To Ignore The Will Of God

James 4:13-16 By Pastor Matt Mills

I found this piece by accident. It is rather comforting to me. It serves as a remembrance of who I used to be (mindset) and how low God has brought me to humble me before Him so that He can have His way with me, so here we go:

Here was a group of people that measured success in life by how many times they got their own way and accomplished what they had planned. (13)

But James gives us four arguments that reveals the foolishness of ignoring the will of God, and living life without him!

A. The complexity of life. (13)

Here is a description of earthly life at its best; planning, buying, selling, making money, and enjoying the material world.

Life is made up of people and places, activities and goals, days and years. And each of us makes crucial decisions everyday concerning our future.

Life is never easy! It is always more complicated that we are able to figure out and plan for. But God brings order, meaning, and unity to life, because He is a God of order.

B. The uncertainty of life (14a)

Proverbs 27:1 says; "boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth."

They were planning a year in advance. Counting their chickens before they hatch. No one but God knows what the future will be.

Tomorrow never comes! WE ALWAYS LIVE IN THE PRESENT, NEVER THE FUTURE. No one has been promised tomorrow!  There is nothing wrong with making plans, but we would do well to remember that God, and God alone holds tomorrow in the palm of His hand.

C. The brevity of life (14b)

I read the other day of a woman 114 years old. That seems like a long time, but when compared with eternity, life is truly a vapor!

When I was a kid it took forever for a birthday to come, now they seem to come every few months.

We count our life in years, but God tells us in Psalms 90:12, to count our days.No one has the promise of tomorrow, all we have is this moment. We cannot afford to merely "spend our lives" and we certainly don't want to "waste our lives". What we must do is "invest our lives" in the things that are eternal.

Do you remember the story Jesus told in Luke 12 about the man who had the bumper crop. His barns were too small, so he built bigger barns. REMEMBER WHAT HE SAID?

"I will say to my soul, Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." But God’s reply to this man’s boasting was;"THOU FOOL, THIS NIGHT WILL THY SOUL BE REQUIRED OF THEE."

Life is not uncertain to God, and when we know him, and are in his will, we can always be confident of a tomorrow... (here or there!)

Still some will say; "I have the rest of my life to live for God!" Friend nothing could be further from the truth.

D. The frailty of life (16)

We think ourselves to be so strong, so in control. Yet if one cell in our brains mutates and becomes abnormal it can leave us totally insane. One tiny microscopic virus can utterly destroy our lives. (HIV, Cancer)

Still we take credit for who we are and what we are. We totally ignore the hand of God at work in our lives.

Man cannot control the future, (which is why we worry). Man doesn’t possess the ability to see the future, much less the power to control it.

For us to boast about our successes is to make ourselves to be God, and James says that kind of boasting is evil! (16)

As frail a creature as we are, to ignore the will of God, would be like trying to find our way through a dark jungle without a map, or a stormy sea without a compass!