Last night we continued out study through James’ letter. Here are the notes:
James 4:13 -17
4:13 This is a picture of planning without reference to God. It assumes we have tomorrow. It is self assured: It declares what we’ll do, declares it will be successful.
Note: These are people who: had freedom to move around and make plans, had the money to be able to do business, had the opportunity to develop the skills to do business, lived in a society that was stable enough they could start and run businesses, had already been successful enough in the past that they could expect some success in the future. In other words, this is very modern and very American.
4:14 &16 Errors in this kind of thinking:
- It assumes something you can’t know: the future. (“you don’t actually know what is going to happen.”)
- It ignores how fragile your life is. (“your life is a vapor”)
- It ignores how short life is. (“a little time”)
- It ignores how quickly and unexpectedly life can end. (“vanishes away”) see also: 1:11, Is 40:6-8)
- It ignores God. (v.15)
Notice 4:16–James calls this “arrogant boasting.” It’s evil.
4:15 What we ought to say and think: “If the Lord wills.”
This means two things:
- Acknowledging that we’re dependent on God’s upholding of our life so that we continue to live, and his permission to be allowed to do anything. If God chooses to end this physical life, our plans won’t happen. If God chooses to permit us to live, but to prevent us from doing what we planned, then our plans won’t succeed. This is what we usually mean when we talk about “God’s will for my life.” In this sense, James is just telling us to be humble, and always remember that we don’t make anything happen by our own strength, as if we could forget God, live independently of him, and then succeed whenever and however we want. But all success is dependant in many ways on many things, and ultimately, on God.
Note: God has decided that we’d live without being able to know the future. And he doesn’t usually guide us by telling us the future. So the part of God’s will that involves our future is not something we would typically know when we make plans. Which means it’s not important for us to know the future in order to “do God’s will.” What is important is not that we acknowledge the details of a plan God may have for our life, but that we acknowledge God himself, personally, as the one we’re totally dependent on, and the one who can overrule us at anytime he wants to. In other words, James tells us to always remember, when we think, when we plan and even when we talk, that God, as a person with his own thoughts, is the most important person we must reference in all our planning. This leads us to the second part of what James means here…
- How do you actually incorporate God into all your thinking? It’s not just by thinking, “God decides if I live or die and if my plans succeed,” it’s by Thinking about what God has said he wants his people to do in the world. So “the will of God” doesn’t only mean, “what God plans to have happen.” There’s another way the phrase is used, which is more like, “What God has told us he wants us to do.” This is what it means in verses like: Matthew 6:13, 1 Thessalonians 4:3. Unlike the future, which we can’t know, these are things which we can know. And not only that, but these are things God wants us to know, and has actually told us. So we can’t plan for the future by figuring the future out, but we must plan for the future by acknowledging God in all our planning. And that means that when we plan, or dream, or think, or talk about the future, the bible teaches us to think about all our plans, and all our dreams, by asking: What has God told me he wants to have happen in my life, and in the world? What did Jesus command his followers to do? What are the clear instructions he’s given to his disciples and to the church? Once I’ve understood these things, then I make plans for my life by thinking about what things I could reasonably do in order to carry out Jesus’ commands. So the way I do God’s will is not by worrying about the future and hoping to discover his plan for my life ahead of time, but by faithfully carrying out the things I already know he wants done. If I plan to do things in my life which will accomplish what he’s clearly taught, in the future I will look up and find myself in the middle of his will.
Questions to ask ourselves:
- We get asked all the time: What are you going to do next? What are your plans for the future? How do I answer those questions?
- What do I dream about doing with your life? What do I wish for?
- If I wasn’t limited by money, what would I do?
- When I have decisions to make, do I pray more for information about the future, or for insight as to how to carry out God’s will in the circumstances that come my way?
- What factors do I most consider when you plan for the future: Money? Security? Comfort? Pleasure? Excitement? Or are we learning to plan our lives around God’s will, and being part of doing the things which he wants to accomplish in the world?
Verses we read last night:
On the shortness of life:
James 1:11
For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.
Isaiah 40:6-8
All flesh is grass, And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.
Job 14:1-2
“Man who is born of woman Is of few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and fades away; He flees like a shadow and does not continue.
Psalm 103:15-16
As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more.
On the “Will of God” as his plan for the future:
Proverbs 16:9
A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.
Proverbs 21:30
There is no wisdom or understanding Or counsel against the LORD.
Psalm 37:23-24
The steps of a man are from the LORD, and he establishes him in whose way he delights; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD is the stay of his hand.
On the “Will of God” as what he wants us to do:
Psalm 25:4
Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths.
Psalm 25:12
Who is the man that fears the LORD? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.
1 Thessalonians 4:3
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
1Th 5:18
In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Psalm 40:8
I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.
Psalm 143:10
Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.
Matthew 7:21
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
Matthew 12:50
“For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”
Matthew 18:14
“It is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”
Ephesians 5:17
Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Colossians 1:9
For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
1 John 2:17
And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Matthew 6:10
[Pray,] “Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.”