Day 5: Center of our plans
”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 (James 4:13-14).
Heavenly Father, we bow before Your Sovereignty. All of life bears out the truth of Your word, "a man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps" (Proverbs 16:9 -NKJV). Glory and majesty, dominion and power are Yours (Jude 1:25).
Thank You for this life You've given us, for the years You've allotted, be they many, or be they few. Either way on Your eternal continuum we are but a mist, a passing vapor. Tomorrow is not ours, today is not ours. But time and eternity are in Your hands.
O Lord, You teach us much in Your word about wisdom and prudence. You give us great counsel and instruction about setting goals and planning. But teach us to make You the center of our life, the center of our plans.
Thank You for the skills, the gifts, the talents, and the interests You have given us. We submit to You all our hopes, our dreams, our plans, our ambitions, and our desires, understanding that only “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
Guard our hearts against shallow pursuits, self-serving ventures and presumptuous one-dimensional plans, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”
Help us to gratefully enjoy Your blessings while remaining sober in the awareness of eternity—in the understanding that we are "foreigners and strangers on earth" (Hebrews 11:13). Help us to set our minds on things above, not on earthly things (Colossians 3:2).
Thank You for all You have graciously provided for our enjoyment. Thank You for our achievements. Thank You for our successes. May we use them, O Lord, in gratitude, to bless others and to bring glory to Your Name. Establish the work of our hands (Psalm 90:17).
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