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James 4:13-17 instructs us with "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit'; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that'. But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin".
This is a good reminder for some and a great lesson to learn for those who have not read this scripture or taken it to heart before. It is important and something we need to incorporate in our conversations to honour God rather than speak about things for the future like we used to do prior to our conversion. We are no longer that person thinking we can do whatever we like and it is all about our will, believing we are the master and in control of our own destiny. For now we know that it is God who directs our paths and steps on those paths than we ourselves if we know God, for to know God by having a close relationship with Him is to love God in humble and righteous obedience. Proverbs 27:1, Proverbs 16:9, Proverbs and 19:21 support these thoughts.
When we engage in fellowship and talk about our plans, especially relevant for the Feast of Tabernacles, it is noticeable that we can get excited and forget to mention God. This is the time to note that we ought to say, "God willing" for how do we know we will live any moment past the present? We do not; it is God's will entirely. We should take notice and follow some examples provided for us in the Bible — Hebrews 6:3 is one scripture provided for our learning. Then there is the most perfect example we can draw from Jesus Christ Himself in Luke 22:39-46 where we have the account of the Son deferring to the Father in heartfelt prayer while in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before He died. It is very good for us to meditate upon these scriptures about the humility Christ has for He did nothing without seeking out His Father's will. What better example than His for God's children to draw from!
Who are we to say "I am going to the Feast in…wherever that may be" without adding due respect to God. How prideful this is to forget/not mention/distance or omit our most wonderful Father from our thoughts and plans. We need to get into the practice of acknowledging God in all that we say and do starting today if indeed we have not already done so. It is rare to hear "God willing" out there in this very troubled world but it should not be so amongst us therefore let us take every opportunity to defer to God's will and not our own. For does not the scriptures say we are to be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves? Once again we hear this from the book of James in James 1:22-25 which is anything but an epistle of straw.