Do Your Plans Harmonize With God's Purpose?

THE bird known as Clark's nutcracker is a gray-white songbird that can be seen flitting through the forests of western North America. It collects and buries as many as 33,000 seeds annually, storing them in some 2,500 different locations in preparation for the frigid winter months. Indeed, this bird is "instinctively wise" in the way it makes provision for the future. 

Humans possess an even more remarkable ability. Of all Jehovah's earthly creations, humans have an unsurpassed capacity to learn from past experiences and to allow these lessons to influence their plans for the future.  "Many are the plans in the heart of a man," observed wise King Solomon. -Proverbs 18:21. 

Even so, humans generally have little choice but to base their plans on assumptions about the future. For example, you plan tomorrow's activities assuming that the sun will rise and that you will still be alive.  the first assumption is well-founded; the second is less certain. Realistically, the Bible writer James said:  "You do not know what your life will be tomorrow." -James 4:13, 14.  

Note: This is true. We are not guaranteed another day on this earth. We are in borrowed bodies, on borrowed time. Our hairs are numbered. When it is time for us to die; that is it,we die and have no memory or thoughts and we do not come back until Jehovah deems it time-the Armageddon.

Next time: When Human Plans Disregard God's Purpose

From the Watchtower magazine, 2008