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 in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. James 4:13-17
“James now gives a specific example of the pride he condemns. Addressing a businessman or businesswoman who makes plans without any thought of God, he says something like this: ‘You drive yourself hard to succeed in business, but without God. You are very sure of yourself. And yet you are like a mist that appears and disappears’. What is the good of making long-term plans when you don’t even know what will happen tomorrow? Earlier, he had compared riches to a flower. The rich person who is counting on his riches and the businessperson without God are alike. Both are guilty of the sin of self-sufficiency, of thinking they can succeed on their own. Both will come up short when they confront the brevity of life.”
Solomon Andria (Madagascar) in “James” in Africa Bible Commentary, Tokunboh Adeyemo, General Editor (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006).
Today in Uganda we trained 33 workers from 18 countries across Africa through Stations of Generosity. Each one plans to replicate the training to spread the message of biblical generosity in their country.
We also have two partner organizations – As One Uganda and Partners Worldwide – who expressed gratitude for the privilege of getting trained. They too plan to spread the trainings to all those they serve.
But I told them all this Scripture. And I said, “Don’t focus on all the people you think you want to train. They are not here. Focus on what God wants to teach you today, right now. Don’t make any plans, just ask God to teach you.”
This mirrors today’s biblical text and it touched them deeply. At the end I asked them to pray and ask God who He wants them to share it with. And I asked them if the answer to their prayer was different from what they thought at the start.
Guess what? Everyone raised their hand. People testified that after just experiencing the training without any plans or assumptions about the future, God put a bigger vision or a different one on their heart.
Notice the opposite of this. We can take posture of self-sufficiency and map big plans and act like we know everything. We actually commit the sin of self-sufficiency when we do this. I have done it many times. Perhaps you can relate?
Let’s not make this mistake. We fail because God blesses us and we often say, “I’ll take if from here, Lord.” And we take charge. Personally, I discern that God wants me to do many new things in 2026. What will they be?
I could map plans. When I do, things often don’t seem to come together. I plan to block some time on the flights home to surrender my life, my future, and my ideas of plans to Him and ask Him to help me discern next steps. Join me.