Does James 4:13-17 Tell Us to Not Make Plans?
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My wife loves a plan.
When we first started dating, she needed a plan. Where are we going? Who’s going to be there? If I started to deviate from the plan without telling her, she’d start to get anxious. As happens with married couples, I liked being a little more spontaneous. We are good for each other.
As I’ve grown older, I’ve appreciated plans more. And my wife has learned to go with the flow a bit more.
James 4:13-17 seems to teach us the futility of making plans, and some have used the verses to resist making any. But is this what the verses teach?
What Is the Context of James 4:13-17?
James writes his letter to the church as a practical call to live out their faith in daily life. James was Jesus’ half-brother, and he became a leader in the early church.
He writes how true faith isn’t only a mental belief or empty words. Believers demonstrate faith through actions that reveal God’s love and righteousness. Throughout the letter, James addresses different issues like favoritism, the importance of words, selfish ambition, and enduring trials. Overall, he teaches Christians to reject worldly thinking and live lives submitted to God.
Chapter four particularly contrasts worldliness with godliness. James points out how quarrels and conflicts come from selfish desires. He cautions how friendship with the world is “enmity” with God. In life, God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Next, James calls believers to submit to God, resist the devil, and see the enemy flee from us. Overall, the writer highlights the importance of how believers treat each other in word and deed, ultimately acknowledging God’s sovereignty over all life.
In this context, we get verses 13-17:
“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 vapor 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.”
The passage deals with the issue of making plans based on a presumption of the future. James rebukes those who declare their business plans with arrogance and without a recognition of God’s sovereignty. In addition, human life is fragile and brief like a mist. People can’t know for certain what will happen. In light of these two truths, James suggests holding loosely to plans with a more eternal perspective, seeking God’s discernment and direction.
He closes with a harsh but necessary statement. Such pride about plans becomes evil and sin, unmindful of the King of Kings and who Christians belong to. Verse 17 closes the verses with, now that the church knows the right mindset and approach to life, to not do it is sin.
What Other Verses Discuss Our Plans and God?
Several Bible verses address the limits of human planning contrasted with God’s sovereignty.
Many of them come from Proverbs. Proverbs 16:1 says, “The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” Solomon’s wisdom reminds us how we can do things, but God controls the outcomes. “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). And Proverbs 19:21 tells us, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”
While not condemning human plans, the Proverbs highlight how God’s will both exists and determines our lives now and in the future. Therefore, wisdom is discovering and submitting to God’s sovereign will.
The Psalms also talk about plans and God’s absolute will. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain …” (Psalm 127:1). And Psalm 33:10-11 includes nations with the idea — the Lord “frustrates the plans of the peoples,” but his counsel “stands forever.” We waste human effort if we act apart from God’s plans and power. Even nations find themselves frustrated when their plans go against the counsel of God. Their ways fail. God’s will stands forever.
Jesus placed a few themes within the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:16-21). After an especially big harvest, a farmer builds bigger barns to keep for the future. Yet the man dies, and God holds him accountable. The farmer thought he would have years to enjoy his riches, but God planned for his life to end. Not only did the farmer lose the luxury of his riches in this world, he also lost the opportunity to give his abundance away to the poor, thereby attaining wealth in heaven.
Other verses warn us. Proverbs 27:1 cautions us with, “Do not boast about tomorrow,” since we can’t control it. And Proverbs 21:30 declares no human wisdom or understanding can “avail against the Lord.”
At the end of Job, the suffering man learned a lesson about God. “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). In the New Testament, the famous teacher Gamaliel shares his wisdom about the new upstart Christianity. If it isn’t godly, it will ultimately fail. If it is of God, we don’t want to stand against it. What God plans will happen, and we are fools to resist it.
Together, these passages echo what James teaches in his letter to the church. Let God be in charge, allowing him to make the plans and act according to his will.
What Verses Support the Wisdom of Making Plans?
