James 4:13-17
The
Sovereignty of God is more than a doctrine.
If I have learned anything about how much control God exerts on
everything in life it is these two:
#1. There are no accidents.
When a cowboy applied for health
insurance, the agent routinely asked if he had any accidents during the
previous year. The cowboy replied: No; but I was bitten by a rattlesnake, and a
horse kicked me in the ribs. That laid
me up for a while.
The agent
said: Weren’t those accidents?
No-sir, replied
the cowboy, they did it on purpose.
Beloved,
we never catch God by surprise either.
#2. His plans tend to mess with my plans.
Did you
ever feel like the small boy who got tired asking Santa and being disappointed,
so he was writing a letter to God about the Christmas presents he really
wanted? I’ve been good for six months now,
he wrote. After a moment of reflection
he crossed out the six months and wrote in three. After that he crossed it out and wrote two
weeks.
Then, he tore up the paper, went to the
Christmas tree and picked Mary out of the nativity scene. He went back to his desk and started his
letter again:
Dear God….If you ever want to see your mother again…
God’s (sovereign) plans have always gotten in our way.
There was
the year I lost my legs. At thirteen,
life was really getting good. Sports
defined my life. I cried foul when the
doctor examined my knees and put me in a chair for five months.
God had
messed with my baseball!
There was
the year our first child, Jennifer, was born.
I went from being #1 in Elizabeth’s life to: Oh, and don’t forget to pick up more Huggies
when you get the groceries; and get some more of that diaper rash cream.
I needed a
honey-do rash cream! God had messed with
me being #1 in the house!
Fact: God’s sovereign plans mess with a lot of people.
Superman
isn’t supposed to be vulnerable. And our
dear friend in Thomasville, Brenda, wasn’t planning on fainting in the bank
parking lot while she was helping out at a youth car wash….and then having to
grow her hair back after the surgeon did his work to remove the tumor that had
been growing in her head. And learning
to walk and talk again. God’s plans mess
with our plans; boy, does He ever!
And so, if
we listen to James and take the advice he offers, we will find two very important
principles for running life’s race:
#1. Stuff disappears quickly…just like our plans.
James
teaches us that making our plans requires a reality check about the sovereignty
of God…
And now I
have a word for you who brashly announce, “Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re
off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going to start a business and
make a lot of money.” You don’t know the
first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief
bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master
wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that.” James 4:13-15 (TMNT)
The
greatest arrogance in the universe is presuming upon God’s patience.
Some years
ago, the Florida lottery ran television ads attempting to promote ticket
sales. The chances of winning a lottery
are one in several million gazillion.
In a variety of ways, the commercials showed winners of vast sums of
money. Each one would end by holding up
the winning ticket, saying: You
never know…
We need to
remember that WE never know about tomorrow – all of us had better
include God in our plans…because you never know if you have tomorrow…or if
today God is going to require your presence before the bar!
That leads
to the second important life principle James has for us today:
#2. Don’t waste too much time majoring on minors
Friends,
life is incredibly short; eternity is incredibly long. It may not be necessary, but I’ll say it
anyway, it is wiser to prepare for eternity, than anything in the here and now.
It is
certainly not begging the issue to repeat – failing to prepare for eternity is
more than dangerous, it’s foolish!
James is
so thorough. He has told us not to leave
God out of our plans. And he gave us the
key as to how to do that…he said to not be self-centered – we should be humble
and keep our eyes on the Lord; we do that by immersing ourselves in His work:
As it is,
you are full of your grandiose selves. All such vaunting self-importance is
evil. In fact, if you know the right thing to do and don’t do it, that, for
you, is evil. James 4:16-17(TMNT)
And that
begs the issue how to apply James’ advice when the
Sovereign God of the Universe has the audacity to mess with our plans. What is the right thing to do…that we so
often forget to do?
Solomon
tells us:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.
do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.
Proverbs 3:5-6(NLT)
That’s the
big picture. And everything else is
rather a tiny picture.
There was
a saying that was popular when I was a teen:
Don’t
sweat the small stuff!
I have
added to that saying since I became a Christian and have sinned big enough to
understand that there is more to pay attention to in this universe than what I
want; and have lived long enough to see my senior years so I can understand
just how frail and temporary these bodies we occupy are:
Don’t
sweat the small stuff…and remember, it’s all small stuff, except serving God.
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[1] Title Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
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