Let’s pretend: Your banker tells you that someone loves you and is going to deposit 86,400 pennies into bank account each morning starting Monday. That’s $864 a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.
Then your banker says, “There’s one stipulation—you must spend all that money that same day—no balance will be carried over. Each evening the bank is required to cancel whatever amount you don’t use.”
Wow! $864 times 7 = $6,048 times 52 = $314,496 a year available to spend if you work hard to spend it every day. Remember, what you don’t spend is forfeited.
Now let’s stop imagining and get serious. Every morning Someone who loves you very much deposits into your bank of time 86,400 seconds, which is 1,440 minutes, which is, of course, 24 hours each day.
The same stipulation applies—you have 1,440 minutes each day to use. Nothing is carried over on credit to the next day—there is no such thing as a 26-hour day. From dawn today until dawn tomorrow you have a precisely determined amount of time. (Charles Swindoll)
We’ve talked about two different things—money and time—to make a point. But these two things are similar in that time is like money—You can spend it any way you want, but you can spend in only once. (Text)
James 4:13 - 17 13Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.
We are facing a New Year and, naturally, we want to make the most of it. We want it to be a good year. We’ll make resolutions, which we won’t keep. We’ll try to be and do better, but probably won’t. We want to be better Christians, but will make the same excuses. Most of us will end up at the end of 2007 the “same ol’, same ol’.”
Yet I believe that every real Christian wants to please God. The Bible gives many marks of a true Christian—love for God, repentance from sin, humility, prayer, love for others, spiritual growth, obedience, separation from the world, and doing our best to do God’s will.
I believe we want to do God’s will—I really do. James takes a very practical approach to responding to God’s will. In this passage James gives insights into how people respond to God. Where do you fit? Where will you be this year in relation to God’s will?
Some people live their lives as if God did not exist. They give no thought to God. James has a word for them. James 4:13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”
James begins, “Now listen. . .” Sometimes I say to you, “Listen!” Charles Stanley, one of the greatest Bible teachers often says, “Listen.” It means to pay especially close attention. Understand what the teacher is saying. The question we must answer is, “Does this apply to me? Am I one of those people who ignore God’s will?” Is James talking to me?
The book of James is probably sermons James preached. Here he uses the illustration of a businessman, and how he plans. But he is talking to all of us. The first foolish thing that many people do is to ignore God’s will.
Do you make your plans—today or tomorrow you’re going to do this or that. You’re going to move; take another job; start dating; you’re going to make money this way or that way; you’re going to go here or there, you’re going to do this business, and so on.
Do you habitually go through life making plans as if God did not exist or care about your plans. It is important to understand that James is not condemning wise planning or even strategizing. God has given us amazing minds to make good decisions.
The problem is in what we do not do—We do not include God. We do all this extensive planning but in the course of this planning God is not part of our agenda.
Why is it so foolish to leave God out when we are planning ahead? It is foolish because…
Life is not simple. It is complex. It is full of forces, events, people, contingencies, and circumstances that we have little or no control over. James says, James 4:14a Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.
Proverbs 27:1 says the same thing. “Do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth.”
The last words written in Sir Walter Scott’s diary were, “Tomorrow we shall . . .” That’s all. He died before writing any more. There was no tomorrow for him. He died with good intentions—he had a goal he was going to accomplish—but a goal never attained. He still believed he had more time.
Three apprentice devils were talking to Satan about their assignments. One said, “I’ll tell people there is no God.” Satan replied, “That won’t work because people instinctively know there is a God.” The second devil said, “I’ll tell people there is no hell.” Again Satan answered, “That too will not work because people know there is a hell.” The third devil said, “I will tell people there is no hurry.” “Ah ha,” said Satan, “that strategy will destroy millions of lives.”
It is impossible for any one of us to know or be assured of what is going to happen tomorrow. One of the most dangerous words is “tomorrow.” Many of us foolishly imagine that we are completely in charge of our lives. When we do, we ignore God’s will.
A second reason it is foolish to leave God out of our planning is . . .
Now James turns the screws a little bit. James 4:14b What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Ouch—that hurts! He says that our life is a mist; it is as transitory as a puff of smoke from a fire, the steam that rises from a cup of coffee, one’s breath on a cold morning.
