What do you think works best?

James 4:13-17

13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

In James 4:13-17, it is clearly expressed how it is everyone’s desire to have a future of blessings, a prosperous future and a future of happiness and security.  James was probably quoting a popular phrase of his day, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” (ver. 13). As we all know there is more to life than making money, but James points out an important point, no matter what our priorities of life are and how we want our tomorrows to turn out to be, seeking God’s will regarding everything in our life should be our first priority. Whatever our desires are such as taking a vacation or planning to attend a wedding in June, or things we need to get done such as reallocating our retirement funds to give us a better return in 2020 or ripping out that old carpet and installing a new floor; in all these things and much more, are we first seeking God’s will about the issue and asking Him for His directive in the matter?

As Christians, the plans we make for tomorrow and the assurance of the success and blessing of those plans are based on seeking God’s will concerning our plans. Proverbs gives us some wise advice about our making plans for our future.

Proverbs 16:3-4 “3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. 4 The LORD works out everything for his own ends…”.

Proverbs 16:7, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”

If the plans we make for tomorrow are first committed to God’s will through seeking out His will in prayer and in His Word then our words what we tell others will reflect God’s will about the matter.

In verse fourteen James points out a common error in some Christian’s thinking when God’s will is not sought and left out of our plans, that error is assumption, “a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof.” We all desire and assume that our plans will turn out as we expect. What James points out in this verse, to some might seem pessimistic or negative but God is not a pessimist, optimist or a realist, but God is omniscient He knows our future. “14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

When we seek God’s will first concerning a certain matter it will always put our plans, our desires and our dreams in proper perspective based on God’s Word, which is the reality and experiential fact of who God desires to be in our lives and as how His will is expressed in our lives.

When James tells us, “Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” (ver. 15).  In saying this our assumptions are now replaced by fact of God’s will concerning the matter. My assumptions or my “I hope so” are now turned in to the desire for God’s will to be experienced in my life and expressed through my life in the plans I have for my future.

In Matthew 6:9-15, Jesus, in what is commonly known as the Lord’s prayer, tells us the three points about seeking God’s will concerning our plans in verses 9-10, 9 “This, then, is how you should pray:

a) “Our Father in heaven” When we are accustomed of acknowledging God first in our prayers it will a natural desire to seek His will first for everything in our future.

b) “hallowed be your name” Is acknowledging that God is “holy”. He is totally perfect in every way. There is error, no flaw in God and what He wants for our future which reflects God’s holiness.

c) 10 “your kingdom come” Surrendering ourselves, our lives to God and His kingdom rule, His dominion and authority over our lives.

d) “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What we are praying is that we want God’s will for our lives, in our present and future as it is in heaven.

Jesus in Luke 12:16-21 tells a parable of a person who is blessed materially and a result thinks his future is secure and will be easy going, but He also tells us that this person fails to consider God in His future plans. 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” This person has so much confidence and a false sense of security for his future because of what he had, but failed to realize and consider God first and include God’s will in the future plans he had for himself.

Always recognizing God’s will first in his future desires and plans was common for the apostle Paul. When visiting the congregation in the city of Ephesus for the first time Paul told them; Acts 18:21, But as he left, he promised, “I will come back if it is God’s will.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.When writing to the congregation in Rome he told them, Romans 1:10, in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. Paul in his letter to the congregation in the city of Corinth twice recognized that his being with them depended on God’s will. 1 Corinthians 4:19, “But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing…”, 1 Corinthians 16:7, “I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.”

Paul was not expressing a Middle Eastern phrase or cliché when he was writing to these churches about his visiting them being God’s will. He knew that every future plan and future desire he had if it were to successfully come about, had to be in God’s will.

God speaking to the Jews in exile in Babylonia tells them in Jeremiah 29:11, about His future plans for them. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Why would we expect anything less for ourselves especially if we are trusting God seeking His will for our future.

Pastor John