Friday, November 4, 2011
v.17 “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
The word “good” here in context of the rest of the paragraph, speaks to the idea that they should have done the good thing of considering and consulting God in thier plans. What they were planning to do (buy, sell, get gain, invest, etc) wasn’t necessarily inherantly wrong. What was sin was their lack of consideration to what God desired for their future.
Application: What are the “good” things we ought to do to consider God as our plans?
1. Pray.– Prayer is the most fundamental ways we communicate to God and invite Him into our lives. It is how we can begin to recognize who we really are in relationship to God.
2. Study God’s Word.– Chances are, God has already spoke about principles and values that really should be a part of your plans. Think about that! God has given us His wisdom about our future and what we will be facing. We would be foolish to skip this step when we think about our future.
3. Consult Godly People in your life.– God has put people in your life that can help you make wise decisions. Look for people who have made great decisions and considered God in their future. Many times they have been where you are. They have traveled down the road that you are about to travel. God has placed people in your life that can help you consider Him in your plans. This may be a parent, a pastor, a teacher or some other authority in your life. It may also be a good friend or family member. CAREFUL- People are not perfect, and you certainly can get poor advice. If you choose carefully who you get counsel from this could be something God uses to get You where He wants you to be.
Can you think of any other ways to consider God in your plans?
Study the Scriptures with Ben Jennings 
There is alot of ways we could consider god in our plans but I think of any because pastor Ben has like some really good ones up there. Good job pastor Ben :). This passage is saying that if you know what to do, the right thing to do and you don’t do it then the Lord considers it as sinning against him and we don’t want to do that.
Thanks Mafalda!
like mafalda said their are many ways 2 consider God in our plans.2 me,prayer is #1.before i went 2 bed i prayed that i would consider God in my plans.Godly people in ur life is a good one 2.they can help u out and give u wisdom.2 study God’s word is great 2!they r all great! God has given us in his word wisdom about our future!very great devo today!! 🙂 as always!! 🙂
btw pastor ben,i had a pretty weird dream about u,megan,grace,kendra,and me.so we all went 2 a church in Georgia.u had 2 sing 2 solo’s and in the first one u kinda walked in like a detective.and when u got on stage u were shaking alot of things.on the 2nd one,u went 2 a guy in the audience and took off ur jacket and dressed him in it.i was video taping it and grace and kendra were just laughing saying this is a little creepy! megan wasn’t there because apparently she was sick and went 2 a doctor.pretty crazy! (im still laughing at it haha!)
Lol Allie funny dream 😀
hahaha…. I’m not a detective! or really a singer…
That’s hillarious!
lol i know! i don’t know why i dreamt it! it must have been something i ate or something.
Lol.. Allie, what did you eat before bed?! Must have had something to do with that crazy dream! :p
well… lets see…. i ate salmon,potato wedges,and green beans.oh plus jello! hehe 🙂 how about u?! just kidding!
lol. wow..that’s a weird dream 🙂
The more that we study God’s word and pray to Him the closer and ether our relationship is. I think that as we ask God for wisdom while we ate growing that we should never forget to ask god to guide us and be part of our decisions ad future. Sometimes I think that we grow and we can maybe say that we are more wise and we know what God would have for us but we fail to include Him in our actual life. We do have more wisdom as we grow but may we never become so arrogant that we don’t include God in our plans. He wants to be an intricate part in all the details and “small decisions” of each of our lives, and He has the time, love, energy, wisdom to be that part.
This verse is simple. If we know what is good (Including God in our plans for the future) then not doing it, is a sin. Sometimes it’s so easy to get caught up in life and not think to include God in our plans, but James is saying that we should include God in ALL of our plans! God put us on earth for a reason, I think that reason is to glorify Him in everything we do! And we can’t glorify Him if He’s not even a part of our plans. I don’t want to just tell God what my plans are for the future and hope it’s what He wants, I want my decisions about the future to be fully based on God and not just what He wants, but also what brings Him glory. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” It’s all about Him! 🙂
I can’t believe we’ve been studying James for 50 days! Crazy right?! It’s so awesome to be able to get on here everyday and read everyone’s comments! They are really encouraging! I pray that all of us can continue to grow like this 🙂
I don’t know how well I’m doing, but lately I have definitely been trying to involve God in my plans. Like megan said he wants us to include Him in EVERYthing even the small stuff. God always has the best answer. The devotions for the past few days have really made me think “Am I including God in my plans?” When I’m about to make a decision I just give a little prayer asking God to help me do whatever is best. I’ve really been trying to think about my future too. I’m so unsure about what it is that I want to do with my life, because I have all these choices running in my head. I feel like I’m not fully submitting to God because there’s this little part of me that’s like- God I will do all of the following except “insert here”- I have this strong feeling that God wants me in the missions field, but at the same time I have this scared feeling like….if I do something in the missions field, that I’ll totally mess up. And I don’t exactly know WHAT in the missions field God would even want me to do…just so confused. Anyways, God wants to be apart of everything you do, including the little things. Ask Him for His help because He knows what’s best.
