For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Proverbs 23:18
Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
What is tomorrow if we have no hope for a future?
We all make plans but none of them are within our control. Tomorrow is not promised to us.
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
Making plans is not boasting, it has an element of accountability. Parents make plans for their children. Teachers make plans for their students. Businesses have plans to satisfy stockholders. We all have invested interests in making a better life.
Looking to all of those plans and many more we will recognize a lack of total control. The biblical definition of vanity is emptiness of expectations. Lamentations is full of advice about vanity. We might find those passages unpleasant, even negative.
We will find an abundance of negativity in this world if we are looking for it. It is all around us and seems to be unavoidable. Making long range plans can only avoid known dangers. We would not make plans to visit a region that is about to be hit with a category 5 hurricane. We would not plan a trip to a park that we know is closed.
We tend to avoid things that will ruin our plans.
God has a plan for those who trust in Him. God has the power to insure those plans will be successful.
Do our plans align themselves with God’s plan?
Hebrews 6:16-18 English Standard Version
16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.