People are often ready to make a commitment to God. After that, they seem anxious to spend eternity in heaven someday. But it is like they have no desire to have a daily relationship with God in the meantime.
They apparently want to live life on their own with no interference from God. They tend to live life as though God doesn’t even exist. Who would do that to someone they love? You wouldn’t choose to live life like that for even a few weeks, let alone a few months, or a few years with someone you love.
In James 4:13-14, we read, “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.’”
These verses are about people making plans. The problem is that their plans don’t include God. God is not even a consideration. If God is not consistently a part of your day, day in and day out, you need to face the truth: God is not a part of your life.
James isn’t making a case for procrastination here. Planning is not the problem. The real message of these verses is that it is unwise to plan to live your life without God or to live as though God doesn’t exist.
It is not good to exclude God from your day-to-day life. James would tell us to be sure to include God in our plans.
This is a potential hazard for all of us. If we’re not careful, God gets left out of our day, God gets cut out of our plans, God gets pushed out of our lives.
It’s not that we fail to see God because he is absent. It is worse than that. God is present, but we have chosen to neglect him. In some ways, we have chosen to reject him. As a result, we fail to see God and involve him in the day-to-day living of life.
Are you guilty of neglecting God by leaving him out of your plans? It can happen so subtly. We just gradually drift into complacency.
Your heavenly Father wants so much more than that for you. He desires a close, personal, intimate relationship with you. The ball is in your court.
You may read Steve Greene’s blog at pastorgreene.wordpress.com or you can email him at [email protected].