James 4:13-15
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." 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. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
I believe in God the Father, we say. To believe is to trust, and we trust in him because he knows best.
So we say it often, in our prayers: Your will be done. It's an extraordinary thing to say. Because we also like our will to be done. This is true even when it comes to small plans : Saturday chores, an evening off. We like it when our will is done, and we don’t like it when things get in the way.
There’s a warning in today’s text: 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.” It’s not the words themselves that are the problem, it’s the attitude that so often comes with them. There’s no problem with making plans. The problem is in thinking our plans are always best.
Think about your own experiences. What happens when your job doesn’t turn out as expected? Or your marriage? Or your whole adult life? You had a plan going in, and nothing is like you thought. Some of us are more flexible than others, but we all get bent out of shape sometimes when things don’t go our way.
Is that really a problem? It is! It's arrogance! Our text says: 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. This isn’t meant to scare us. It’s meant to humble us. This world has been here a long time without us, and it will be here a long time after we’re gone. If we think that with our limited understanding we really have the best idea of how our plans should be working out, we really need to think again.
And when we consider that our arrogance puts us at odds with the Lord God Almighty himself, then we need to call our arrogance what it is: sin. He’s the one in charge, not us. And each of us is guilty.
Rather than saying “My plans are best,” we ought to say “If it is the Lord’s will…” because he knows best, and because he loves us. There’s a reason he’s called our Father in heaven. He is the father no earthly father could ever be. By his almighty power he knit us together, formed every inch of us, and set a grand plan in place for us. By that same power, he moves heaven and earth to make sure we have all we need, and to make sure we are safe from our enemies. And though mankind has failed to be who he made us to be, who he still expects us to be, he didn’t forsake us. Instead he showed us the true extent of his fatherly love and he made the ultimate sacrifice to have us back. He gave up his beloved, only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Drink it in again once again today, what it means to be so loved by God the Father. It means his Son Jesus Christ is your Savior, your brother - every bit of sinful arrogance in your heart and mine has been washed clean in our Savior’s blood, and we belong in our Father’s family no matter what. It means that the apparent mess we see when things don’t go our way is no mess at all, but a beautiful part of God’s gracious plan to keep us close to him, to save us.
It’s good to make our own plans, too. We plan family picnics and business trips. We come up with financial plans and health plans. But what joy it is to know who is really in charge, what joy it is to know how much he loves us! He has given us the willingness to say what every human being ought to say, If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that. I believe in making plans. But I believe something much bigger and better than that, and so do you. I believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
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Author: Pastor Jon Zabell
Copyright (c) 2024, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Green Bay, WI 54301
Bible text, NIV (c) Biblia, 2011
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