Opening illustration: Fortuneteller, gazing into crystal ball, to frog: You are going to meet a beautiful young woman. From the moment she sets eyes on you she will have an insatiable desire to know all about you. She will be compelled to get close to you - you’ll fascinate her." Frog: "Where am I? At a singles club?" Fortuneteller: "Biology class." [Personal story about palm reading]
Let us look into God’s Word and see whether He wants us to plan our tomorrows and if so how should we go about it. Should we even try to look into our future from ungodly sources? Let’s turn in our Bibles to James 4: 13 – 17.
Introduction: James beautifully nails the contemporary worldview of how apt worldly and contriving men are to leave God out of their plans! How vain it is to look for any thing good without God’s blessing and guidance! The frailty, shortness, and uncertainty of life, ought to check the vanity and presumptuous confidence of all projects for futurity. We can fix the hour and minute of the sun’s rising and setting to-morrow, but we cannot fix the certain time of a vapor being scattered. So short, unreal, and fading is human life, and all the prosperity or enjoyment that attends it; though bliss or woe for ever must be according to our conduct during this fleeting moment. We are always to depend on the will of God. Our times are not in our own hands, but at the disposal of God. Our heads may be filled with cares and contrivances for ourselves, or our families, or our friends; but Providence often throws our plans into confusion. All we design, and all we do, should be with submissive dependence on God. It is foolish, and it is hurtful, to boast of worldly things and aspiring projects; it will bring great disappointment, and will prove destruction in the end. Omissions are sins which will be brought into judgment, as well as commissions. He that does not the good he knows should be done, as well as he who does the evil he knows should not be done will be condemned. Oh that we were as careful not to omit prayer, and not to neglect to meditate and examine our consciences, as we are not to commit gross outward vices against light!
Our opportunities to obey God’s promptings are also fleeting. James warned against an arrogance that assumes endless days will be available to carry out our good intentions. “You do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. . . . Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (4:14, 17).
How to plan for the future?
1. Designs for future planning [vs. 13 – 14]:
Here is a contemporary picture which James’s readers would recognize, and in which they might see their own portrait. The Jews were the great traders of the ancient world; and in many ways the ancient world gave them every opportunity to practice their commercial abilities. This was an age of the founding of cities; and often when cities were founded and when their founders were looking for citizens to occupy them, citizenship was offered freely to the Jews, for where the Jews came there came money and trade. So the picture is the picture of a man looking at a map. He points at a certain spot on it, and says, “Here is a new city where there are great trade chances. I’ll go there; and I’ll get in on the ground floor: and I’ll trade for a year or so; and I’ll make my fortune, and come back rich.” James’s answer is that no man has a right to make constant and confident plans for the future, for no man knows what even a day may bring forth. Man may propose, but God may dispose, for the future is in the hands of God. The essential uncertainty of the future is a fact which was deeply impressed on the minds of men of all nations.
Proverbs 27: 1 “Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth.”
Luke 12: 16 – 21 “16 Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: "The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. 17 "And he thought within himself, saying, ’What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 18 "So he said, ’I will do this: 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." 20 "But God said to him, ’Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ 21 "So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
Psalm 103: 15 “As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.”
Seneca said, “How foolish it is for a man to make plans for his life, when not even tomorrow is in his control.” And again: “No man has such rich friends that he can promise himself tomorrow.
It is good to have goals, but goals will disappoint us if we leave God out of them. There is no point in making plans as though God did not exist, because the future is in His hands. What would you like to be doing ten years from now? One year from now? Tomorrow? How will you react if God steps in and rearranges your plans? Plan ahead, but hold your plans loosely. Put God’s desire at the center of your planning; He will never disappoint you.
People try to know their future by going to fortunetellers, using tarot cards or palm readers. The Word of God has given us instruction in Leviticus 19: 31 “Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.” And in Leviticus 20: 6 “And the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.”
Life is short no matter how many years we live. Don’t be deceived into thinking that you have lots of remaining time to live for Christ, to enjoy your loved ones, or to do what you should. Live for God today! Then, no matter when your life ends, you will have fulfilled God’s plan for you.
The problem here is not the plan or the concept of planning; it is leaving God out of the plan. The folly of forgetting God in business is another manifestation of worldliness.
Illustration: There was a young ambitious man talking to his grandfather about his future plans. The young man said,” I will learn my trade.” The grandfather asked, “And then?” The young man said,” I will set up a business.” The grandfather asked, “And then?” The boy said,” And then I will make my fortune.” The grandfather repeated, “And then?” The boy said, I suppose I will retire and live on all my money.” The old man asked, “And then?” The boy said hesitantly,” I suppose some day I will die.” The grandfather looked the young man straight in the eye and asked, “AND THEN?” The boy was silent. Finally they got to his retirement and finally death. His grandfather asked again, "and then what?" It was obvious that his grandson hadn’t thought THAT far ahead. It reminds us that this life is only a temporary "stitch." Brothers and sisters aren’t we like this young man. We make great plans for this life and ruin our health working to attain them. But we do not look beyond this life to our everlasting destination.
2. Considerations for future planning [v. 15]:
James states that uncertainty of life is not a cause either for fear or for inaction because of the insecurity of the future. It is a reason for accepting and realizing our complete dependence on God. It has always been the mark of a serious-minded man that he made his plans in dependence on God. Paul writes to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 4: 19 “But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills …” and in 1 Corinthians 16: 7 he mentions, “For I do not wish to see you now on the way; but I hope to stay a while with you, if the Lord permits.”
