Warning about self-confidence

James 4:13-16 (NLT)

13 Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” 14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. 15 What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” 16 Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil.

These verses give a warning about one’s own self-confidence in the plans they make concerning their life. For our lives are temporary and can end at any moment and when life ends so do the unfulfilled plans that have been made.

Scene 1, Act 1:  Joe considered himself to be an enterprising person. He had been putting together plans to build a new company. This company had the potential of making him millions of dollars. He had consulted often with his friend Bob. Bob had experience putting businesses into place for others and Bob had great ideas that Joe was able to put to use.

Scene 1, Act 2:  Joe had just bounced more ideas off Bob for his company. Joe’s plans were about to be finalized and his dream of building a company was about to be a reality. Just a few more steps in his plans and things were going to take off. Bob had thought to himself that if had just had Joe’s drive, maybe he could have been where Joe is today.

Scene 2, Act1:  Bob is standing in his office looking out the window and thinking about the past. Bob looks toward the door of his office and sees everyone so busy at work. Bob thinks, If only Joe had not died in the car wreck after their final meeting this would have been Joe’s business and not his. For all the ideas Joe had bounced off Bob gave Bob a catalyst to create a company of his own instead of creating a company for someone else.

King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 9:12, “People can never predict when hard times might come. Like fish in a net or birds in a trap, people are caught by sudden tragedy.” There is always uncertainty in life. We should trust the plans of The Lord for us. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”