Session 8

Here one minute, gone the next

From James: A 10-Day Devotional

It’s cold.  There’s a wind winding through the leafless branches of a tree nearby while you stand on your front porch, alone. And as you wait there, you breathe in, you breathe out, and every breath you exhale leaves a cold and chilly vapor that lingers in front of your face, holding there a moment, then disappearing completely. 

That, in a way, is how James described it when he spoke about our lives. Only, in this analogy, we’re not the person. We’re the vapor.  

Our lives in the grand scheme of God’s plan and the universe are nothing more than a mist, a vapor, something that is gone so quickly we’d wonder if it was even there at all. So why do we wait when we know God has given us a burden to do something?   

James 4:17 says, “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” By waiting, we are sinning. It seems absolute, but it’s true. God has too much planned out for each one of us for us to wait for the moment we feel is most convenient to undertake his plans. He’s good. We can trust Him, and when we do, we’ll find that waiting was silly because the plans He had were greater than anything we could have possibly imagined.  

Reflect:

• Is there anything in your life you know God has already given you the go ahead to do?
• What’s one step you can take this week to follow through with what God has in front of you?