Sometimes, it is easier to focus on the world we live in rather than the Sovereign God Who is our Creator. This daily devotion looks at where our priorities should be and why.
Nuggets
We need to make God our priority as we put our confidence in Him.
We are to make it a habit to be confident in God, not in this world.
Boasting is a sin.
Devotions in Living Out Our Faith series
Sorry for missing the post on Tuesday. I had connectivity problems. I wasn’t able to sign on as a guest when I took my sister to the big city for her surgery.
Thank you for your prayers. She is doing wonderfully well.
Too many times, this world steals our focus from God. We start making our plans and don’t consider what He has in store for us. Our focus needs to be on Him.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Earthly Pursuits Today
“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’ — 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” (Jas. 4: 13-14 ESV)
We need to make God our priority as we put our confidence in Him.
James gave us no-nonsense words on where we should put our priorities. They shouldn’t be on our earthly work.
Don’t misunderstand. James was not telling us to give up diligently working. In fact, Scriptures have strong words for those who do not work. “For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat” (II Thess. 3: 10 ESV).
God gives us resources to provide for ourselves. That is one way we show that we depend on Him.
James isn’t even trashing our confidence. We can be confident — it matters in what we place that confidence.
The problem here was James’ readers were all about their business pursuits – and not about pursuing God and depending on Him. They wanted what they could gain of this world. They put more emphasis on gaining the physical than the spiritual.
They placed their confidence in themselves and in their prospects.
Just think about it. God knows the physical has to be important. He knew what Jesus went through once He came to earth.
The physical is not supposed to take precedence over the spiritual. Pearson addressed this. He wrote, “We seek the glory of God when we remember that the material in our life exists only for the sake of the spiritual.”
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God has to be priority. The worldview should not influence us to turn away from God.
There is no such thing as religious and secular. God wants to be Lord of every aspect of our lives.
When I worked in higher education, I was doing His business, not a secular job. I firmly felt that I was where God wanted me to be.
What James’ readers did not get was that this life is temporary. We aren’t guaranteed tomorrow. “Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow” (Ps. 144: 4 ESV).
Nothing we do will make our plans come to fruition if they are not what God has planned for us.
Yes, the Lord has a will for each of us individually. We have to depend on Him to accomplish it.
One of our biggest problems is we don’t know what the future holds — and we kick at that. I know I can be a control freak, especially when I feel everything is out of control.
Wardlaw made a good point. Do we really want to know when bad things are coming?
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My loved one is going to die on June 30, 2024. Do I really want to know that years in advance?
The flip side could be just as upsetting. What if we knew we wouldn’t be truly happy until June 30, 2024? That would only make us more miserable.
Oh, we say we do know date and time, so we can change it. Is that always in our best interest? No.
We have to trust God. He is the only One truly in control. He knows past, present and future.
Ooo, baby. That is a great point, too.
We can’t just rest on our laurels. If we are stuck in the past, we aren’t growing.
God works everything out for our good. Whatever happens to us helps us grow in the ways we need — even if they are really hard things to handle.
Living the Lord’s Will
“Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’” (Jas. 4: 15 ESV)
We are to make it a habit to be confident in God, not in this world.
Have you heard of someone who prefaced an agreement to do something in the future with “if it is the Lord’s Will”? Some people really are putting their faith and trust in God when they say that.
For others, that phrase is really a boast. Adam called it a “… confident expectation of prolonged existence.”
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Deep down, it wasn’t a dependence on God. It slaps more of worldly expectations and success.
Why? It is talking more about trade and profit. The phrase about the Lord’s Will is just an add on.
We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. My sister did not plan on taking a header down the basement stairs three weeks ago. The surgery she had was not penciled in a month or two ago.
We aren’t in control of what will happen. God knows what will happen – and allows it to happen.
Some of it may be the result of sin. Others may be testing or trials.
We have to depend on God.
Thomas made a wonderful observation. He wrote, “God’s will refers both to the life and activity of every man.”
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I think there are times when we believe one or the other, but we forget that it means both. God’s Will has to do with our overall plan for our live – and our individual actions that make up that life.
What is God’s Will? That we be obedient to His laws and commandments. That we follow Him.
Yes, that means we gain salvation by confessing Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer. But it is also every single decision that we make as we work out our salvation.
The Disciple’s Job Description
Complete Job Description
Individual Description
Job Duty #2
Work Out Our Salvation (Philippians 2: 12)
Everything we do should be in service of God. We must depend on God for everything. We can only carry on our lives through His Will.
Raleigh reminded us again that God has all of our lives planned out. God doesn’t want to be only the God of the big things. He wants to be God of the little things as well.
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This is all about obedience. The obedience leads to godliness. This faithful obedience is what changes our character to be what God calls us to be.
If we say, “If the Lord wills it,” we have to mean it.
Don’t Boast in Ourselves
“As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (Jas. 4: 16-17 ESV)
Boasting is a sin.
James was writing to people who were boasting. Their pride focused on the evil.
Their whole goal was to be successful by worldly standards. God has a different definition of success. His definition is all about obedience.
We can’t compartmentalize God. He didn’t make us waffles where the syrup is relegated to these little compartments.
He made us spaghetti. One noodle is wrapped around another. They are all touching.
We have to be righteous in all of our activities. Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
See, that is our character, not our motivations.
That is why our obedience to God may call us to do things others might question. We may give up a promotion because taking the position would force us to compromise our beliefs. It may move us out of state or even out of the country.
As disciples, we are called to obey God. Period.
To me, Roberts had a good interpretation of this verse. He wrote, “Knowledge without action is simply good for nothing. Act up to what you know, or so much the worse for you.”
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Knowing God isn’t enough. Knowing the difference between right and wrong isn’t enough.
We have to do right and not do wrong.
God requires our salvation through Jesus to change us. Upon conversion, it is our duty to repent. We are obligated to turn from our sins.
If we fail to do what is right when we know it to be right, we are committing a sin.
Stillingfleet said that we are to have a habitual disposition of the mind. We have to constantly focus our minds on God. He equated this to loving God.
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If we are to make it habitual, that means we have to be intentional about making sure we do the right we know to do.
Making the Connections
I like the way Rogers put it. He wrote, “He is not a Christian although a merchant, nor is he a Christian and a merchant, but he is a Christian merchant; that is the law of Christ rules him in his business as much as in his actions in the Church.”
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God calls us to value our relationship with Him – therefore, our soul – more than this world and our business. We have to seek Him to grow that relationship.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
Shedd put things into perspective. Since the fall, our dependence isn’t naturally put on God. We have to make a conscious decision to do that.
As we’ve gone further and further away from the last time faith was sight — i.e. when Jesus was here — we aren’t as bold as, say, Paul or Peter or James.
We see what we know and think that is the driving force and all there is. We are wrong.
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That is why it is so hard for us to put our faith and trust in God.
How Do We Apply This?
- Don’t limit God by saying “if the Lord wills it” without being dependent on Him.
- Pray for our businesses and business life.
- Make sure we are doing God’s Will.
- Seek our own gain without actively bringing harm to our neighbors.
- Don’t wait for an unpromised day in the future to gain salvation — do it now.
- Realize that life is short so we need to give God control.
- Don’t try to pry into the future.
- Be humble.
- Spend time completing our devotions so that we can deeply study what God is telling us.
Resources
Father God. Lord, we put you as the priority if our lives. We are nothing without You and can only boast in what You have done for us. Help us to resist the devil as he tries to tempt us with things of this world. Amen.
What do you think?
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