When you think about the future, what is it that you look forward to, and that excites you most? What is it that makes you nervous, or that scares you the most?

Consider the people in view in James 4:13. What are the most significant sins that they are demonstrating? How is James calling them to repent?

In James 4:14, James points out that our lives are inherently short and uncertain. Do you find these truths difficult to accept? Why or why not?

Do you think that we should always qualify our language with words like “If the Lord wills”, like James exhorts us to do in James 4:15? Why or why not?

How can we, as Christians, faithfully lean into wise planning, without sinfully falling into prideful presumption? What does it look like to be proactive and thoughtful about our future, without arrogantly assuming that we are in control of it? Without contending with God for sovereignty over it?

Look at how James defines sin in James 4:17. How does that compare with how our culture defines sin? What implications does that kind of definition of sin have for our lives as Christians?

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