How many stars are there in the universe? What is the temperature going to be in London, England 34 years from now? How many grains of sand could you pick up in your lifetime if you had to pick up only one at a time?
And a final question: What are you going to do tomorrow, or next weekend, or next year?
All of these questions are questions to which we do not have an answer to. We may attempt to suppose, or try to equate in our minds the answer, but we really do not know. We do not know because our minds are “finite,” meaning they have an end, or limit. They are constrained by bounds set by God, so that we do not know all things, including the natural length of our own lives. Only God knows.
James 4:13-15 “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”
Remember back in elementary school when the teacher asked everyone what they wanted to be when they grew up? “I’m gonna be a police officer!” I’m gonna be a doctor!” ” I’m gonna be a veterinarian!” Everyone shouts out their own profession which they say they are going to be, which at that time is their goal to go towards. But no one knows everything that it going to happen in their life, do they? Someone may say that they are going to be an airline pilot, but before they reach adulthood they are involved in some kind of an accident which affects their eyesight, and they no longer have the perfect vision that is required of pilots. We just do not know what is in the future for us. We do not know if we will will make money or not, if we will go places or not. We are not in control of these things.
This is something that is referenced many times throughout the Scriptures.
Acts 18:18-21 “And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.
And he came to Ephesus, and left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.
When they desired him to tarry longer time with them, he consented not;
But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus.”
Here Paul was leaving the city of Ephesus, but told the people there that he would return back to see them sometime again, if it was the Lord’s will. This is very important. If it is the Lord’s will things will happen, not according to our own will.
Lamentations 3:37 “Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?”
How many times have you watched the evening news when the weather comes on, and announces that there is a 100% chance of heavy rain tomorrow? While it may well be a possibility that it rains the next day, the weatherman is not in control of the atmospheric changes in the weather. Whether or not it actually rains is an event that God makes the decision on. If He wants to to be sunny and 80 degrees then that is what it will be, because it is according to His will.
Proverbs 19:21 “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.”
We do not know what will happen tomorrow. We do not know what will happen next week or next year. It is all according to the will of the Lord.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 