Part 11: True Faith Seeks God's Will

Introduction

Brief review of James: What true faith looks like. It could be summed up with James 2:17 “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”

What we have seen so far:

True faith listens and controls anger.

True faith receives and does Gods’ Word.

True faith is impartial, controls the tongue, has wisdom, controls the sinful pleasures, and is humble.

James does not, nor any part of the NT, expect this to occur immediately. Our faith grows, we become more spiritually more, more like Christ over time. That James expects this is seen just in the fact that he is writing to Christians. The Christian audience to whom he is writing evidently have these problems. They need to be sanctified. They need to attend to these sins and give them over to the Lord, and esp the Holy Spirit to rid themselves of these fleshly habits.

James continues addressing many of these sins in the passage we are looking at today. James turns to the idea that true faith seeks God’s will.

James begins by calling his reader to consider the wrong kind of attitude:

1. The Triumphant Attitude (4:13)

James 4:13 NASB95

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”

What It Means

“Come now,” says James. He is calling us to consider something very important.

He calls our attention to the idea that there are certain Christians who make braggadocious claims of their future plans. It is a triumphant, arrogant attitude that puts self-will first without any reference to God’s will and plans.

It is a focus upon how we will take a trip and we will do business and we will make money.

The point here is the attitude we take toward our lives. James is describing the confidence of what we will do, as if we know for certain what the future holds.

Note the arrogant assumption: we know what will occur, and we are sovereign and in control of what will occur. Such an attitude is unbecoming for the children of God.

It is what the Apostle John refers to as “the boastful pride of life”:

1 John 2:16 “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”

Douglas Moo:

The Letter of James A. Arrogant Planning Ignores God’s Providence (4:13–17)

We are reminded of a father forced to rebuke his children for behavior not in keeping with family values.

We need to ensure we understand this point James is making because it is easy to interpret James’ words incorrectly, esp in our present American culture.

What It Does Not Mean

(1) Anti-capitalism

James is not setting out a political philosophy. Contemporary capitalism did not even arise for another 1500 years or so.

The context here is about the kind of faith we Christians are to have in Christ: it is a faith that sets aside the triumphant, arrogant attitude that is convinced we know and can control every aspect of our lives.

True faith seeks God’s will first and foremost and is humble enough to acknowledge that God is sovereign over our lives. We are mere human creatures; God is the Creator

So, James is not laying out a diatribe against capitalism.

Others have mistakenly interpreted James be saying he is against all future planning whatsoever.

(2) Against future planning

But making plans for the future is not the problem. In fact, Jesus shows elsewhere the foolishness of not planning.

Luke 14:28–30 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’” (The context is about counting the cost to follow Jesus, but the principle is the same.)

Proverbs 6:6–11 “Go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise, which, having no chief, officer or ruler, prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest. How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? “A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest”— Your poverty will come in like a vagabond And your need like an armed man.”

What we are to avoid, then, is not planning, but an arrogant attitude as if we are in control and know for certain that our plans will be carried out.

Application

What kind of attitude do we have toward our future? Is it one of pride and arrogance that says we are going to do such and such—we are going to do all these wonderful things? That is not a true faith in Christ.

Having such a triumphant attitude is difficult to avoid in our American context. It seems to be an intrinsic vice in our culture. It was inherent in the concept of manifest destiny of our early founding. As the term “destiny” indicates, our American forebearers thought their future plans were certain. It was their destiny to expand, conquer, and become the world’s greatest nation (note this is not a commentary against or for whether America is the greatest or not; it is merely shining light on the attitude—the certainty and arrogance some held as to their future plans for the country.)

Even Alexis de Toqueville, the French sociologist and visitor during the 1800s, observed this attitude among many at the time.

This attitude still grips our society. We plan, oftentimes with absolute certitude and arrogance, that we will go to school, get to college and/or get a good paying job, buy a house, do business, have a family, and all will happy and we will be satistified.

James says to all this: How arrogant! How prideful! That kind of life is not of faith.

And it is not even reality.

2. The Reality (4:14)

James 4:14 NASB95

Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

It may come as a surprise, but . . .

You Are Not Omniscient

We really do not know what will occur tomorrow. We do not know everything, and what we do know is quite small. But we especially do not know the future.

One of the most popular cognitive distortions, or poor way of thinking, is to think we know what will happen in the future. Psychology calls it fortune-telling. In the context of James, it is actually a fortune-telling of a different kind: it’s an arrogant, prideful way of thinking. I know what I’m going to do in the future.

Reminds me of George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” — “I know what I'm gonna do tomorrow, and the next day, and next year, and the year after that."

Me:

“I’m always going to live in the state where I grew up—Indiana. God’s corn and bean fields.” 11 houses and 3 states later . . .

“I will never be a minister or a pastor of a church.”

Proverbs 16:9 “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”

I—you—know nothing of the future. Only God does.

But there’s another problem about boasting what we will do in the future: we do not even know how much longer we will live.

This Life Is Temporal

James: “You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”

Proverbs 27:1 “Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth.”

Psalm 39:4–6 “Lord, make me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am. Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Surely every man walks about as a phantom; Surely they make an uproar for nothing; He amasses riches and does not know who will gather them.”

Psalm 103:15–16 “As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, And its place acknowledges it no longer.”

Illustration:

For those of us who grew up or were adults in the 1980s, we remember the video store Blockbuster. Blockbuster was a video rental store. People would go there on the weekend and rent movies—VHS and eventually DVDs. At one time, Blockbuster had 9,904 stores worldwide with a revenue of $5.9 billion per year.

