This past week has been a time of learning for me. I had always read the verses below that are found in James 4:13-17, but I never really understood them.
"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we wil go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit'- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and vanishes. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin."
What is my life? What am I living for? Why am I doing what I'm doing? Why am I pursuing what I'm pursuing?
These questions have been floating through my head, causing me to doubt everything I thought was what I was supposed to be doing. This week as I learned that some of the things which I thought were surely going to happen weren't, these verses were really put into play in my life.
It helped me to learn that nothing in life is sure, except the doctrine of our Lord Jesus. When I look at the careful plans I have laid out for my future, it's really hard for me to imagine that God has something even better than what I had planned.
It's so hard to imagine that what I truly thought was the best way to live out my life must not be the best, if God is not allowing it to happen.
And it made me think.
When I was looking up a couple verses the other day, I came across Jeremiah 29:11. I can hear you saying, "Oh yes, the verses about God's plans." But as read them, I noticed that one verse that is often plastered on Scripture blocks, notebooks, and t-shirts was followed by more verses that were just as equally important or even more important than that one verse.
"For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you. You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile."
Not only does God have plans for us, He wants us to seek Him to find out those plans. If you just read the first verse, it is easy to believe that God has good plans for everyone. This is not true. The goodness of His plans are only available fore those who seek Him.
And He says when you seek Him and call upon Him, you will find Him. How wonderful is that promise! When we seek Him, He will restore us and give us peace.
What is your life? What are you living for? Why are you doing what you're doing? Why are you pursuing what you're pursuing? Is it God's best for you, or are you avoiding what He has in store for you?
