James 4:13-16
I am a big fan of day planners and to do lists. Anyone who knows me knows that I like to have a plan before I do anything. My dayplanner is divided into an elaborate, color-coded system of plans for the year, for the month, for the week, and for the day. In some ways, this passage in James 4 is one of the hardest passages in the whole Bible for me.
James is specifically talking to merchants here, but I think the principle applies to almost every profession. How often do we make plans based on our desires and goals without considering God? I heard a preacher one time take this a step further. He said that we make our own plans and then "apply the gravy of God's will." What he meant was we made up our mind what we wanted to do and then looked for reasons why our plan was God's plan. James is strictly condemning that.
I'm not going to abandon my dayplanner. And I don't think that's even the point. The point of this passage is what priorities underlie the goals and schedules that you make. Think about that. What is driving you as you set goals and fill schedules? Is it ambition? Is it a quest for more stuff or for more influence? Or are you driven by God? Are you making goals based on a relentless desire to worship your Lord? Actually, the scary thing is that you ARE driven by a relentless desire to worship your lord, whether it is God or anything else. These passages emphasize that the "things" that we might be pursuing are very temporary, here today and gone tomorrow. That goes for increased influence or prestige, a bigger home, a fancier title. None of it will last. James is encouraging his readers to plan based on eternity, to plan based on God's plans.
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