Devotionals for December 21, 2023
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READ
James 4:13-17
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”
14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”
14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
REFLECT
James is not condemning preparation. The purpose of this passage is not to discourage any contemplation of the future. What is being condemned here is a boastful assurance of the future. Notice how James specifies a business transaction in v. 13. He has in mind those who imagine themselves as in control of their destiny so much that they consider future successes guaranteed. Notice, also, how James revives the imagery of Ecclesiastes in v. 14. If you recall, Ecclesiastes was all about pressing into the joys of life and obedience to God as an antidote to the vapor (here it is called mist) of life.
Reader, know that the Lord has you. All future talk, be it pessimism or arrogance, forgets this fact. If we boast, we forget that it is the Lord that has us. If we are pessimist, we forget that the Lord has us. Boasting and pessimism are alike in that the person feels certain of something in the future. Boasters are certain of good things, pessimists are certain of bad things. God would have us rest from this certainty, walking step by step with him as he directs us.
Reader, know that the Lord has you. All future talk, be it pessimism or arrogance, forgets this fact. If we boast, we forget that it is the Lord that has us. If we are pessimist, we forget that the Lord has us. Boasting and pessimism are alike in that the person feels certain of something in the future. Boasters are certain of good things, pessimists are certain of bad things. God would have us rest from this certainty, walking step by step with him as he directs us.
APPLY
Q: What is the central message of this passage?
Q: Where do you need to stop future thinking?
Q: How can we disciple someone through anxious seasons?
Q: Where do you need to stop future thinking?
Q: How can we disciple someone through anxious seasons?
SING
PRAY
"Give us today our daily bread."
Lord help us to be content with what we have rather than striving for what we do not have. Amen.
Lord help us to be content with what we have rather than striving for what we do not have. Amen.