Confessions of a Church:Boasting of Tomorrow

The Psalm writer wrote:  Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law. As we come before a Holy God and hear his word, may we have eyes open to the wonderful and fearful things from his law. May it move us to repent and seek forgiveness, fear disobedience, and live in light of the grace we have received.   This is the word of God.  It is eternally true and applicable for all of life.

Proverbs 27:1-10 Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth. Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; A stranger, and not your own lips. A stone is heavy and the sand weighty, But the provocation of a fool is heavier than both of them. Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood, But who can stand before jealousy? Better is open rebuke Than love that is concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. A sated man loathes honey, But to a famished man any bitter thing is sweet. Like a bird that wanders from her nest, So is a man who wanders from his home. Oil and perfume make the heart glad, So a man’s counsel is sweet to his friend. Do not forsake your own friend or your father’s friend, And do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity; Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother far away

Last week, my family and I had a conversation about the incomprehensibility of God. We discovered that being creatures, we have minds that are finite, weak, and very limited. We can only know what God has permitted us to know, what He has revealed to us. We have the ability to remember the past, we can use reason in the present, and the future remains largely unknown to us, except in our imaginations. This is not so with God. He transcends time. He knows all our thoughts and actions currently, those in the past, and the thoughts and actions that have not yet occurred. God has a nature that is infinite. He is not constrained by our creaturely limitations. God, in his infinite nature, is incomprehensible to us, save what He has revealed to us through creation, and His Word. God knows all things, sees all things, and ordains all things that come to pass. His thoughts and ways are higher than ours. So, what am I driving at here? We humans seem to have built within us a desire to shape the future. We make plans. We scheme. We like to plot out our lives on a twenty year plan. Planning is a good thing. The Proverbs (20:18) tell us to Prepare plans by consultation, and make war by wise guidance, and,  The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty (21:5). To not be diligent in planning your actions is sinful, because we are called to make the best use of our time, for the days are evil. However, there is a planning, a speculation about the future, which God hates. Proverbs 27:1 states Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth. Boastful claims of the future are those which say “My will be done”, rather than “God’s will be done”. Boasting about tomorrow amounts to you pursuing the desires of your heart, without wise guidance from the Counselor. Boasting about tomorrow, however innocent you may think it is, seeks to usurp God’s ordination of all things that come to pass. This boasting arrogantly presumes that we know what is best for us, and seeks to shape the future according to our wishes, leaving God and His infinite, all-knowing wisdom sitting in standby, just in case our plan doesn’t work out. This boasting is evil. James states it this way:
James 4:13-16 NASB
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." [14] Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. [15] Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that." [16] But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.
One way this type of boasting may transpire is in how our current generation of 20 and 30 somethings have approached the institution of marriage and being fruitful and multiplying. God said a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (Gen 2:24). Modern reasoning sounds like this: “I am not ready for marriage. I want to get my education first. I want to experience life before settling down (in other words, I want to fornicate)”......all of this is code word for “My will be done”. In terms of raising children, God’s Word says “Be fruitful and multiply”.  Modern family planning sounds like this: “This baby will grow up poor and needy, so I will just kill her instead”, or “ I have to be well established in my career, then I will squeeze in time for a family”, or the popular “ I don’t want children, I would rather live my life and have fun”. As a Pastor once said, selfishness is pretty common these days, and that is what much of this boasting boils down to. “ME ME ME”.
Brothers and sisters, if we are to boast, let us boast in the Lord. If we are to plan for the future, let us say “Your will be done Lord, not mine”. Let us seek wise counsel before going to war. How might you be boasting about tomorrow? Your career choice? Your after high school planning? Maybe whether or not you will get married, have children, or have more children, if already married? Let us recognize that we are the creatures, and He is the Creator who knows all things, and ordains all things. Let us remember that it is He who directs our steps, and pray to our Heavenly Father “Your Kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Let us kneel and pray to God that he might show us mercy in our arrogant boasting.
Dear Heavenly Father, it is You and You alone Who holds the future. You are infinite in wisdom and knowledge, and You order all things according to Your purposes, for Your glory, and for the good of those who love You, who are called according to Your purposes. In our arrogance, we exalt our very limited knowledge and understanding above Yours, and sin. We boast of the future, while failing to make the best use of the time You have already given us. Father, we are foolish to think we might know better than You. We are foolish to think that it is our wishes and desires which shape the future. Help us to be humble Lord, and remember our station in life. We are the clay, You are the potter. Creature to Creator. Please be merciful towards us sinners O Lord, and help us to submit to Your will in all areas of our lives. Please forgive us for our boasting of tomorrow and our plans which exalt our will rather than exalting Christ. It’s in Jesus name we pray, Amen.
 Listen now to the comforting assurance of the grace of God, promised in the gospel to all that believe: 

Matthew 5:3-12 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.  “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

To all those who thus repent and seek Jesus Christ for their salvation, your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lift up your hearts! 

(From the 12/2/18 Liturgy of Sovereign King Church)