If the Lord wills
James on the presumption of planners
James overhears the confident talk of the planners: today or tomorrow we will go into this city, spend a year there, trade, and make a profit. And he cuts in with a question that deflates the whole speech — you who do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
He does not forbid planning; he reframes it. You ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. The four words — if the Lord wills — do not weaken a plan; they locate it. They confess that the planner is a creature, not the author of his own tomorrow. Bold plans, humbly held under God, are the mark of a wise leader. Presumption is the mark of a fool.
“You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared — whose will they be?”
— God, to the man who presumed — Luke 12:20 (WEB)
Make bold plans, but hold them humbly under God. 'If the Lord wills' does not weaken a plan; it locates it — confessing that the planner does not author his own tomorrow.
“For you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.”
James punctures the planner's illusion of control without forbidding plans. A leader formed here plans boldly and holds it all open-handed, remembering he is a mist, not the master of tomorrow. The inner work is humility about a future he cannot command.
Plan ambitiously and hold the plan under God's will, building in room for him to redirect. Teach your team the difference between confident planning and presumption. Lead as people who do not control tomorrow but trust the One who does.
Successful planners slide from confidence into presumption, speaking of next year as if it were owed to them. The blind spot is forgetting the creatureliness that 'if the Lord wills' is meant to confess.
Take one confident plan you hold. This week, genuinely submit it to God's will — naming where you'd yield if he redirected — rather than assuming the outcome is yours.
Planning is good; presuming is not. The wise leader makes bold plans and holds them under four humbling words — if the Lord wills — knowing he is a creature, not the author of his own tomorrow.
Do your plans quietly assume you control tomorrow — or are they genuinely held open before the God who does?