13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. James 4:13-17
So often it seems that discussions on the will of God focus on the future. What does God have for me in my life? How will he lead me and guide my family into where we are supposed to be and what we are supposed to be doing? When will I know for sure that I’ve landed in the perfect center of God’s will? Certainly not today, right?
God’s will tends to feel futuristic, somewhere out there beyond today. God’s will can feel like it’s for tomorrow. But then tomorrow never comes because tomorrow always turns into today. What if we changed our mindset to be that God’s will is today, not tomorrow? Because, as James says, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We really only have today. So let’s be present for it. Let’s live in today and live out God’s will today rather than focusing on tomorrow. Let’s not meander through today but be fully present in it.
I’ve thought recently about what sorts of time-wasters are in my life and how I can rid myself of them. Why? So I can focus on more important things: cultivating my faith, investing in my family, prioritizing self care, etc. How about you? Can you identify time-wasters in your life or things that rob you from being in the moment, fully present to your circumstances the people God has placed right there with you? Take a moment today and jot this question down: If God’s will was only about today, what would be at the top of your to-do list? Ponder your answer and ask the Holy Spirit to help you live it out not tomorrow, but today.
By Ellen Rosenberger
