James Series:
Building a Personal Faith that Works
“How To Face the 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 and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
Common mistakes we make regarding the future:
Mistake #1: Planning without God.
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."
The Solution:
James 4:15--Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
Three responses to God’s will:
Proverbs 16:1 [GN]--We may make our plans, but God has the last word. Man proposes, God disposes.
Proverbs 16:9 [LB]--We should make plans--counting on God to direct us.
Mistake #2: Presuming about tomorrow.
James 4:14,16--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. As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
Isaiah 56:12--"Come," each one cries, "let me get wine! Let us drink our fill of beer! And tomorrow will be like today, or even far better."
Proverbs 27:1--Do not boast about tomorrow,
for you do not know what a day may bring forth.
The Solution:
Matthew 6:34 [LB]--So don’t be anxious about tomorrow...God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time.
Mistake #3: Putting off doing good.
James 4:17--Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
The Solution:
Proverbs 3:27,28--Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, "Come back later; I'll give it tomorrow"--when you now have it with you.
2 Corinthians 6:2 [LB]--Right now God is ready to welcome you. Today He is ready to save you.
3 things you can do with your life:
Luke 12:16-20--And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, `What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' "Then he said, `This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." ' "But God said to him, `You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
[Scripture is quoted from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.]