But you will say: How then has man been installed as the lord over things, according to Gen. 1:26, if he cannot have dominion over them according to his own will and use them in keeping with his own desire? The answer is: We are installed as lords over things in such a way that we are able to use them for the present, but we are not able to have dominion over them by our anxiety and effort. No one is able by his effort to accomplish anything for the future. For how can someone who is uncertain about the future determine something about the future? Therefore God wants us to make use of creatures, but freely, as He has provided them, without our prescribing the time, the manner, and the hour. These are in the hand of the Lord, so that we should not think that it is in our hands to use things as we wish if He does not give them. Therefore Ecclesiasticus says (Ecclus. 15:14): “God left man in the power of his own inclination,” but He added the commandments by which man was to regulate his inclinations and actions.
“All things have their time,” that is, a definite hour. If a man transgresses this and wants to accomplish everything by his own counsel and effort, he will have nothing from it but vanity. Many people work to get rich but gain nothing. … So also in the present passage: everything that men wish and desire. They strive for it and desire it, but they are merely undone; because they do not hit the precise hour that they have in mind, they accomplish nothing. Therefore one should commit things to God and make use of present things, refraining from a lust for future things. If you do otherwise, you will have nothing but affliction. (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.49-50)