LIVING IN LIGHT OF THE PERFECT WILL

Can I pray for you in any way?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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.”

James 4:13-15

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Yesterday, I was on the phone with my wonderful mother, communicating love and appreciation to her on the day set aside to celebrate mothers every year. We talk every Sunday like clockwork around 6 or 7 o’clock EST, she living in Pennsylvania while by wife and I residing in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

We had just finished speaking about the say she had enjoying time with my sister who had driven in from Ohio to spend the day with her when she posed a question usually asked every weekend.

“So what are you guys doing this coming week?”

That questions rose to the forefront as I read today’s scripture passage from our continuing study of James 4 because it really caused me to think about the way we approach life. For I have a schedule for the week like I’m sure most people do. I am making my way through today but I am doing so with thought to what I have on my calendar tomorrow, the next day, and every day through this week. My wife and I will be visiting Pennsylvania and family there in less than two weeks so of course this also occupies some of my thoughts. After all, we always look forward to vacationing, right?

Yes, we all have plans for what we think we’re going to do but how many times have we experienced a sudden disruption of plans happen? Live long enough and you will be able to say “Amen” to that. The verses from James serve to address this as we look again at these words found in verses 13 through 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 find it fascinating that these words of caution and wisdom were spoken into a completely different period and culture in history. We know James was writing to the Hebrew Christians of the first century A.D and he is essentially is telling them to not get ahead of themselves in regard to what might lie ahead. For the raw truth of the matter is that no one knows what tomorrow holds except the Lord who holds all time in His hand. He has a will for each and every person and He will make sure His will is done, whether it matches up with our plans or not.

And so no person should be boldly overconfident about what tomorrow holds because no one really knows what will happen there. I believe this is where the saying, “God willing” comes from, an understanding of what the Lord is trying to get all people to understand through this Word from Him. For a believer should say that I plan on doing this or that and then add, “God willing”, which puts the happenings of tomorrow in the hands of the One who controls all happenings, the One who orchestrates and dictates the things He wants us to do in life, whether today, tomorrow, or any day for that matter.

In fact, we don’t even know if we’ll still be alive come tomorrow. We’re reminded in this passage about the brevity of life and our place in the overall history of creation. We are born into the world and eventually die out of it with no guarantee of how much time will pass from one to the other. We are indeed like “a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes”. Here today and gone tomorrow, as they say.

So rather than worry about time that lies ahead, we would be wiser to make the most of what we do have and that’s today. We should be seeking the Lord’s will for our life in the present and then carry out that will now. If the Lord blesses us with life tomorrow, then we give thanks for a new day and repeat the same process, seeking the Lord’s will for that day and then making sure that will is done.

The main point here is that every single day we get to seek, receive, and fulfill the absolutely perfect will of the One who made us and dictates our lives from start to finish when we submit ourselves to Him. We aren’t to get ahead of ourselves and look past what the Lord wants us to do today by allowing tomorrow to be a distraction. For as Our Savior put it:

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” Matthew 6:34

Keep your concern on today and live in the light of the Lord’s perfect will for your life, achieving what He desires, and if He blesses you with another day tomorrow, follow the same game plan. 

You’ll never be sorry you did.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.