely wise knowledge and will.
Rather than plan presumptuously, James teaches us to plan providentially. When planning, we need to consider God’s providence. So what is providence? The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines God’s providence as follows: God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.
God governs and controls all of his world and all who inhabit it—we do not. God governs and controls the actions of all his creatures—we do not. Paul explains in Ephesians 1:11 that God, “works all things according to the counsel of his will.” This means that things in life do not fall out according to our will, but God’s will.
So, our plans need to be made with the providence of God in mind. In other words, all our plans need to be conditioned by God’s will. That is providential planning. Rather than arrogantly making our own plans without considering God’s providence, James instructs us (v. 15), “Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’”
James is not telling us we need to tack the words “If the Lord wills” on every statement, as if it were a magical formula. He is pointing to what should be the attitude of our hearts. God determines the future, not ourselves. Also, James is not against planning for the future; in fact, it is folly not to make plans. What James wants us to see is how vitally important it is that we include God’s will in our planning.
James might say, “Yes, by all means, make wise, well-structured, well-thought, well considered plans, following the principles of God’s word as the foundation. But bear in mind that God’s plans might be quite different from your own. Leave room in your planning for God to make changes as he knows is best. Present your plans to God for his approval and pray for him to change whatever needs to be changed. And when your plans are changed by God’s providence, be thankful, because he is infinitely wiser than you.
When planning, use the best understanding of Scripture that you can possibly derive as it applies. But you must leave room for God’s changes, God’s corrections, God’s substitutions as he works providentially, above and beyond your control, in all your life and all your circumstances.
Planning providentially is making your plans, realizing that no matter what way God may change them, it will be better because God knows what is best for our tomorrows, and we don’t. Then, when things do not work out the way you planned, you can rest easily with the assurance that, although where you are in life right now is far from what you had envisioned, things worked out the way God planned. And that is always better by far.
Life Is More Uncertain Than We Understand
In conclusion, let us consider our third thought: life is more uncertain than we understand. We like to think that we are strong and enduring, rugged and resilient, and can weather any storm because we are so tough. The fact is that the only thing between you and eternity is one beat of the heart, one breath, one careless mistake, one second of inattention.
Our life hangs by a thread. Yet we plod on as if we were iron tough and immune to error. And we can mistakenly plan accordingly. We are prideful in our thinking, aren’t we? As James says in verse 16: “As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.”
Pridefully declaring that we will assert our own providence in life, that we will make our own plans and attain our own goals without considering whether God wills that we see even another day, is simply one more manifestation of what James has been driving home to us all along.
It is the age-old and most ancient desire of man. It made its first appearance when the serpent slithered into the garden and hissed to our first parents, “You can be like God.” And man has pursued that same desire with all his power ever since. Whether he expresses it or not, the deepest desire that arises within the heart of man is to be autonomous—self-governing. Man desires to usurp the place of God, to be his own lawgiver, the master of his own future, the captain of his own destiny.
Yet, we cannot escape the lesson our savior taught us of the successful farmer who arrogantly asserted his plans, saying: “I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”
You might recall the words God declared concerning this man and his boast of years to come. Those same words have indicted man after man, woman after woman, young person after young person throughout the millennia who thought they had all the time in the world. Do you remember God’s assessment of the farmer’s boasts? “Thou fool! This night thy soul will be required of thee.” “This very night,” declared the Lord God, “I will take your soul.”
And, on that note, we are going to ask you about the most important plans you will ever make. What if your soul were required of you today? What if God took your soul tonight, and you did not live to see tomorrow?
Have you planned for the future regarding the final destiny of your soul? Do your plans for your final tomorrow include God? Have you repented of your sins? Have you embraced Jesus Christ alone as your only righteousness in the sight of God?
Have you? Or are you arrogantly boasting of a tomorrow that may never come? “Someday I will make things right with God” has been the arrogant boast of millions of souls who are suffering in the torments of hellfire today and will be forever.
If only they had included Jesus Christ in their planning. If only they had come to Jesus Christ for salvation while today was still theirs to claim. But now it is too late. Do not be like the foolish farmer of whom God declared, “Thou fool!”
Those words of the apostle in 2 Corinthians 6 are irrefutable: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Tomorrow is not yours to claim. If you are concerned about the state of your soul, please come and speak with us. Do not plan to do it tomorrow. Remember what James said, “You do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”