Plans… We all have them, and we all let them chart the course of our lives. We often start off the new year with a resolution. Many people vow to lose weight, improve a weakness in their lives, or to try something new. I didn’t come up with a resolution for this year, but I still have my plans for the future. I want to graduate, go to a good college, and work towards a career in law. There are places I want to go and foods I want to try. Out of all the years in my life, this year holds the most plans and the highest potential for failure. I would like to challenge everyone who reads this to evaluate their plans and check for potential weaknesses that are guaranteed to cause failure.

James 4:13-17 serves as a reminder to everyone who is seeking to make their own plans. “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 and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”

There is a lot to unpack from this verse so let’s break it down into smaller pieces and look into it. There are three things that I think we can learn from this verse. Please read through the questions below and honestly answer them for yourself.

Who is doing the planning?

How do I veiw my life?

Am I willing to lay aside my plans? If so, when?

These three questions can give us some insight into our own lives and help us to keep track of our planning. Let’s start by looking at the first question.

Who is doing the planning? Proverbs 15:22 says: “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed.” Do you seek advice when you are making your plans? Proverbs reminds us that we need to seek counsel when making plans, and James helps to point us in the right direction. In the passage above, he explains that we should be asking God for His plans and tuning our plans to be in accordance with His will. If our plans are God’s plans, there is no way they can fail.

How do I view my life? When we are making our plans, it is easy to start to feel invincible. We cram our schedules full multiple years into the future. There is just one problem with this. James explains that we are like a mist. We show up for a short time and then we are gone. We need to remember this when we are planning. Our lives are short, so we ought to be using them to bring glory to God and to prepare for eternal life. In The Great Divorce CS. Lewis said: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.” When we die will we be the ones who said to God “thy will be done”? If we do, that means allowing for His will to be done in every aspect of our lives, even in the plans we hold so dearly.

Am I willing to lay aside my plans? This is the final question I think we ought to be asking. “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” This is a reminder that no matter how important our plans may seem, we need to be ready to lay them down and listen to God. His plans are always better, and we need to be ready to let Him lead.

Whatever your plans for the new year are, we all need to surrenderer them to God. Without council our plans will fail, but if we take them to God, The Wonderful Counselor, we can succeed. God wants what’s best for you and He will work everything out if you trust in Him.