Grace, I think when you set a pattern in your life that you stay close to God, and consider him in your every day plans that when you have to make those big decisions about the future it will be a lot more clear. You’ll know what you need to do because you’ve learned how to know Him and follow Him in the small things too.
I just wrote a long comment and it didn’t post.. Sad story.. 😦
OK… Let’s try this again! 🙂
What a great application today! I’ve really learned how important it is to include God in my plans for my life. Reading these verses in James was not only a great reminder, but I really got a lot out of it. As much as it appeared on the outside before, a lot of my Christianity a year ago wasn’t as true as it should’ve been. I put up a good front on the outside, but was slowly being teared a part on the inside. I wasn’t following God with a true whole heart anywhere as near as much as I should’ve been, nor was I including Him, or even thinking about what God had for my life. I thought a lot about myself and begged God for things, but in return gave Him the scraps of my time, and not enough love at all. I found myself only praying once a day, if that cause I’d tend to fall asleep, not reading my bible anywhere near as much, and only coming to the Godly influences in my life when I was introuble, rather then seeking their advice before hand. I totally wore a mask because my actions outside of church weren’t godly and I was such a fake. I was planning MY future and not the future God had for me.. Wow. I was really open just now, but that’s ok, I think I needed to be. I had to realize what exactly I was doing, and finally let God really speak to my heart. He told me to that if I truly followed Him, He’d show me what life was really all about. He’d show me the truest love I’d ever experience, His love. He would show me following Him is worth taking the risks and that following the plans that leads to the road of the life He designed for me will be totally worth it. Well God definetly blew my mind. Putting God in my life, like really including Him, has changed my life. Asking God for His direction through prayer and if my plans match up with His has been so important. Especially since I’m a senior and need to decide what to do with my life. Actually reading my bible everyday and studying it and taking away things and applying it to my life is seriously helped so much! Makes me want to kick myself cause I didn’t do it for so long when it was right in front of me.. I seriously ask for guidence a lot from the Godly people in my life. (Pretty sure they’re bound to get annoyed one of these days…lol) But, seeking their advice and actually hearing that they went through similar experiences as me is crazy! Makes you feel like your not alone and that God put them in my life for a reason! All these things are so important! Including God in the plans for my life is so important, because He knows best and He designed a life for me, and seeking His guidence is exactly what I need to do!
Whoo i just wrote a book! Love you guys and so proud of you all! Your comments totally make my day! 🙂
OMG!!!! I’m so happy tht I’m back! 🙂 and I loved the video! 🙂 I’ll be there Sunday!!!!! 🙂 ❤ and I'm so sorry tht I couldn't get on the devos in the pat couple of days but I'm here now!!!! 🙂 lol as I always say great job pastor ben (as always) on the devos making them really understandable! 🙂 I'm loving it!!! 🙂 ok o to the devos! ….. Today's passage is saying tht if u have god in ur heart tht he is always there for u and is like a best friend right by u the whole time, next to u throughtout the good and bad times! Always making it easier! 🙂 god is always making everything better for u and always there for us! 🙂 great devos and c u guys Sunday! 🙂 love u guys! 🙂 and thanks for the video!!!
Hey guys! I know it isnt friday anymore but i like keeping up with the book of James & i never read this verse yesterday! So here it goes:
I think the ways Pastor Ben listed are great ways to include God in our everyday plans. Jessica and i are reading a book for discipleship called “a young woman after God’s own heart” and the last chapter we read talked about how we can be obiedient to God. This verse reminded me of that because by including God in our plans, we’re being obiedient to Him! So basically if we know that the right thing to do is to let God be in our plans and we dont, then we are sinning. By praying, reading His word, and having Godly influences we are involving God in the plans for our life 🙂