Speaker: Bonnie Sala | Series: Reset | Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.”  You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. James 4:13-14

 

Do you plan your days, entering appointments and goals on your phone or paper calendar? If you’re not a planner, you probably feel that you should be. Plans equal preparedness, right? Well, not always. Something like a pandemic, for example, makes us question whether tomorrow will even arrive. We realize we’re not as in control as we thought we were.

God is in control of every tomorrow, but it’s easy to think that we are in control when life does go as we’d hoped and planned. James reminded early Christians that they, too, could not control tomorrow, but told them to say, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:15).

Early Christians experienced isolation, poverty, and oppression; James reminded them “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (James 1:2-3 NASB).  James points out that being shaped by God through hardships leads to our becoming mature and complete, lacking nothing (James 1:3-4).

No matter how chaotic and unplanned life may be right now, God is in control. These unexpected hardships we didn’t anticipate and can’t manage can be used by God to do good work within us. If this is news to you, be encouraged!  If it’s a reminder for you, share this reassurance with someone who needs it today.

Resource reading: Ephesians 1:1-15