What’s Your 5-Year Plan? Christian Planning With God
James 4:14-17
“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. Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.”
I can see the modern application of these verses so clearly now. The Lord has been giving messages about separating our lives from the world and its ideas for a little while now. Makes sense. If we claim to be followers of God but look like, live like, and have the same goals as Joe our neighbor, who cares?
Your goals—have you ever laid them out and analyzed the motives behind them? Do you have a 5-year plan?
In our culture, we are taught to map out our careers, finances, and five-year goals. Planning itself isn't the problem. The problem is the arrogance of thinking that we are completely in control of the outcome. Christian planning with God requires us to recognize that we can make plans, but we don't control tomorrow.
When we exclude God from our plans, acting as though our success is simply the result of our hard work, we fall into the exact evil James is talking about. When we take the time to analyze it, we can see how foolish this is. How often do we plan to get sick, plan to lose a job, plan to have a vehicle break down, or plan for a natural disaster? Yet all of these and more can alter or completely decimate our goals and plans.
The whole point of this is to get us back to the reality that our only hope for anything meaningful in our future is through a life lived in pursuit of God's will. We do not know what will happen tomorrow; all we know is what we have right now and that we are called to be good stewards of what the Lord has provided.
Nothing more, just gratefulness.
Does that mean we should not have any plans? No. As always, your heart is what the Lord is after. We should approach our goals, financial plans, and life with open hearts and open hands to whatever the Lord's plan may be. That's really what Christian planning with God looks like.
We've seen friends' lives suddenly take a hard right turn, and next thing we know, the career engineer is suddenly a missionary to Uganda.
Pray over all decisions and plans rather than treating God as an afterthought. Our lives in this world are short, and recognizing this should push us to invest in things with eternal value.
Planning is not the sin. Presumption is.
What's your 5-year plan?
Thank you, Father, for one more day. Amen.
Proverbs 3:5-10
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine.”
