The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon.

“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. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’”

—James 4:13–15

This verse doesn’t mean we must include the words “if the Lord wills” in front of every sentence. It’s a matter of having a heart listening to the Holy Spirit—one that is not boastful or set on its own plans but is humble and willing to accept a new path as God leads.

Every goal we make in life should be held with open hands, with the attitude of “your will be done, Lord,” and with acceptance if what he has for us is different than what we hope.

It’s okay to plan, hope, and have desires, but we must add—as Jesus did—the “nevertheless, not my will but yours” (Luke 22:42) to all of those.

If we resist what God has for us or grow bitter when our plans or hopes don’t come to fruition, we have made ourselves, our desires, and the things of this world into a god. Our culture may not have many idols carved from stone or wood, but there are many things we put in front of our desire for the Lord’s will.

Let’s live the life God gives us moment by moment instead of dwelling on the what–ifs, the might’ve–beens, or the should’ve–beens.

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