Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it until it receives the early and the late rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble, brethren, against one another, that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the doors. As an example of the prophets who were steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath, but let your yes be says and your no be no, that you may not full under condemnation.
James 5:7-12
This teaches us that in all things we must be patient, do not let things that we want right now control us.
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 get gain"; whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and will do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil! Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is a sin.)
James 4:13-17
Both sections speak on taking time. Ask the Lord, what you are too do. If you try to do something the Lord doesn't want to happen it will not happen. Jacob (Israel) tried to do something like this. He wanted something so he fought with his brother and also tricked his father so he could get what he wanted, yet the LORD had already planned to give him it! So all his planning, was for nothing. So truly, what does it matter what we want, for the the LORD our God already has a plan for our lives! Know that he is in control, and except it, then you will know what he wants you to do. As James asks, "What is our life?" To God we are another Child, he loves us, and he wants us to be well, and joyful, but also he wants us to look up to him and remember that without him, we could little. Remember the parable of the Lost Sheep, (Matthew 18: 10 - 14).
Something else to think about, (Colossians 3: 23 and 24) "Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you are serving the Lord Christ."
When you want to do something, do you ask the Lord? If he has a plan for your life, why then do we seek to create our own plan? I ask you this, only because I know I have done much of this in the past. Trying to have things happen the way, I would want them to. If the Lord wills it, it will happen, in his time if at all. Do not look to the future and say, "I will do this, and that." For you do not know what the Lord's plan is for your life. One minute he may have you been doing something, in fact you may love doing it, but if the Lord commands that you do something you don't want to do, or don't like the path it will lead, does this mean you can refuse to do so? No, for even if you don't like doing it, he will put you into the position where, you have no other choice. He will open and close doors, create a path, and then stop you, and point you to another branch of it.
I feel strongly in this issue because, what we want isn't always the way things happen. I don't understand all the things, the Lord may tell me, or what I read in his word, but truly, we must trust that he has a good plan for our futures.
