Who Plans Our Days?

Anita Delene Manthe
Oct 13, 2016
2 min read

Today is a good reminder I am not in control of the hours of my days, nor in the planning of my tomorrows. October will be a busy month and many important events have been on the calendar since June. Because these dates were calendared months ago, they have directed my plans for October. I have declined invitations to be involved in other projects because of the long-standing events that require my attention.

Today that changed!

I emailed to confirm a week-long program only to receive a response that the planned events are expected to be cancelled. They will confirm the cancellation in the next few days.

What else went wrong?

Appointments made for this week are affected by the cancellation of next week’s program. And the remainder of the month now needs to be changed too.

My work calendar is easy to amend; it’s the personal calendar that creates a problem. Plans that could have been made are now not possible. Providence has changed the month of October, and it will take a while to find solutions to the difficulties that must now be overcome.

One thing I know for sure, my times are not in my hands. What about you, have you learned this is true for your life too?

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 make a profit"—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. 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 will live and do this or that." (James 4:13-15)

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary give practical application to the above text, ‘our heads may be filled with cares and contrivances for ourselves, or our families, or our friends; but Providence often throws our plans into confusion. All we design, and all we do, should be with submissive dependence on God. It is foolish, and it is hurtful, to boast of worldly things and aspiring projects; it will bring great disappointment, and will prove destruction in the end. Omissions are sins which will be brought into judgment, as well as commissions. He that does not the good he knows should be done, as well as he who does the evil he knows should not be done, will be condemned. Oh that we were as careful not to omit prayer, and not to neglect to meditate and examine our consciences, as we are not to commit gross outward vices against light!’

I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps (Jeremiah 10:23).
Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand (Proverbs 19:21).
I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills (1 Corinthians 4:19).

Do you rest confidently in the Lord as sovereign over the small and big changes to your day, your month and year, and to your life?
Do you trust Him for His providences? All of them, the good and the difficult ones.
What can you do to grow in your trust of His providences?