Passage of the Day: James 14b [In the context of verses 13-15 ] [NLT] …
13 Look here, you people 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 will happen tomorrow? For 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.”
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Contextual Study for today’s passage: James, Chapter 4 [NLT] … Go to this link …
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Reference Passage #1: Ecclesiastes 1: 2-8 : [Does our life have any real meaning? ] …[NLT] …
2 “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “utterly meaningless!” 3 What do people get for all their hard work? 4 Generations come and go, but nothing really changes. 5 The sun rises and sets and hurries around to rise again. 6 The wind blows south and north, here and there, twisting back and forth, getting nowhere. 7 The rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows again to the sea. 8 Everything is so weary and tiresome! No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.
My Journal for Today: Somebody once asked, “If you knew that tomorrow you were going to be with Jesus in heaven, would it change your ‘to-do’ list today?”
And while you reflect on that question, let me tell you a very true, … very recent, story which reflects on the photo I’ve attached today.
One week ago, a beautiful lady was volunteering her time to work the reception desk at our church on a Sunday morning. My wife went up to Corrine Smith that morning and got a brochure from her. She smiled, as she always did, and was very helpful, as she always was, when she volunteered her time quietly for her Lord every Sunday morning at that reception desk. Corrine was the picture of well-being that morning; but after church that day, she got in her car, pulled out of the church parking lot to go home, drove about 300 yards down the street, had a massive heart attack, left the road, and as you can see in the photo, hit a tree. The paramedics arrived soon there after and found her dead at the wheel. She had likely gone to be with Jesus before she ever struck the tree. But the thing is, … even if Corrine had known that she would be in the arms of Jesus on that May 5th Sunday, … Corrine would have likely been smiling and volunteering her time to be at the reception desk, doing what she did every Sunday morning.
There are two reflections from God’s word this morning. One from Jesus’ brother, James, in James 4: 14b, should get us thinking. Really our life is like a morning vapor, isn’t it? Here like a fog; and then gone tomorrow. I really don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring; so, when I look at what I’m going to do today, will it in any way have any lasting impact on God’s kingdom?
When Solomon, whom God had given so much worldly wisdom, had lived his life, he looked back on it; and in writing the Book of Ecclesiastes, he reflected with remorse, discontent, and disdain on how he had blown it, … not living as God had really intended for his life. And when you read the Book of Proverbs, especially Chapters 1-9, and see how wise God had made this son of King David; and then read the Book of Ecclesiastes, written some years later, one has to be impressed by how much King Solomon decidedly wasted his life, living it in disobedience and selfish pursuits.
Stop! … Look back! … Pause! … Reflect on today! Will what you do today be part of God’s confrontation with you, being a born-again Christian, if you were to meet the Lord there, in heaven, tomorrow? Would He be reflecting on what you’ll do today when and if He were to say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” … Or would He even say that based upon what you will do today?
I don’t know about you; but my “to-do” list just changed for today. And my “bucket list” for tomorrow has changed as well.
My Prayer for Today … Oh, Lord, help me to see my life through Your eyes and see where You’re leading me, so that what I do will be a reflection of Your “to-do” list for my life. … Amen
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