At the same time, the Bible isn’t against making plans. God has a will and a plan for redemption and good. As people made in his image, we should make plans.
Proverbs again reveals this. “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance” (Proverbs 21:5). Wise planning and consistent effort produces profit and increase.
“Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established” (Proverbs 16:3). Here we have the right context when making plans. Our first step should be committing everything to God – our whole life – and from that heart, we make plans with the Father and eternity in mind. Proverbs also links good planning with wise input. “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed” (Proverbs 15:22). Good planning is also humble. We understand we don’t have all the information and others might see issues or opportunities we don’t, including both God and friends.
Further, Proverbs points to the ant that “prepares its bread in summer and gathers its food in harvest” (Proverbs 6:6-8). A simple and tiny ant reveals wisdom to understand the seasons and plan accordingly.
Jesus taught about natural planning to make an eternal point (Luke 14:28-32). “Which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost?” A good builder will understand the cost first, or else he or she will find they don’t have the resources and quit. Jesus also uses the example of a king getting ready for war, looking at his realistic ability to win. If outnumbered, he should surrender.
These models point to an eternal truth. We should also look at the final price of our life, the consequences, what it will cost, and make the best decisions about who we will follow. Jesus comes with the right and best benefits.
Scriptural narratives also show the wisdom of right planning. Joseph, guided by God, planned to store grain for seven years, preparing for seven years of famine (Genesis 41). This national plan saved many lives. Nehemiah inspected Jerusalem’s walls at night and organized teams, defenses, and goals. His planning also came from prayer and God’s guidance (Nehemiah 2-4).
In the New Testament, God called the apostle Paul to go preach and plant churches. Paul modeled planning his mission and travel while remaining flexible to the Spirit.
We should first commit ourselves to God and get his insight. Once we discover his plan, we can then make our own, aligning with heaven.
What Is the New Testament and James Teaching Us about Making Plans?
James 4:13-17 isn’t telling us to not make plans. For the New Testament, the core issue becomes pride and arrogance when we make our plans. We assume things will happen when we have no guarantee. Even worse, we don’t take the time to check with God about his plans and will. Without the Father’s input, our plans naturally go against God’s own ideas and desires for our lives. We get frustrated and might even blame God for our hardships when we’re the ones who stepped outside the right path.
Making plans can only be wise when God’s guidance becomes our foundation. We live with the responsibility to steward our time, resources, and opportunities, but true wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10). Otherwise, our plans prove foolish or self-centered. God’s will always prevails. Our planning must be submitted to his will.
To practically put these principles into practice, we begin with prayer. We come before God and invite him into our planning, asking for his revelation and discernment in the process. God speaks to us, and as his sheep, we hear his voice. He longs to share his ideas with us. The Father also warns us against bad pathways. He sees things we never could.
Next, before making plans, we must make sure we regularly study the Bible. We need the inspired words to discipline our thinking and heart. God reveals eternal realities and his mission with us. We are to seek first his Kingdom and righteousness. In this posture of humility, the Father will add his wisdom to our planning.
Third, we seek wisdom from trusted sources. God has placed people in our lives with great wisdom and expertise. Part of hearing from God might include asking who we should seek input from. Wise people and mentors are a treasure; we must see them as the gifts they are.
Then, we make thoughtful and strategic plans — whether for daily schedules or goals — just as Jesus encouraged when teaching us to count the cost. We write plans down, set timelines, and make a record of our resources.
However, we must remember God’s voice remains part of the whole process. We begin with his direction, and we continue to plan while listening to him. Saying, “If the Lord wills,” is more than a phrase. It should reflect our willingness to change direction if God leads differently. While we make plans with wisdom, we still hold them loosely, staying sensitive to the Holy Spirit and changes God might want to make.
Along the way, we also need to check our hearts for arrogance or closed-mindedness. Am I pursuing these goals for God or myself? Like Paul, we can move forward in boldness while trusting God to redirect as needed.
Peace.
Photo credit: Unsplash/alexawilliams
