If the Lord Wills…
A New Year is upon us. What plans have you made for 2006? Do you anticipate a good year? Are you excited about what the next twelve months will mean to your business and family? Many of us have already made plans for the New Year, but how many of us have included God in those plans?
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit;” whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. (James 4:13-17)
I know what I plan to do in the next twelve months, but I don’t know what may happen to change those plans. I may enjoy good health and the opportunity to fulfill my ambitions. But I must be prepared for things to work out otherwise. All plans must be made with the sovereignty of God in mind. My life is a vapor. I may not last twelve more months. I may not even last twelve more minutes.
If the Lord wills, I shall live and do the things that I have planned. The sermons that I am preparing to present, classes that I plan to teach, vacation my family hopes to take, and quiet time I intend to spend alone with God are all blessings I hope to enjoy in 2006 – if the Lord wills it to be so. But since I do not know the future, and since I am uncertain how many days may lie ahead, I will seek to be prepared each day in this New Year to stand before my God. If my life should be cut short before the end of the year has come, the only thing that will matter is whether I was ready to meet my God. Are you ready? Am I? There is no more urgent and important question before us this day. Resolve to be ready, and if we can help you get ready, please let us know. –Joel Ellis