You are invited to come to the Wednesday evening prayer meeting and pray. (8:30 PM EST Wed., Feb. 7, 2001)

Note time change from 7:00 PM LHF time to 8:30 PM EST (Please also note the change from LHF time to Eastern Standard time. Also, Bill Rankin will be leading the meetings and will be talking about other topics than James. I have about four more messages from James so I will continue to send them by e-mail.)

Dean

This passage is not complicated. It's about thinking you can plan your own life. God says you can't. You don't even know what will happen tomorrow, let alone a year from now. There's a number one best-selling Christian (in quotes) book that says on the front of the jacket, "Take control of your life." God says that you can't anymore take control of your life than a mist can will itself to continue when the warm sun causes it to dissipate. If you think you can take control of your life you are certainly arrogant (verse 16 literally says, "you boast in your arrogance." - see NASB). All such boasting is evil. Instead you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will..."

To our proud, arrogant and self-centered minds all this sounds at best annoying and at worst -- well, you can't plan anything. God will frustrate anything you plan or try to do.

But verse 17 provides a clue to what this is really all about. Verse 17 says, "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it sins." The whole book of James is about the good we ought to do (and the evil we ought not do). "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money," says, in effect, "I will serve myself first." But God says, "Here's all I want you to do. Here's what's good and right. Keep the royal law found in scripture, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

So you say, "Should I not make any plans at all? Should I not educate myself for a career or for career advancement? Should I not even plan what I'm going to do today?" Well, it depends on the final goal for your plans. You need to ask yourself the question, "Is my goal to do the good that I ought to do." Here are some proverbs on the subject of your plans and the LORD's will:

Prov. 16: 9 In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.

Prov. 19: 21 Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.

In other words, pray about everything. I'll say it again. Pray about everything. Here's another one:

Psalm 37:6,7 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

Finally, remember James 1:2-4. God's purpose for you in everything is for you to become mature and complete, not lacking in anything. He made the heavens and the earth. And he demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8).

Come and let's pray for each other as well as for the whole church. Come and encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Love them.

PS: If you absolutely can't make it to the prayer meeting, send your prayer requests back to me by e-mail and we'll pray for them.