TRUST GOD FOR TOMORROW

Passage: James 4:13-17

Key verse: 15

NIV

Boasting About Tomorrow

13 Now listen,(A) you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”(B) 14 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.(C) 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will,(D) we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.(E) 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.(F)

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Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Source: BibleGateway

ESV

Boasting About Tomorrow

13 Come now, you who say, (A)“Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For (B)you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, (C)“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. (D)All such boasting is evil. 17 (E)So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

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The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Source: BibleGateway

1. I'll do it tomorrow (13-14)

Some people dream about how they will spend a vacation, or about how wonderful life will be after graduation, or after marriage, or after they get a job, or after they retire. Others plan the great things they will do for God someday. Future plans seem to give security and direction. Some people insist on clinging to their plans, no matter how the world may change. But the world is indeed uncertain. No one knows what tomorrow will bring. We should not cling to the false security of our own plans.

2. If it is the Lord's will (15-17)

Our lives are like a mist that appears for a little while, then vanishes. So we must put our trust in the eternal, unchanging God. And we must not put off doing the work God has given us to do--for tomorrow may never come.

Prayer: Lord, help me to do your work today with all my heart, and to trust you for tomorrow.

One Word: Do it today