Rain-checks abound in the human agenda. There is never a future appointment that we can secure as humans living in a sin-cursed and fallen world. Although this is true, many of us have so grown accustomed to scheduled events, alarm clocks, planners, and watches that we often go to the extreme of believing our future plans are as certain as the rising sun. When we become so convinced in our daily agendas that we fail to express our utter dependence upon God for everything, this is when we are miserably arrogant in our boasting. So does this mean that all planning is ‘of the devil’? No, for why would Paul develop plans to visit churches and preach the gospel in Spain and other places? So what does James mean when he tells us this in James 4:13-17:
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”
James had just gotten finished in the previous text condemning our pursuit of sinful desires above God and here it appears these people are driven by a desire to earn wealth while all the while failing to see God as the wealthiest of all treasures. Instead of seeking God’s help with how to give their wealth away to those who really need it, they were like the rich fool in Jesus’ parable in Luke 12 that simply wanted to hoard wealth for himself and whose life was taken that night. There is also a certain attitude that creeps into the heart of the best of us that calculates life without God. I have heard it said that even Christians can become practical atheists, meaning that we can learn to live our lives completely without the Spirit’s guidance. It’s as foolish as me hopping in a car that’s sitting in the junk yard and expecting it to get me to work on time, but we do it all the time. We believe in God, we worship God, we love God, and we serve God…but we are in a dangerous place in our lives when we can do all these things without God. You say, how can you do these things without God? Well, truth be told, you can’t. But we think we can. What God wants from us is the attitude that Jesus expressed when He described our relationship with Him in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing.” Did you hear that? NOTHING. We can’t lift a finger without Him and we’re fools to think we can plan and schedule and forecast without Him. James is calling us to live our lives as needy beggars depending on the constant grace of God to provide us with our daily nutrients to live. We must live like we’re on life support and without the guidance of the Holy Spirit we cannot keep our hearts beating. I don’t think James would be content with us adding the cute, “if the Lord wills” at the end of every statement about the day’s agenda. He doesn’t care about sayings, he wants us to have hearts that cry out in longing for God and not hearts that put God on the shelf until He is needed (like when we lose a loved one, or we get a bad report from the doctor, or we really want that new job, or we have ‘major’ family problems). This is why the apostle Paul calls us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). Hearts that lift God high are hearts that come to Him for moment-by-moment help with temptation, trials, boldness, obedience, love, forgiveness, humility, and dying to ourselves. So how can you learn to depend on God the way James says we should? Make it a habit to read your Bible every single day and meditate on what you read to tell God you need His guidance. Have a time and place each day when you can pray and express this neediness. Be an active and healthy church member where others can help you live the Christian life. The sort of life planning that doesn’t acknowledge God is also sinful because it doesn’t understand the frailty of human life. James calls us a mist or vapor that is here today and gone tomorrow. Earlier in James, he referred to us like grass or a flower that sprouts up in good weather and is scorched a day later. We’re a mist…like the spray of a perfume bottle, we’re here one second and gone the next. People who realize their lives are like the spray of a perfume bottle don’t live their lives like next year is a guarantee. Its actually quite refreshing when you realize your life is just a spray long because it means you don’t have to worry about tomorrow since it may never come…you can enjoy today and live for today with all your might, all the while praying God prepares you for tomorrow. God delights in a heart that says with David, “my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Ps. 63:1b). God delights in those whose daily plan is to depend on Him in all they do.
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