Prior to the Battle of Waterloo, General Wellington had routed Napoleon Bonaparte’s forces.  Yet, while eating breakfast with his generals on the morning of the famous battle, Napoleon declared, “I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle this matter by lunch time.”*  The battle of Waterloo proved to be Napoleon’s final defeat.

James 4:13-16 states, “Look here, you people who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.’  How do you know what will happen tomorrow? For your life is like the morning fog — it's here a little while, then it's gone. What you ought to say is, ‘If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.’ Otherwise you will be boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil.”

Boasting about future plans or accomplishments may reveal selfish ambition.  Selfish ambition is often motivated by jealousy.  A co-worker gets promoted so “I am going to do whatever it takes to get promoted.”  A next-door neighbor gets a new car so “I am going to get a new car” (even if it means going further into debt).

It is wise to plan for the future but it is not wise is to leave God out of our plans.  God may not desire for us to have a promotion or a new car.  The promotion may take away valuable time that God wants us to spend with our family.  A new car may take up resources that God desires us to use to further his kingdom or to bless someone with who is worthy of a blessing.

We do not know everything that the future may bring, so to boast about our future plans and accomplishments only invites disaster and disappointment.  It was for this reason that my father always taught me to “hope for the best but expect the worse.”

“A young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer's showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told his father that the car was all he wanted. 

As graduation day approached, the young man anxiously looked for signs that his father had purchased the car.  Finally, on the morning of his graduation, his father called him into his private study. 

His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and he told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautiful wrapped gift box. Curious, but somewhat disappointed, the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with the young man's name embossed in gold. 

Angrily, he raised his voice to his father and said, With all your money you give me a Bible? and stormed out of the house, leaving the Bible.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father was very old, and thought perhaps he should go to him.   He had not seen him since that graduation day. Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care of things. 

When he arrived at his father's house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart.  He began to search through his father's important papers and saw the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages.

His father had carefully underlined a verse, Matthew 7:11, ‘And if ye, being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly father which is in heaven, give to those who ask Him?’

As the young man read those words, a car key dropped from the back of the Bible. It had a tag with the dealer's name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words... PAID IN FULL.”[i]

How many times do we miss God's blessings because we ignore Him and are blinded by our own arrogant expectations of how things should happen?

It is not very often that we are in complete control of external events.  There is always the unexpected.  Our plans can easily fall apart due to the uncertainty that surrounds the future, but God knows all things present and all things to come.

What we can control is how much of God’s involvement we will allow in our daily lives.  We can control whether or not we acknowledge Him.

By involving God in our lives we can discern, disarm, and destroy pride.