Planning Ahead

13 Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.’14Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.15Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.’ ~ James 4:13-15

Plans seem to be something that we fully expect to experience once we plan them.  Vacations, education, retirement…they all seem to be a tangible goal to look forward to.  Unfortunately, things do not always work out as we have planned them.  Illness, loss of employment, inability to pay for tuition or even being able to complete courses with high enough GPA's can interfere with our plans and make them unattainable or at least, needing to be tweaked to attain in some other fashion.

God is the only one that knows exactly how long we will be on this earth or for what purpose He has placed us here.  Only He knows what may befall us to put our plans into a detour or tailspin according to our original designs.  How we decide to proceed from such changes in our "schedule" is up to us.  we can either moan and groan in defeat, or we can pick up from where our original plans end and ask God how He wants us to proceed.  It is by His grace that we are here, and if our plans do not include what He wants from us, He may step in to put us back on track to accomplish that which He has wanted from us all along.

If things don't seem to be going as we have planned, perhaps we should ask God to reveal which direction we should go to accomplish His will.  Remember that any and all plans we make are only able to be accomplished if He grants us the grace and time on this earth to do so.  We are but dust in the winds of time, and this very short amount of time we are allowed needs to be devoted to the Lord that gave us this life we are blessed to live.

Prayer

Lord,  We know that only You know all.  We often plan things far into the future as if we are in control, but we know that ultimately, our lives are in Your hands and it is by Your grace that we are able to experience the completion of our plans we tend to make.  Help us to also remember that, if something goes amiss with our original plans, perhaps You have something better for us to experience and to look to You for direction to accomplish that which You have placed us here to do in Your name.  Amen.