Planning Wisely, Living Humbly

How can we prepare our lives for the future when we don’t know what the future holds?

Well we know that God has created life with rhythms we can normally count on. The world keeps spinning on its axis. The sun rises and sets. Gravity holds us to the earth. We breathe without thinking. Seasons come and go. Because of these God-ordained rhythms, or natural patterns we are able to make short-term and long-term plans—trusting that life will usually follow a predictable order. We also know that planning isn’t optional; it’s necessary.

For example:

? You can’t provide for your family without planning.

? You can’t finish school, get married, buy a home, or retire without planning.

? You can’t cultivate God-honoring friendships or a healthy marriage without intentional planning.

? You can’t get an entire family ready for worship in the spur of the moment.

? You can’t read through the Bible in a day, so you need a plan to read God’s Word (Psalm 119:105).

? You can’t be hospitable to all of your friends, family, and neighbors at once, so you need to make a plan to have them over.

? You can’t train your children in the way they should go in a week or a month or a year or even a decade, so you need to make a parenting plan (Proverbs 22:6).

? You can’t accidentally bring people to Jesus or make disciples of all nations without a long term plan (Matthew 28:19–20).

Preparation for the future begins with intentional planning today. As individuals, couples, families, and as a church, this is expected and a good thing. However according to the Bible there is another dimension that goes into planning.

Today we will be reading a passage from the book of James. Here we will see the importance of examining how we plan—and where our confidence lies.

Let’s read:

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, engage in business, and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:13–17 NASB).

What is James saying to us? As I mentioned, planning is vital but there is a difference between:

1. Planning vs Presumption

In vs. 13, James begins with the words, “Come now”—it’s a call for attention. He is addressing believers who continually said, “Today or tomorrow… we will… we will… we will.”

The problem was not in planning or making profits.

The problem is they presumptuously planned their ventures without God.

James is speaking to capable, educated, business-minded Christians. They knew the truth, yet they placed their confidence in their own strategies and presumed that would have lots of time and their ventures would be profitable. God was not invited into the planning and so it makes you wonder what their ultimate goal was. To have security and comfort in this life?

Seeking for God’s will may have been acknowledged in theory, but it was not central in practice. This mindset has been described as Christian atheism—professing belief in God while living as if what He has to say is irrelevant in daily decisions. In many cultures, you would never exclude your parents and community when making decisions, no matter how old you were. Sadly, in western culture we are taught to come up with the plan, forge our own paths, to direct our lives and future. It was William Ernest Henley who wrote and has been quoted ever since:

It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

But Proverbs 3:5–6 directly confronts this mindset:

Trust and rely confidently on the LORD with all your heart, And do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways acknowledge and recognize Him, And He will make your paths straight and smooth [removing obstacles that block your way] (Prov 3:5-6 AMP).

To acknowledge (<yada) means more than awareness— it implies a deep, intimate, relational dependence on God. It means to actively invite God in all your ways: in your decision-making, ambitions, finances, career path, relationships, and conflicts. What God has to say in His Word is relevant for every area of my life.

When God is excluded, even good plans can become misdirected. James tells us why our confidence should never rest in our plans alone - because of the: