James 4:13-17, “13 Come
now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and
spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like
tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then
vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought
to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all
such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to
one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is
sin.”
Slightly convicting, isn’t it? How many
times will you have everything planned out to the tiniest detail, without
putting God’s will and the possibility of change on the agenda? I know I do it
a lot more than I should. Our lives are not our own, we are not our own, and if
we think otherwise, we have serious problems. Having a tentative plan is a good
thing, but holding fast to that plan isn’t going to get you far in God’s plan.
Leave space for wiggle-room and just hang on tight. As James so rightly says,
if we know the good things we SHOULD do, but don’t do them, we are sinning. God
could take our lives at any second, and I, for one, want to hear the words,
“Well done, my good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21) at the end of my
life.
God calls us to serve. You can’t be
focusing on yourself and your plans if you want to serve. Jesus Christ, the
Savior of the world, did not come to be served, but to serve (Mark 10:45). Before
He went to the cross, Jesus Christ himself said, “my Father, if it is at all
possible, may this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as You will.”
(Paraphrase of Matthew 26:39)
We should model our lives after Christ,
“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to
be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he
humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! ”
(Philippians 2:5-9)
With Jesus as your example, don’t think that taking time
out of your day to do the dishes or talk to a lonely person is truly a sacrifice.
At the beginning of each day, we should be
saying, “Lord, what will you have me do today? How can I best serve you?” To
sum up, prayerfully make your plans and leave room for Jesus.
In Christ alone,
~Sonia
