This time of yr, because the leaves start to alter coloration and regular schedules emerge and blossom once more, we frequently cease to make plans for the months forward. The slower tempo and irregular rhythms of summer season are giving solution to the regular beats of labor, faculty, and church life. This altering of the seasons presents a crossroads the place it’s pure to cease and revisit what, why, how, and the way usually we do all that we do.
And it’s good to plan. “The plans of the diligent,” God himself tells us, “lead certainly to abundance” (Proverbs 21:5). He sends us to check the ant:
With out having any chief,
officer, or ruler,
she prepares her bread in summer season
and gathers her meals in harvest. (Proverbs 6:6–8)
In different phrases, she plans and works forward, like all smart individual will.
And but our planning, even our cautious and intentional planning, could be quietly depraved. It’d seem like we’ve got every thing discovered and put collectively, however in actuality our plans are silly and offensive. Hearken to the apostle James’s warning:
Come now, you who say, “As we speak or tomorrow we’ll go into such and such a city and spend a yr there and commerce and make a revenue” — but you have no idea what tomorrow will convey. What’s your life? For you’re a mist that seems for just a little time after which vanishes. As a substitute you must say, “If the Lord wills, we’ll dwell and do that or that.” (James 4:13–15)
Good and Depraved Planning
On this a part of his letter, James confronts the seemingly profitable males of his day. Within the subsequent few verses, he goes on to say, “Come now, you wealthy, weep and howl for the miseries which might be coming upon you. . . . You have got lived on the earth in luxurious and in self-indulgence” (James 5:1, 5). However earlier than he will get to their greed and self-gratification, he exposes their vanity. Their success has made them assume they know and management their futures.
Come now, you who say, “As we speak or tomorrow we’ll go into such and such a city and spend a yr there and commerce and make a revenue.” (James 4:13)
What are these males doing improper? They’re presuming to know the place they’ll do enterprise, and how lengthy their enterprise will prosper there, and how a lot revenue they’ll make within the course of. They’ve carried out this all earlier than, in spite of everything, in all probability dozens of instances, and they also’ve grown comfortably accustomed to success — so snug that they’ve began to presume success.
Earlier than we scoff at them, although, we would ask how usually we’re lulled into comparable temptations. We might not be touring to commerce in overseas markets, however all of us can start to imagine that God will do that or that — in our work, in our marriage or parenting, in our ministry — and fall into some type of religious autopilot. James presses on that tendency towards autopilot till we see the impulse for what it truly is.
You must say, “If the Lord wills, we’ll dwell and do that or that.” As it’s, you boast in your vanity. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:15–16)
James calls this type of planning evil. Even when they have been proper about what would occur, their plans have been improper, terribly improper.
Three Cures for Vanity
James doesn’t merely confront these conceited males with their vanity; he additionally applies what he is aware of about God to ask them into the paths and plans of humility. And what he shares, in only a handful of phrases, speaks as loudly to our temptations to presumption because it did to these in his day. He reminds these males what they have no idea (and can’t know), what they can’t do or management in their very own energy, and (extra subtly) the one factor they’ll at all times do when getting down to plan one other season of labor, life, or ministry — actually, the one factor they should do.
WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW
Once more, he begins, “Come now, you who say, ‘As we speak or tomorrow we’ll go into such and such a city and spend a yr there and commerce and make a revenue’ — but you have no idea what tomorrow will convey” (James 4:13–14). You assume you realize the place you’re headed, and the way lengthy you’ll spend there, and the way a lot cash you’ll make, however you don’t know something — a minimum of not with any of the understanding you now really feel. You’ll be able to plan and put together all you need, however actuality would possibly depart dramatically from what you’ve imagined.
“Our planning, even our cautious and intentional planning, could be quietly depraved.”
The enterprise would possibly crumble into chapter 11 — or God would possibly out of the blue quadruple your projections. The household would possibly unexpectedly flourish — or some unthinkable tragedy would possibly strike. Your private ministry would possibly expertise an prolonged drought regardless of intentionality and energy — otherwise you would possibly see fruit you’ve by no means seen earlier than. You can not assure, a lot much less management, what is going to occur this fall, or this fiscal yr, or 5 years from now. You have no idea — are you aware that?
