God’s Time – Proverbs 27:1

My dear friend always had a concern that he might die young.  His dad died young from a heart attack and so he paid special attention to heart health, exercising and eating right.  He’s 68 now.  But 68 is the new middle age.  And he has cancer.  He is the poster “child” for never boasting about tomorrow.  He is the encouragement to all who love him that he is trusting in the Lord for every day.

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. (Proverbs 27:1, ESV)

James 4:13,14 says,

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”— 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. (ESV)

Unless we are very sick or in the middle of a very dangerous job or war, it is natural for us to anticipate, to assume, that we will be alive tomorrow.  You might say we actually feel in control of that fact, though if you asked us, “Can you control whether you will live through the night?” most of us would say, “No!”

There has been many a parent who has seen the fear in their children’s eyes after their spouse has died or someone else close to the children.  They know the question in their children’s minds is, “Will you leave me, too?”  And they want to tell them, “No, I’ll be with you and never leave you,” when in fact they cannot promise that.  Is that boasting about tomorrow?  I don’t think so.  Is that the wisest way to answer a child’s question?  I don’t think so.  They need to be pointed to the only One who will never leave or forsake them.

But we are guilty of boasting about tomorrow when we don’t plan in light of Yahweh’s control of all things.  As James again says, Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:15, ESV).  Our seeking to make guarantees to others for the sake of getting them to endorse our enterprises is a face turned away from the Lord.  Our plans must always have the contingency aspect should the Lord call us home or even choose to alter the way things go.