A VAPOR OF TIME

A VAPOR OF TIME

James 4:13 and 14   ¹³ 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:

The reason we can’t depend on tomorrow is you might not have tomorrow. In the natural earthly life today is all we have. It is all about today, fulfilling the purpose in which we were created for.

We are reminded that we cannot predict or control our future. We must always consider this in our plans. A Christian who excludes God from their plans are acting on their own and not with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

¹⁴ 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.

When James asks “what is your life” he is not questioning the origin or essence of life, but the time between birth and death. The bible uses many metaphors to express the brevity and uncertainty of the life of the believer.

Proverbs 27:1   27 Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

This verse is saying, don’t be speaking about what you are going to be doing tomorrow: tomorrow may not be given to you. since only God knows what a day might bring, it would be foolish to go around boasting about what you are going to do.

God just might have other plans for you if you do make it until tomorrow. Actually, tomorrow doesn’t come. It is always today. We never know when our purpose is finished on planet earth. It is not proper for Christians to boast, period. Because nothing belongs to the human race, it is only on loan until you die.

Luke 12:16-21   ¹⁶ And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:

¹⁷ And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?

¹⁸ And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.

¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

²⁰ But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

²¹ So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

Verse 16- Riches if rightly acquired should be thought of as blessings from God and treated accordingly, since it all belongs to him anyway. 

Revelation 21:1   21 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

All that we have will pass away. We really can’t hold on to anything.

v. 17 Everything has been given to us by God, we run around heaping up stuff for tomorrow, not realizing if we have or have not tomorrow. It is a certainty in life and death and inevitably each of us will face it.

v. 18-19 This is providing for the flesh which is only a vapor of time.

Matthew 6:19-21   ¹⁹ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

²⁰ But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

²¹ For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

This man provided for the flesh but not for the soul.

v. 20-21   But God said to him, what is God saying to you and me? The same to all who follow the train of covetousness. Sooner or later this night will come if riches come, they can either be used for self or for God. this is a hard choice to make if you live by the five senses.

It is not a matter of being rich or poor. It is a matter of what is in your heart. God does not have a problem with a believer having money. He does have a problem with it being an idol and becoming your God or putting you in a position of thinking now that I am rich, I don’t need God.

You can believe god will handle this matter in a way that won’t be pleasing to you. However, Jesus did say that he came that we might have life and have life more abundantly. God never intended for his children to live in poverty.

Don’t let the lies of Satan get into your thinking. Get in line with the word of God and trust the one who created you. Poverty is absolutely and always will be from adamic curse that is not for the believer.

There are those who claim God doesn’t promise us new Testament believers’ physical prosperity, just spiritual. The truth is you can’t separate the two. God is a spirit and he created the material world. Since the moment he spoke it into existence, that material world has been governed by spiritual forces.

That is why the devil corrupted it spiritually: Physical corruption broke out as well.

The whole plan of God from the beginning to today is that he wanted a family to worship Him and fulfill the purpose we were created for. He wanted us to have a meaningful relationship with him.

Since we are only here for a short vapor of time, in comparison with eternity, don’t you think we owe it to the all-knowing god whose mind is higher than ours, whose grace is beyond our imagination, to fulfill our purpose.

Our time is so short until it is time to start building toward this, start believing that God is, and His word is the inspired word and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him with all their heart.

To do this you must make the decision you will believe his word above anything else. It is God actually speaking to you. God breathed; God inspired. You must accept the word for what it actually says, and not for what you think it says.

Immerse yourself in the word until it becomes a part of your very existence.

You can tell the word is a real part of you when the word becomes the first thing that comes to your mind and the first thing you consider in every situation or circumstance that you face.

Proverbs 4:20-22   ²⁰ My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.

²¹ Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.

²² For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

This tells us how to develop this kind of stability in Gods word. Keep his word in the midst of our hearts. Do not let His words depart from your eyes. Many people fail because they allow the word of God to depart from their eyes. They see but don’t understand.

They have ears but they don’t hear. They follow religious teachings and man-made traditions instead of having a relationship with Christ Jesus.

If you don’t make Jesus the Lord of your life and be filled with the Holy Spirit who is the only one that gives you wisdom, discernment and understanding of the word, you will have eyes but not see and ears that don’t hear.

Matthew 13:13-17   ¹³ Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

¹⁴ And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

¹⁵ For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

¹⁶ But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

¹⁷ For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Saying in order to separate those who don’t see and hear, neither do they understand because they do not wish to hear, see or understand and loose this triple moral ability of the world.

Don’t let riches or the desire for riches and things make your decisions in this short vapor of time we might have left.