FLEXIBLE PLANNING
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.
James 4:13-16 NLT
TODAY’S THOUGHT
I remember the fall of 2019. I spent time with our church leadership praying and planning for 2020. We laid out plans for three missions trips that year and recruited almost 100 people to travel to various parts of the world for kingdom impact. I kicked off the year with a teaching series on “Breakthrough” and encouraged the congregation to believe that 2020 was going to be a year of breakthrough in many areas of our lives. We had record attendance for January of 2020. Then came February and something none of us saw coming.
With Covid closing everything down—including in-person worship—we had to cancel all our trips. We were fighting just to figure out what next week was going to look like. Being the eternal optimist, I was sure that by mid-year Covid would be a forgotten memory and life would get back to normal.
For many people life never got back to pre-Covid normal. Plans and dreams were forever shaken because of sickness and loss. No one I know saw the potential of a global pandemic that would bring such pain and division to our world.
Covid should be a reminder to all of us that James spoke great truth when he said, “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.”
I like to have a plan. I like to strategize and dream and prepare for the future. But I’ve now lived long enough to know that tomorrow is normally out of my control. My best bet is to lean into the wisdom and heart of my Heavenly Father. I need to work daily to put my life in step with Him. He knows the future, I don’t. He has plans for me that are a lot better than I can imagine—and probably different than I could have ever thought.
That doesn’t mean I’m going to be lazy and just float through life. I’m going to work. I’m going to plan for the future; but I will always have flexibility. I will always to be open for God’s course correction in my life.
TODAY’S PRAYER
Holy Spirit I yield fully today to Your direction and plans. I surrender my yesterdays and tomorrows into Your hands.
“Scroll down to share what you feel God is saying based on today’s reading.”