James 4:13
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.”
As a youth minister, it has been my privilege to help students discern what God desires to do in and through them for their future. College, career, family all are part of the big picture most students are forced to look at…especially when graduation arrives.
The senior year of high school is a wonderful but difficult time for many students. Having to deal with the next step of life is often stressful, and much of this can be brought on by parents and others who want to make decisions for their children…with out thinking what God would have them do.
Many students are forced to go to a certain college because it is where their parents and family went. Many are forced in to the family business with no concern for the plans of God. Boyfriends and girlfriends often play a huge role in decision making for the future, and oddly enough, those relationships rarely last.
James is telling us that plans are great, we all need to make plans, but the focus of the plan should not be our wants and desires but God’s. God may have something completely different planned for you. But if you are unwilling to listen to his direction you will miss it.
As believers, we are to look first to God for His direction and His desire for us. Why? “We have been bought with a price. We are no longer our own.” While that may seem a bit much, unless we give up everything to follow Him, all our dreams, all our future plans, all our wants and hopes, we will never experience what He desires us to experience. True intimacy.
The love with which He loves us is so much more than we realize. For us to make plans that take us away from that leaves us with less than He wants for His children.
It is ok to make plans. It shows good stewardship to plan. But don’t plan yourself out of an intimacy with Jesus. Don’t plan your self out of the purpose He has for your life.