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 in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
-James 4:13-17
How often do you think or worry about tomorrow? What about next week? Your answer is probably “every day!” It’s so easy to think about what’s next, what we hope for, and what we want to happen. However, what we plan doesn’t always come to pass the way we’d hoped or imagined. When that happens, we get frustrated and question why it happened the way it did. It’s so easy to plan and seek control over our day, but we have to remember that God is the Lord of our tomorrow, of our every day.
In this passage, James shares wisdom on how we should view our tomorrow. He writes, “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…. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will do this or that.'” Yes, you have plans and desires—and those are good! You have hopes and dreams, and God hears those. James is encouraging us not to give those up but to hold our days with open hands. Invite God into your desires and plans but keep His will for your life in mind.
When we’re open to God’s will and prepared to surrender our plans for His, it shows trust in Him. It expresses relationship and the knowledge that His plans and desires are greater than we can imagine. It may not always seem like it at the moment, but God has so much more planned for us. We can hardly fathom how great His plans are, but knowing He’s Lord of Tomorrow takes the pressure off of us and puts trust in Him.
So, what are you trusting God with?