Jump Start # 818

James 4:13-14 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”

Our verse today looks at the pride of a person who believes that he is in control of his life and knows exactly what will happen down the road. He plans for the future not knowing that he may not have a future. The passage isn’t a strike about making plans. It is a warning about the arrogance that comes from a life that has forgotten God. The Lord is still upon the throne. The Lord determines life. The following verses show how one must be mindful that life is precious, fragile, and short. No one is promised a long life. The person who includes God is aware of these things and has an eye to the eternal. He realizes that life is a gift and each day is a blessing. He makes his plans with that in mind.

The spiritual person recognizes the folly of making plans and counting on those plans but forgetting to count upon the Lord. Yet there is another folly that is just as serious. It is a person who makes no plans for the future, and specifically, no spiritual plans. This person just hasn’t given much thought to where they want to be spiritually in a year or five years. They love the Lord and want to serve Him, but haven’t thought about their personal development.

In a year or more, will they be in the leadership position of a congregation? In a year or more, will they be teaching Bible classes? In a year or more, will they be preaching? Are congregations thinking out a year or more? Are they making plans that are forward looking?

It seems that the failure to make spiritual plans leaves us just living day to day. We get through today and then there may be a tomorrow. Just one day and then another day. Little thought that the choices today, the habits today, the plans today will lead to developing the goals of the future. Could it be that one reason that so many churches lack great leaders is that little thought was given to that?

All of this leads to the thought, where do I want to be spiritually in a year or five years from now? Am I content where I am now? Do I want to do more, know more, and be better? How will I get there? What steps do I have to take to get there?

We understand this type of thinking when it comes to saving for retirement. A young person, with their first job, sees a little out of every pay check going into a retirement fund. A first it looks like nothing, just a drop in a bucket. But he stays with it. Years pass, the bottom of the bucket is covered. Soon the bucket fills. One day, the bucket is overflowing. It took a plan to accomplish that. He achieved his goals.

We understand this with losing weight. We drink water instead of the soda. We walk more. We have a goal and a plan. At first, nothing much happens. We stay with it. Before long a few pounds are shed. We feel better. One day our goal is reached. It was hard, but it was worth it.

Now, shouldn’t the same thing be happening to us spiritually? A goal, a plan, a path, a specific target. Not just Heaven, but a spiritual target here? A spiritual goal here.

Give that some thought. Chew on it a while. Where do you want to be spiritually in five years? How are you going to get there.

Making plans without God is not good. Making no plans is not good either. Jot some ideas on a piece of paper. Pray about them. Stick that paper in your Bible so you can see it. Work at it. Be patient. One day, if the Lord allows, you will see your goal realized. Won’t that be wonderful!

Roger