13 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”— 14 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. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
- What are your first responses when faced with something worrisome?
- How can you plan for something significant and not "think about tomorrow"?
- If v. 15 is not merely talking about words, what does it mean to say, "If the Lord wills, ..."?
- Although v.17 is most commonly used out of context, what is "the right thing to do" in this passage?
- If your plans do not succeed, what is your most common response?
- How frequently do you plan in arrogance? [ouch!!]
- How do you feel knowing that leaving God out of your plans is sin?
I do worry well and I like to have a plan for everything. So, this passage is troublesome for me in several ways. You might be thinking this passage is not about worrying. I would suggest that it is; although it is not obvious. I find I worry when my plans are not going as I expected. I then make more plans and worry that they may not go well. I see someone having problems and my first response is to start planning a way to help to deal with my concern/worry for them. I've made many plans with prayer, but eventually begin to worry about the outcome. I think you can see how this passage relates to worry, at least in my life. I'm worried about my arrogance. I think I have a plan.... :-)
2 comments:
I was planning a response to this, but then got worried about the response...:}
OK, I have to weigh in on worrying. Where Harold came in 4th, I was running 2nd (Friday, July 6th, “Tomorrow No Worries”), but now have dropped to closer to 10th. My drop in the standings came 20 years ago in Davis, California. We had plans for establishing a Campus Ministry at UCD, and most of those plans fell through. But in our first calendar year God brought 13 people to commit to Him and be baptized. We had a plan, we went forward and great things happened. Planning is essential, without it we get nowhere. The trick is, and this is the hard part, is to be flexible in the plan for God to adapt it. My worrying comes when I don’t trust God to adjust my plan to best fit His! We can learn from Paul, who wanted to go to Asia, but instead established some great congregations in Macedonia (Acts 16:6-10). Randy
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