words of Wisdom #20

We saw yesterday that having taken us deep into our hearts and minds to examine our motives and attitudes, James now is having us examine some of the things we say, like:

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

So, what is the right thing to do that we often fail to do? Submit our lives and our plans to the sovereignty of God.  Our plans come out in our words, which lead to actions in pursuing them.  These once again reveal our arrogance and selfishness.  It's all about me and what I want, without stopping to ask God, or others, how our plans line up with God's will or affect those around us.  We consider whether we could, but sideline whether we should.  Our heads are bigger than our parts in the big picture. It is good and right for us to think and plan, to have dreams and pursue them, but let us always ask God: Is this what You want?"