If you’re a golfer you probably know the term, “mulligan.” A mulligan is a “do-over.” The first shot didn’t go so well so a mulligan is a chance to do it over again, hopefully, better. For some of us we need a mulligan in 2024. 2023 didn’t go so well and we need a fresh start for a new year. If the Lord wills, perhaps 2024 will be a better year.
How was 2023 for you? For some of us it was a year of constant battles with illnesses, rehabilitation, surgeries, and doctor visits. For others it was a year of joy at the birth of a baby or the wedding of a son or daughter. For others it was a time of financial hardship. Whatever the situation, we have turned the page on 2023 and there, lying before us, is a fresh, unsullied, new year, 2024.
What will 2024 be like for you? The truth is only the Lord knows what this year holds for you and me. We can set goals and have aspirations but, as James warns us don’t neglect to seek God’s will first. James writes, “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’ ” (James 4: 13). This is a businessman with goals. He is planning ahead. He wants to make a profit. All of us would celebrate that, wouldn’t we? Listen to the Lord’s comeback to his plans, “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away” (4:14). God’s estimation of this businessman’s life? His life is like a puff of steam, a vapor in its brevity. It disappears nearly as quickly as it appears. How does the Lord counsel the businessman? He declares, “Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that’ “(James 4:15). He exhorts him to lay all his goals and plans before the Lord and ask Him if this is His will or not. To not lay our plans for the future before the Lord but to try to work them out ourselves is arrogant, boastful, and evil (James 4:16). The final admonition applies not only to businessmen but to all of us, “So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17). If you know the right thing to do in a given situation but choose to be passive and do nothing, it is just as much a sin as choosing to do the wrong thing! In the case of our businessman, he chose to not seek the Lord’s will in his dealings. His passivity is a sin.
As you launch into 2024 don’t forget to ALWAYS seek the Lord while He may be found. Seek His will above your own. Lay your plans, goals, and aspirations before Him and ask Him to direct your path. You won’t be sorry you did.
“Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it” (Psalm 37:5),
Irv