Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.…Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”
— James 4:13–15

Back in the eighties when I was the captain of my church’s softball team, we were playing a game one day and beating the opposing team by something like 16 to 1. I got cocky and jokingly said, “This game is over.” You know what happened? We lost the game. And that taught me a deep lesson, not only about being humble but also about being careful with my words and not presuming anything.

This is what James is talking about in today’s verse. It may seem strange to say “if the Lord wills,” but the truth is, there are no guarantees. We don’t know what’s around the corner or even if we will be alive here on earth tomorrow. Beloved one, we need to humble ourselves and not be presumptuous. We need to say, “I’ll be there tomorrow, Lord willing,” or, “I’ll do that tomorrow, Lord willing.” Practicing this type of speech puts us in a posture of humility. And it’s only in a posture of humility that Father God can draw us close to Himself. “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”

Rabbi Kirt A. Schneider, Entering His Presence (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2023), Used by permission.