Is God In On Your Plans? (Part 2)
What You Should Say And Think
James 4:13-17 "Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin"
- Simply, we should never assume, only plan. Humans, and certainly believers, are never fully under their own control.
- Therefore, we should never become totally upset if we must deviate from our plans, especially if we are the children of God. He has plans for us that supercede our own. (Jer. 29:11) We are chosen for good works. (Eph. 1)
- It is the attitude of self-rule and self-empowerment that God seems interested in challenging. He is not opposed to us organizing our lives.
1Corinthians 6:19-20 "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's"
- No one is self-owned. Nor are we our own masters. All souls belong to God. We have been bought. And as believers this is even more true because we are God’s residence. This simple and powerful thought should be especially embraced by every believer. When this truth is fully accepted, it will change everything about us from how we eat to influencing holiness in our lives. It is our tendency towards self-government that causes us to live even the slightest degree apart from the will of God that he cannot cross on his own.
- The saint is owned and should be glad about it. That draws a line for the adversary and establishes boundaries.
- James goes on to inform us that life is uncertain and very brief. Our lives are a small part of eternity, and a very, very small part. The future is a mystery.
- We are advised to inject, ‘The Lord’s will” as a reminder to ourselves that we are beneficiaries of God’s abundant grace. And while it has become a religious cliché, it is meant to commend the finality of our plans to God. By confessing this, we say that we give Him our permission to override us and that our plans are tentative.
- It is evil for us to presume time because, in our minds, we unconsciously leave God out of the equation.
Psalm 103:13-15 "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth."
- There is a special concern and care that God extends to us when we are mindful and conscious of Him.
- When we are not consumed with our own care and success, God cannot assume the role of being our most capable caretaker and Heavenly Father.
- God is better suited to direct our lives because He is aware of our days and we are not. He knows our limits, and we don’t. He provides the sufficient grace because we cannot. Interestingly, God does not seem to have the opportunity to fill our lack unless we confess our personal weakness. Seemingly, that is when the exchange takes place.
2 Corinthians 12:9 "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
- Do you see that? The power of Christ would not rest upon Paul unless he acknowledged his limits.
- He was capable, well studied and anointed. Paul undoubtedly lived a planned life; but the final approval seemed to be Christ’s.
- Because of God’s position, over all things and His love for us, He is best suited to give us direction. We simply do not know enough about ourselves or the people and things around us, to capably direct our own lives. Even the things He permits us to know are only part of the story that we are involved in. There are details of the situations we know the most about that we are not privy to. Paul said, “1Co 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. {darkly: Gr. in a riddle} Simply, we are not capable of knowing enough about any one thing to know it all. We lack the capacity and interest.
- Whoever knows to include God and refuses to, sins against themselves and denies God the opportunity to be their lord. They then become lords unto themselves. What a bankruptcy!