Young Adults' Group

Plan Our Life According To The Will of God

June 07, 2017

A realistic look at life

Over the last month, we have seen 2 deaths in our midst. Whether we are young or old, death can come to us all too soon. Death is no respecter of age. It is vital that we have a realistic understanding of our life…especially in how we make plans.

Planning for our future

As young adults, we would dream plans of what we want to do with our life. There is nothing wrong with planning for the future. The author James wrote, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make profit;” (James 4:13). Usually, business plans are drawn up so that profits would be maximised. There is every expectation that the future plans made would be carried out.

Yet the reality of life reveals to us that life is uncertain. There is a possibility that tomorrow may never come. James wrote further, “whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.” (James 4:14). We certainly do not know what will happen tomorrow.

The frailty of life teaches us that our life could end all too quickly, “For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” (James 4:14) James compares our life to a vapour. How long does a vapour last? It does not take very long for the vapour to disappear. It rises up and it is gone. One moment we are living…the next moment, we are gone.

We tend to think that if we are young, we can be absolutely certain that we still have a whole life ahead of us. That would be the wrong perspective to have. The young do die and we want to have a wise perspective as to how we should plan our future.

Planning our life being conscious of the Will of God

How should we plan our life? James wrote, “Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”” (James 4:15). James used the Greek 3rd class conditional sentence in this verse. This kind of conditional sentence is used to indicate uncertainty. There is a certain amount of uncertainty as to whether the Lord will keep us or not. If He wills, then we would live. If He does not, then we would have to face death.

It is vital that we include God in our planning. It is only according to the Lord’s will that we live each day. This is only through the grace and mercy of the Lord that we are still alive. It is really up to the Lord’s will to determine for us whether we should live or die. It is with such a perspective that we should plan our life. As long as we are given life, we can continue to do what we have planned to do. But if not, then we should be prepared to see our life come to an end. Let us be challenged to plan with God’s will in mind.

Do that which is good and not evil

When we have this biblical perspective of life…that we are but vapour, we should be greatly humbled. Our lives are not in our control but the Lord’s. We should not allow pride to get the better of us as we have no control over our life. (James 4:16) As our life is short, we should humbly seek to do good and not evil. If we do not seek to do that which is good, we would be sinning against the Lord. (James 4:17) Let’s be challenged to develop a right perspective of life…that it is but vapour. Let’s be challenged to plan our lives with the Lord’s will in mind. Let’s be challenged to do good rather than evil.

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