I know for myself, it is a common habit to tell what my intended plans are for the near future. ''I'm going to ...... or I will see you there on .....'' I have a friend who has been a diligent example to me when he always follows his spoken plans with ''the Lord willing.''
This week in bible study, the term practical atheism was referred to as planning without the thought of God's involvement in those plans. The book of James warns against such self confidence because we don't know one minute to the next what will happen. We are to set goals and make plans but we want them fulfilled according to God's will, not just our own.
I know it's fun to look forward to an upcoming event and when something interrupts or cancels the plans, the disappointment is real. When that happens, we have to trust that it happened for a reason. You may have been spared of something bad or blessed in an alternate way. A survivor of 9/11 had this story.... the man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning, took the various means to get to work
but before he got there, he developed a blister on his foot. He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid. That is why he is alive today.
So make your plans but make sure you know and realize that they are subject to change by the Great Planner of all.
James 4;13-16 ''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 plans, and all such boasting is evil.''
