November 23, 2021 – Tuesday
James 4:13-15 NIV
13 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.”
14 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.
15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
Comment.
I don’t know, but I have felt rebuked by the Holy Spirit of late because of my arrogance. I am nearing 74 years of age (January 2022) and feel and often act as if I will live forever in my flesh. I know better. We all pretty well know better. What is my point? Read the verses above for the first time if you have not already read them or if you have then read them again.
I am going to write about “we” but in reality, I am writing much about me and think it may apply to others as well. Let me know if I am being arrogant in thinking it might apply to any of you as well. Unlike the individual in verse 13, I seldom nowadays make plans for a year, but I do for today or tomorrow or this weekend or next week often and do so without a care in the world. I think that is true for most of us.
Why do I think I am being arrogant or that many of us are? Let’s look at verse 14, 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. None of us really knows what will happen tomorrow and our life compared to eternity is truly no more than a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. No, I’m not being morbid, just realistic. I have outlived a number of people I grew up with. I have had my knees replaced, the lens in my eyes replaced, and use hearing aids to keep my wife happy.
Many of you may think, I’m young, what does this have to do with me? Well, let me give you a few numbers from 2020. Deaths for those under one year of age, over 19,000; those 1-14 about 9,000; those 15-24 over 35,000; and moving to my age category those 65-74 almost 670,000.
Recently read an article that asked a pertinent question, “What are you going to be doing in 10 years?” My first thought was “Pushing up daisies.” Instead, I may be around for another 10, 20, or 30 years. Only God knows. The point though, is how often do I thank God for each day that I get to enjoy His blessings here on this earth? How often do I think or say, If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that? I do it more often now and I do more to stay healthy so that whenever my day comes to called to my eternal home, I hope to be as healthy as possible.
I don’t know about you, but I am still enjoying life. Often times I enjoy life to the fullest. I am truly looking forward to Thanksgiving this Thursday. I hope to see our grandchildren graduate from high school, go to college, get married, have some children (great grandchildren!) in the next 10-15 years – God willing. I still enjoy walking and playing chess now and then, and especially studying God’s Word.
By the way the next two verses in James (16-17) went like this, 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. Thus, I also pray God will show me the good I ought to do and give me the strength to do it even when I wish to do something else.
Monday evening’s Bible Study was Psalm 143 and verse 6b (NKJV) My soul longs for You like a thirsty land made me think of one of my favorite Psalm verses 42:1, As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God, which has been turned into a hymn many times over. Examples are here and here.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, Help me to always give thanks for all that You give me in this life, each and every day. You have blessed me so mightily I should never forget. – In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
RileyD, nwJ
Riley D. Driver – Pastor
Calvary Chapel of Dayton in Beavercreek