Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
James 4:13-14
In our day and age, it doesn’t take much to remind us of the brief and fragile nature of life. Wars and famines, sickness and disease, natural disasters, and lost love ones serve as poignant reminders of why James calls life a “mist.”
In these two verses, James doesn’t decry making wealth, but He does call out an attitude that feels that it can predict the future and make it happen.* This attitude is called pride.
What do we do with our unpredictable, uncertain lives? Whether the return of the Lord Jesus interrupts our plans for the future or death does, none of us can say for certain what tomorrow brings.* What feeling does this evoke in you?
What do you do with your uncertain tomorrow? Do you hold a false sense of control by pridefully declaring the achievements of tomorrow? Do you hide away from the future, attempting another form of control that looks like keeping everything undesirable at bay?
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to acknowledge that your future is in His hands. Perhaps today God wants you to humble yourself by letting go of control. Maybe today God wants you to add these words to your life: “if the Lord wills it, I will…”
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.
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*Blomberg, C. L., & Kamell, M. J. (2008). James (Vol. 16, pp. 206–208). Zondervan.
Guthrie, G. H. (2006). James. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, p. 259). Zondervan.
Stulac, G. M. (1993). James (Jas 4:13–14). IVP Academic.
Moo, D. J. (2021). The Letter of James (D. A. Carson, Ed.; Second Edition, pp. 253–258). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Nystrom, D. P. (1997). James (pp. 250–252). Zondervan Publishing House.
Martin, R. P. (1988). James (Vol. 48, pp. 165–166). Word, Incorporated.