Wednesday, November 2, 2011
“For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” James 4:15
James is not promoting the ritualistic receitation of this phrase every time a future tense is used in our conversation. He’s not saying that every time we say something that speaks about something in the future we should insert this phrase. “Megan, what do you want for dinner?” She replies, “If the Lord wills, we should eat pizza.” That’s not the point of this verse when we consider the context.
Really James is making the argument that before we make our plans, as we make our plans and after we make our plans God Himself must be consulted. We must ask Him what He would want us to do. We must ask for wisdom. We should look to scripture to see what He says about our future.
Application: Here are some great questions that you should ask when you are making plans:
- God, what should I do? (Action)
- God, when should I do it? (Timing)
- God, how long should I do it? (Duration)
- God, how should I do it? (Method, Values)
- God where should I go? (Location)
- God, with who should I do this? (Association)
- God, what should my goals be? (Purpose)
Are these questions, and questions like them a part of your planning?
When was the last time you prayed some of thesevkinds of questions? Why not start to ask them today?
Study the Scriptures with Ben Jennings 
this passage is saying that We outha to say if the lord is willing to do this and that for us then we are willing to live for him and do this or that for him.
I often run ahead and do things without talking to God about them. Does anyone else have this problem?
Yea sometomes
Yes unfortunately! Bad habitt I have that needs to be broken!
Sometimes I ask those questions, but not really all of them. Usually it’s just the first one. But in a reply to Ben’s question, yes! I go and do things all the time, then later think “I should have talked to God about it first.”. Actually I was reading about something that goes along with this today in school. It was about Joshua and the Israelites, and how they were supposed to destroy a group of people, but instead they became friends with them without asking God what He wanted them to do. And the consequences for the Israelites were bad! It’s kinda cool that I learned about this in school too!
But back to James. It can be so easy to make quick decisions without asking God what HE thinks you should do first, I’m guilty of this a lot too! But the times I do ask God what He wants me to do, things turn out soo much better! All the time I think about what would be cool for my future or what I want to do, but I really should be thinking “what does God want for my future?” Things would definitely go more smoothly if I did! 🙂
sounds like me
haha
Everything we do..we should get permission from God. He’s like our parent or……*ahem* creator of everything on this earth(including the earth) or something like that 😉 He made everything so why shouldn’t we get all of our plans ok’d by Him before we do them? Sometimes I ask Him what should I do or how and what should I say (not really any of the other questions), but a lot of times I forget I can just ask for His guidance. Then when it’s all said and done with I remember “Oh. God’s there for me. I should’ve just asked for help!”
I forget to do this a lot, but I have definitely come to realize that when I match up my plans with God’s plans…things turn out so much better. Why? because He’s a pretty wise fellow 😉
I got. to. get. that. in. my. head! Grace, God’s plan is better. I know you’re selfish and you want THAT… RIGHT NOW, but trust and obey. God has so much more in store for you.
I feel like this lesson keeps coming up, because God’s trying to work at me. He’s trying to get me trust in Him and not rely on myself, because I don’t always know what’s best for me but He does!
So the moral: everything you do.. Ask Him first and make sure “your plans” are what He wants for you.
Tip: His plans are always better 😉
like grace said we need 2 get permission from God.those are questions we need 2 ask God.u may just make plans w/ out asking God and it could turn into a big mess.u did something u weren’t supposed 2,it wasn’t right in God’s eyes.going back 2 pastor ben’s question,that sounds like me! i just want 2 plan things and never ask God about it.its a very bad habit.it definetly needs 2 b getting rid of.we should all work towards asking God before making plans and see if its the right thing 2 do.i think whoever has trouble w/ that (that also includes me!) should work on that really intensivly.one very important thing: HIS PLANS ARE ALWAYS BETTER~!!!!!!!! like grace said!! we need 2 let God guide us through this life cause we can’t do everything on our own!!! hope u guys had a great day!!!! see u guys soon!!! 🙂 can u guys pray that i do better in school!
This is such an important thing to start now that can really impact you in the future. I know for me i dont always ask “God what do you want for me?” and that is one thing that I need to start working on.
Pastor Ben brought up a great point when it comes to this. He said the he often forgets to talk to God before doing things first. I also have a bad habbit of this. I tend to just jump right into something then pray about it later when I realize I can’t do it alone. Pastor Bales says this a lot, “When we pray about something we are putting it in God’s hands.” I don’t know about you guys, but I’d rather have things in God’s hands rather then my own. We need to be praying about decision making or things we’re going through. Obviously like the silly example Pastor Ben used, we don’t need to be like, “Oh I wonder if it’s in God’s will for me to wear a blue shirt today?” but we do need to be praying about things in our lives. This is of course easier said then done, but so important! This is something I definetly need to work on. I do it, but not enough! Great reminder today! 🙂