13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes. 15 Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.
James 4:13-17 (CSB)
1. Don’t plan your future without God.
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”
James 4:13 (CSB)
28 “For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?
Luke 14:28 (CSB)
15 Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
James 4:15 (CSB)
9 A person’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps.
Proverbs 16:9 (CSB)
2. Don’t believe life is predictable.
14 Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes
James 4:14 (CSB)
12 “Come, let me get some wine, let’s guzzle some beer; and tomorrow will be like today, only far better!”
Isaiah 56:12 (CSB)
1 Don’t boast about tomorrow, for you don’t know what a day might bring.
Proverbs 27:1 (CSB)
34 Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:34 (CSB)
3. Do the right thing today.
17 So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.
James 4:17 (CSB)
27 When it is in your power, don’t withhold good from the one to whom it belongs. 28 Don’t say to your neighbor, “Go away! Come back later. I’ll give it tomorrow”—when it is there with you.
Proverbs 3:27-28 (CSB)