Constantly among the Arabs there is heard the expressions: “Inshallah – If Allah wills.” The curious thing is that there seems to have been no such corresponding phrase which the Jews themselves used. For that matter neither do we all have such a word or phrase in our daily usage. In this the Jews and we have yet to learn a lot. Let us take this as an example to follow and lead others to pursue it too.
The real Christian way is not to be terrorized into fear, and not to be paralyzed into inaction, by the uncertainty of the future, but to commit the future and all our plans into the hands of God, and always to remember that our plans may not be within the purpose of God.
Illustration: Rev. R. S. Jones was a missionary to Brazil. He had many years of Christian service. In 1936, he was retiring due to ill health. At a Convention that year, this missionary was talking to the songwriter BB McKinney. Jones told McKinney that his doctor would not let him return to Brazil to continue his missionary work. McKinney asked about his future plans. Jones replied: “I don’t’ know, but wherever He leads I’ll go.” These words stuck in McKinney’s mind. Before that evening was over, McKinney had written the words of an invitation hymn: “Wherever He leads I’ll go, Wherever He leads, I’ll go. I’ll follow my Christ who loves me so, Wherever He Leads I’ll go.”
3. Blunders to avoid in future planning [vs. 16 – 17]:
(a) Boasting in arrogance ~ The man who does not remember that, is guilty of arrogant boasting. The Greek word used here is ALAZONEIA, which was originally the characteristic of the wandering quack. He offered cures which were not cures, and boasted of things that he was not able to do. ALAZONEIA is the characteristic of the man who lays claim to that which he does not possess, and who boasts of that which he cannot do. The future is not within the hands of men, and no man can arrogantly claim that he has power to decide it. You form your plans for the future as if with consummate wisdom, and are confident of success. You do not anticipate a failure; you do not see how plans so skillfully formed can fail. You form them as if you were certain that you would live; as if secure from the numberless casualties which may defeat your schemes. It was a boastful manner to use such a language as that of James 4: 13 in stating plans.
It is founded on a wrong view of ourselves and of what may occur. It shows a spirit forgetfulness of our dependence on God; forgetful of the uncertainty of life; forgetful of the many ways by which the best-laid plans may be defeated. We should never boast of any wisdom or skill in regard to the future. A day, an hour may defeat our best-concerted plans, and show us that we have not the slightest power to control coming events.
(b) Refraining from doing good ~ we tend to think that doing wrong is sin. But James tells us that sin is also not doing right. [These 2 kinds of sin are sometimes called sins of commission and sins of omission.] It is a sin to lie; it can also be a sin to know the truth and not tell it. It is a sin to speak evil of someone; it is also a sin to avoid him or her when you know he or she needs your friendship. We should be willing to help as the Holy Spirit guides us. If God has directed you to do a kind act, to render a service, or to restore a relationship, do it. You will experience a renewed and refreshed vitality to your Christian faith. It is sin to doubt whether an action is right and yet go ahead and do it; it is also a sin to know what is right and yet not do it [Romans 14: 23]. This is a stern warning against sins of omission [Luke 16: 19 – 31 for an example of neglecting to do what is right.] James is in effect saying, “You have been warned. Now the truth has been placed before your eyes.” To continue now in the self-confident habit of seeking to dispose of one’s own life is sin for the man who has been forcibly reminded that the future is not in his hands, but in God’s.
Illustration: Saady, a celebrated Persian poet, in his GULISTAN, gives us a remarkable example of him going from city to city to buy and sell, and get gain. “I knew,” says he, “a merchant who used to travel with a hundred camels laden with merchandise, and who had forty slaves in his employ. This person took me one day to his warehouse, and entertained me a long time with conversation good for nothing. ‘I have,’ said he, ‘such a partner in Turquestan; such and such property in India; a bond for so much cash in such a province; a security for such another sum.’ Then, changing the subject, he said, ‘I purpose to go and settle at Alexandria, because the air of that city is salubrious.’ Correcting himself, he said, ‘No, I will not go to Alexandria; the African sea (the Mediterranean) is too dangerous. But I will make another voyage; and after that I will retire into some quiet corner of the world, and give up a mercantile life.’ I asked him (says Saady) what voyage he intended to make. He answered, ‘I intend to take brimstone to Persia and China, where I am informed it brings a good price; from China I shall take porcelain to Greece; from Greece I shall take gold tissue to India; from India I shall carry steel to Haleb (Aleppo); from Haleb I shall carry glass to Yemen (Arabia Felix); and from Yemen I shall carry printed goods to Persia. When this is accomplished I shall bid farewell to the mercantile life, which requires so many troublesome journeys, and spend the rest of my life in a shop.’ He said so much on this subject, till at last he wearied himself with talking; then turning to me he said, ‘I entreat thee, Saady, to relate to me something of what you have seen and heard in your travels.’ I answered, Have you never heard what a traveler said, who fell from his camel in the desert of Joor? Two things only can fill the eye of a covetous man - contentment, or the mud that is cast on him when laid in his grave.”
That man walks most safely who has the least confidence in himself. True magnanimity keeps God continually in view. He appoints it its work, and furnishes discretion and power; and its chief excellence consists in being a resolute worker together with him. Pride ever sinks where humility swims; for that man who abases himself God will exalt. To know that we are dependent creatures is well; to feel it, and to act suitably, is still better.
Conclusion: Are you trying to plan out your future? Have you thought about all the events that will take place in their proper order? Have you considered God to be a part of your plans? There is a possibility He might re-adjust your plans to fulfill His will in your life. Will you still go for it?
When we follow God’s urging with our action now, today will be golden. — David C. McCasland
Your future is 100% secure when you have given your life & will in God’s hand.
