New Year's Day is a rare moment when I reflect on the past, present and future. My average day's schedule does not lend itself to reflection. So what good is this time of reflection and looking toward the future?
The apostle James tells me,
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." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them. (James 4:13-17)
Charles Spurgeon's 1890 sermon on this passage is still relevant for me today:
Counting on the future is folly.
Ignorance of the future is a matter of fact.
Recognition of God in the future is wisdom.
Boasting of the future is sin.
Using of the present is a duty.
Trusting God's presence and process in our futures is key. As the future becomes present, will you join me responding in obedience to "the good we ought to do"?
Sharing the journey with you,
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