Thursday, September
28, 2017
Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a
certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like
tomorrow? Your life is like the morning
fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.
What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do
this or that.” Otherwise you are
boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil. James 4:13-16(NLT)
A long-time
and good friend of mine, Dr. Don McCutcheon recently posted a picture of he and
his fiancée, Debbie. It was an
announcement of their engagement. Naturally
I asked him: When’s the big day?
His reply was nothing short of what I’ve come to love and respect about
my Godly friend; he began his response with:
Lord willing….
And then,
today, the Apostle James showed-up in my inbox.
I love that
about God’s timing. Sometimes I read a Bible
passage and later that day or the next, a challenge shows up to reinforce the
message of what I’ve learned. Sometimes
a challenge shows up and then later I read Scripture which reminds me God wrote
it through the hand of a prophet ages ago, and now twenty or thirty centuries
later God places it on my reading plan as a reminder that He is sovereign and
can handle my battles. Either way –
before or after – I am blessed with the comfort that God has always had my
back!
And that
(as always) begs the questions…do I
have His…and am I listening and submitting to His leading? Are my plans made Lord
willing?
James, the
apostle and half-brother of Jesus, understood he was not in charge of the
universe; he didn’t even claim to be in charge of his life as a whole, or the
next ten minutes. His plans were made
with the proviso that everything was subject to the will of God; he was ready
for change at a moment’s notice…or with no notice. When you start your day or any project with Lord willing, it means you’ve
accepted having God make the major decisions.
There is a
marked difference between having
confidence and living-in
confidence. Having confidence in self (the
product of your will), means you know
you’re up to the task and your
strength will accomplish that which you’ve planned...the polar opposite is living-in confidence. The latter is a matter of settled choice
that, having begun in prayer and study of God’s Word, you placed your will second
to His will; you have become confidently-assured in the knowledge that God will
guide you to His perfect outcome for you and His Kingdom.
That is
living Lord willing!
For You Today
I have always
had the free will to choose my will, making plans my way; that is God’s gift to
us all. In my case (and perhaps in yours
as well), every time I chose my will over God’s ways I have made a mess of
things.
The best
choice I can make with my will is to surrender it to His!
You chew on
that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!
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