In the late ‘90s, however, the start up company Netflix began a DVD rental by mail. Netflix exploded. The CEO decided to approach John Antioco, the CEO of Blockbuster, to join forces and help Blockbuster launch an online rental and mailing rental service. John Antiocoa, in his arrogance and thinking he knew what the future held, laughed Netflix out of his office.

Of course, we know the end of the story: Blockbuster is no more (Blockbuster became a bust) and Netflix’s market value is greater than $422 billion.

The point: we do not know the future. We may not even be here tomorrow. And so we need to understand that our will and our plans are, at best, tentative and merely possible. As such, we ought to be seeking God’s will with humility.

Application:

Do we not at times become too confident in our plans? Are we not at times arrogant, thinking we definitely know best and what ought to be done for the future? It is easy to succumb to being bossy, pushy, and even controlling about what is to be done.

Instead we ought to take an attitude of humility and recognize that we do not know the future and we are but a mist. We are just as finite and ignorant of the future as the next person.

We need to have the attitude of true faith:

3. The Attitude of True Faith (4:15-17)

True faith focuses upon one thing:

Seek God’s Will (v.15)

James 4:15 NASB95

Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”

Rather than arrogantly proclaiming what we will do, we ought to always say, “If it is the Lord’s will, I will do such and such.”

Jesus taught his disciples to pray

Matthew 6:10 “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.”

Proverbs reminds us that God’s will stands over and against our own:

Proverbs 19:21 “Many plans are in a man’s heart, But the counsel of the Lord will stand.”

Application

But what does it specifically mean to say “the Lord’s will be done?” There can be a lot of confusion about this.

First, we should not miss the fact that James says “Lord’s will.”

Second, the Lord’s will means God’s permission.

Our plans are merely tentative. God may have specific plans that he will carry out for us in the future. And guess what? They will be carried out, no matter how much planning and attempt at executing them you do.

One of the basic teachings on the nature of God is that he is sovereign. He rules and controls the universe. His plans are at work. Your plans are secondary, always. We must always have the Lord’s permission to carry out our plans.

You may want and even plan to get a certain job, but God may have other plans. You may want to marry a certain person, but God may have another idea. You may have all kinds of plans for the future—even as small as purchasing a hamburger—but God may have other plans.

The tricky part, however, is discerning what God’s will is. This, I admit, is not always easy. In fact, it may be consistently difficult. So what do we do?

=> We pray to the Lord, “Father, I desire to have this job, but not my will be done, but your’s. If you do not want me to have it, then let it not be offered to me.”

=> Then, when we receive the offer or do not receive the offer, we accept that what has transpired is God’s will. Why? Because we prayed that God’s will be done, and we can trust (which is an aspect of faith) that God will answer our prayer.

Psalm 17:6 “I have called upon You, for You will answer me, O God; Incline Your ear to me, hear my speech.”

Psalm 34:17 “The righteous cry, and the Lord hears And delivers them out of all their troubles.”

Psalm 66:19–20 “But certainly God has heard; He has given heed to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer Nor His lovingkindness from me.”

1 John 5:14 “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”

=> Just as important, God also will answer our prayers for our good.

Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

When we make plans, then, we must always have the attitude that says “if it is God’s will.”

It can be tough in this world praying for God’s will. There seems to always be something unknown about it. But it comes down to faith (trust) in God in who he is: he will answer, he has our best interest in mind, and he will always work out what is the best for us.

Think of it like how a parent views his children, at least how a parents ought to view their children. Parents are to love giving good gifts to their children? Good, loving parents would never think of doing harm to them.

I recall one time being in a little bit of a bind years ago, and I needed my dad to help me out. So I emailed him asking if he could help out (financially, I think). He simply responded to my email with a Bible verse: Luke 11:11–12. I actually had to look it up. “Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?”

If a loving father/parent is like this, how much more our Father in heaven!

Everything else is arrogance and prideful:

All Else is Prideful (v.16)

James 4:16 NASB95

But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

When we take the arrogant, triumphant attitude by assuming our plans will be carried out, it is nothing but evil. Let’s pause and think about this a little more seriously for a moment. Do we really grasp what James is saying here? If we do not recognize God’s sovereignty and Lordship over our lives and we go on to boast about what we will be doing, it is evil.

True faith must seek God’s will, not one’s own. Seeking one’s own arrogantly is evil.

A verse from the Apostle John bears repeating:

1 John 2:16 “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”

James concludes this thought about God’s will with somewhat of a warning: Failure to recognize God’s sovereignty and plans over and against our plans is sin.

Failure is Sin (v.17)

James 4:17 NASB95

Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

The difference between sin of commission and omission.

We often think of commission: breaking one of God’s commands that says, “Thou shall not.”

But sin also includes omission: neglecting or omitting what we ought to do. This is what James has in mind here. Specifically, he is saying that if we neglect or omit to recognize God’s sovereignty and will in our plans but rather assert our own will and arrogance, then when are sinning.

James has now laid out for us what we ought to do here in regard to our planning for the future, and if we neglect to incorporate God’s will, then we are sinning.

Why is it a sin to have a triumphant attitude about our future plans? Because we are effectively saying that we are in control and know the future. It is a prideful stance. True faith seeks God’s will.

Conclusion

Are you seeking God’s will or your own? Are you boastful, prideful, and arrogant about what you shall do?

For those of us who are Christians we need to be mindful that we are but a mist; we do not know what will happen tomorrow; and God is sovereign.

There may be some here today, however, who have not given their life over to Christ. You may still be trying to live as if you are in charge of your life. That you are independent from all else. You may be living in such a way that says you are sovereign and in control. . . .