Given how simply and subtly pleasure swells in us all, it’s deeply good, spiritually and eternally good, to be reminded simply how a lot we have no idea.
WHAT YOU CAN’T CONTROL
Along with not understanding all we have no idea, we are able to’t do or management practically as a lot as we are likely to assume. James sobers us within the subsequent verse: “What’s your life? For you’re a mist that seems for just a little time after which vanishes” (James 4:14). These “profitable” businessmen have been taking a look at their monitor report and revenue stories and coming to some horrible conclusions. As a substitute of seeing the sovereign and beneficiant hand of God, they thought extra extremely of themselves. As a substitute of falling to their knees in awestruck gratitude, they stood just a little taller, admiring the energy and ingenuity they noticed within the mirror.
What’s your life? Can you hear the pastoral coronary heart behind such bluntness? “What’s your life? For you’re a mist that seems for just a little time after which vanishes” (James 4:14). And what can a mist do? On a very scorching day, a mist would possibly convey refreshment for a second — if it lasts that lengthy. However a mist does virtually nothing. In contrast with the infinite thoughts and energy of God, we are able to do nothing.
A technique God guards us in opposition to vanity is to remind us of our mistiness. All the pieces that feels so large, necessary, and spectacular in our earthy lives proper now will vanish and vanish rapidly. We’re only a tiny burst of moisture, one that can evaporate virtually instantly. God, then again, is aware of every thing there may be to know, and he can do all issues. He invented mists, and work, and us.
WHAT YOU CAN ALWAYS DO
We don’t know all we predict we all know in regards to the future, and we are able to’t management all we fake to manage, so can we do something now in terms of the following months and years? Is it futile for us to attempt to plan the longer term? No, take heed to how James guides them out of vanity and into planning that glorifies God:
As a substitute you must say, “If the Lord wills, we’ll dwell and do that or that.” (James 4:13–15)
He doesn’t inform them to cease planning. He tells them to cease planning with out accounting for God. Cease planning with none reference to a very powerful a part of planning. Positively, make your plans — all of your plans — below God. The obvious approach to do that is to wish.
It’s easy and but supernatural. It’s quiet and but so countercultural. As you make your plans for an additional yr or season, kneel beneath the meticulous and pervasive sovereignty of God. Keep in mind that you received’t go wherever or accomplish something except he wills. You received’t dwell except he wills. Does any rhythm or behavior in your life say that you simply consider that? Is that banner nonetheless waving over all you wish to do that yr?
Depraved Passivity
James strikes one final (seemingly unusual) word on this paragraph on ungodly planning: “So whoever is aware of the precise factor to do and fails to do it, for him it’s sin” (James 4:17). How does that relate to the verses we simply learn? After telling them what to cease doing, he turns right here and ends with a verse in regards to the risks of passivity.
Given what we’ve already seen, it looks as if the primary proper factor to do can be to acknowledge God in all we do — and never solely to acknowledge his sovereignty over our lives, however to actively search his assist and steering in them. Prayer isn’t a passive acknowledgment of God. Prayer is something however passive. By prayer, we actively and persistently invite the sovereign God to truly do what he’s mentioned he’ll do. And fairly often (are you able to consider this?), he chooses to perform these infinite, everlasting plans by our small, modest, and secret prayers.
Nevertheless, this verse is about greater than prayer (as superb and highly effective as prayer is). When James says, “Whoever is aware of the precise factor to do and fails to do it,” he’s speaking about each type of sinful inactivity. He’s already warned us about an evil type of proactivity — planning and trying work with out reliance on God. Now he warns us about an evil passivity — understanding the arduous issues God has referred to as us to do and but refusing to do them.
Fullhearted religion within the sovereignty of God over all doesn’t result in retreat or inaction. No, this type of religion units a life on fireplace with goal, conviction, and dedication. So, what arduous factor has God referred to as you to do that yr? The place are you tempted to draw back from a fuller, extra expensive obedience to him — in your work (or research), within the native church, in evangelism and discipleship, in marriage and parenting? Resolve now to do the precise issues you realize to do, and do them — at each step — in prayerful dependence on God.
