Church of the Nazarene East Rock
James and Tomorrow
Tomorrow belongs to God and God alone.
As we continue through James, he is taking time out to remind his readers the importance of not only giving God today, but also seeing to it that we have given God our tomorrow too.
As we dive into our teaching text today in verses 13-17 James is again calling for our surrender in humility. Except this time he does something unique- James calls for the surrender of something we don’t yet have and may not ever have for that matter:James calls you to surrender your Tomorrow…
As hard as it can be for us to recon with, a proper and humble response to the Lord includes giving God our future.
As we unpack our text today, James will help us to see our lives in the light of eternity and show that our only response must be one of humility and trust in God’s plans for our future.
James 4:13-17
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, 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. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
As we begin today, It may be helpful for us today to establish what this text is NOT saying, so we can more clearly unpack what James is really getting at.
This is not saying we cant make plans for the future or that we shouldn’t save money for a rainy day.
Its not saying that we cant have a business that produces a profit. In our text, James is looking beyond the actions of our plans, to our motives to our heart posture behind our planning.
For James, part of living surrendered to God’s authority is that we would allow him to have full control over the future.
James 4:13
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”
In what James lays out here there is a pretty clear self-confidence (with self being the operative word here) and pride in the plans and the outcome of this person. There is even perhaps a since of pride in what they will accomplish because of their plans.
James 4:14
Why, 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 reminds us very directly here of a reality we often forget.
Tomorrow belongs to God alone…
Woody Allen once said “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans”
James 4:15
Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
James offers a different way of thinking and planning for Christians to view the future. That we can make plans…we can plan on doing “this or that”… BUT that we would submit our plans to the Lord and place our confidence in Him rather than our ability to manage the future.
James 4:16
As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.
When we set our life course based off of our desires for a house, a career, a family, or whatever it is, no matter how good it is, we are actually guilty of arrogantly boasting before the Lord.
The root issue that James is pointing out is that we have taken the future out of God’s hands and determined that we would hold onto it.
James 4:17
If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
I think James knew there is a big difference in knowing these things and actually living our lives like they are true.
For us to know these truths and not to live them out- is SIN for us.
In your life, who holds the future?
James in 8 Minutes
This overview video on the book of James breaks down the literary design of the book and its flow of thought. In this book, James combines the wisdom of his brother Jesus with the book of Proverbs in his own challenging call to live a life wholly devoted to God.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn-hLHWwRYY