Today we are told how to look young, stay trim, keep healthy, have a good image, think positively, make more money, and have more friends. We are desperately trying to cling to this world. The truth is, we are here today and gone tomorrow.
Again, don’t misunderstand James. Life is very precious. Christ died on the cross because of His love for you and the importance He places on every life.
But life is very short, and how foolish it is, in light of how brief and frail life is, to plan and live as if God doesn’t exist. It is precisely because our life is so valuable to God that we need to include Him in our plans.
We must admit that life is short. David wrote in Psalm 103 that our days are like grass; as a flower of the field—when the wind passes over it, it is no more. Now think about your life—its shortness, not knowing about tomorrow.
Yet God trusts you and gives you the great privilege to make the best use of the time you have—to make your life meaningful and beneficial, and to live as Jesus did.
James 4:16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
Those who ignore God’s will are practical atheists—they live as if God did not exist. This second group acknowledges God, may claim belief in God, but refuse to trust Him and to submit the uncertainties of life to God. They are gods unto them selves.
Notice who is doing the bragging and boasting! It reminds me of the football player who scores a touchdown and stands there and says, “Look what I did,” without giving credit to the quarterback who got him the ball and the center, guard, tackle and end who blocked and made it possible for him to score.
It is those who foolishly think that they are where they are at because they did it all themselves. They planned, worked, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.
Now they say, “Look at what I did. I’m where I’m at today all because I’m so smart.” There isn’t any acknowledgement of God. There isn’t any thanksgiving to Him.
They set their own goals, and their own wills above God. They may talk about Gods will, but His will is simply not as important to them as their own plans. This attitude is evil. Remember what God said to the rich farmer who left God out of his retirement plans: “You fool, tonight your soul will be required of you.”
This third group is made up of people who affirm the existence of God and even acknowledge that His will is supreme, and may even say that they want to do God’s will—but they then choose to disobey it.
James has something to say about his also. James 4:17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.
We know that God’s will is expressed in all the commands and principles of Scripture. God’s supreme will is that all people be saved. 1 Tim. 2:4 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 2 Pet. 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
His will is that we be filled, (controlled) with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:17-18), growing in our faith (1 Thess. 4:3-8), that we submit to authorities (1 Pet. 2:13-15), and to be willing to suffer for doing good(1 Pet. 3:17).
The Bible instructs us to serve Christ; to tell others about him; we are to submit to one another in all the myriad human relationships; we are to love and be faithful to our spouses, and love our children and parents. God wants us to regularly attend church, read the Bible, to pray and to live moral and ethical lives.
There isn’t time to list all the ways God’s Word instructs us as to how to live our lives. But every Christian is responsible to know His will and to obey it. If they fail to obey then they sin. Claiming ignorance is not an excuse. When you leave God out, disregard His will, or simply disobey it, is sin.
This is a great time, at the start of the New Year, to acknowledge that God has a purpose and plan for your life. In every aspect of our lives, and in every decision we face, we are to say, “If it is the Lord’s will.”
James 4:15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’”
I’m not talking about just saying it—you can say all kinds of things. James is driving home the point that God and His will should be central to our lives and to our plans. God doesn’t write His will in the clouds. Too often we wish to know God’s specific will in specific situations. If you know and are obedient to His will in the Bible, your decisions will be in His will. But you must know His will from the Bible.
Life is too short to leave God out. God is sovereign over your life. You live only because God wills it. You breathe because God gives the air. You eat because He provides the elements and climate to grow food. You work and play because of the marvelous brain and body He has given you.
For the Christian, knowing and doing God’s will is an act of worship. Do it from the heart—as a way of life. Responding to God’s will is a test of whether our faith in Jesus Christ is living and true.
We’re not going to be perfect, and we will fall on our faces many times in trying to be obedient to God. But a strong desire to do the will of God is a sure sign that the indwelling Christ has transformed your life.
Are you planning with God? This is what it all boils down to. You have hundreds of options in life—your job, your family, boyfriend or girlfriend, your yard, and your car, money, and on and on. None of these should be at the center of our lives.
Only God should be there. Only God is worthy of being at the center. Only God is capable to be at the center. Put Him on your heart’s throne. Include Him in all your plans.
Submit your will to His. Surrender your life to Him so that you will be fulfilled in your Christian faith.