James 4:13-17
Boasting about Tomorrow
13 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.” 14 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. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.
What does the Passage say?
V. 13-17 We do not know what tomorrow entails. We are to focus on God’s will and live every day as our last day. Jesus also said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ‘Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.'” (Matthew 6:33-34 ESV)
What does the Passage say to me/us?
We are neither able to plan our own plans nor to worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow is in the hands of our Lord, and our focus should be on God’s plan.
As long as we focus on God’s will, whatever will come with tomorrow is in God’s plan. The problem is when our own thoughts and desires cloud God’s will. Then we tend to try to do it in our own might, and we either become prideful or fail.
Focusing on God’s will is hard. It is to continue to let go of our thoughts and will, and then receive God’s will. Lord have mercy and help us to let go.
Prayer
Lord, have mercy on me a sinner. In Christ name, AMEN.
Click to subscribe to our Daily Devotion.
You will receive a devotion in your inbox every morning.