May 22
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JAMES 4
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. – James 4:13-17
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JAMES 4 ALL BOASTING IS ARROGANCE AND IS EVIL
A poem inspired by these verses by ILMA
When you make plans, are you certain it will happen?
Do you heavily rely on yourself when you are planning?
Is your life in your own hands or is it in the Lord’s hands?
We don’t know our life; it’s here now and tomorrow it may be gone.
What is the point of planning if we don’t rely on the Lord?
How can we presume that it is aligned with God’s word
If we don’t take counsel from his truth, we will fail
Only the Lord’s plan is foolproof and does not fall.
To be confident that your plans will transpire is foolish
All boasting is arrogance and it is pointless and useless
Unless we walk in the Spirit and depend on God
We will not succeed because the Lord hates the proud.
We do not know what tomorrow will bring
Let us not worry or be anxious for nothing
Instead, let us pray for our plans to happen
Let us grow in our dependence on our Maker.
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REFLECTION
• What is the essence of these following verses regarding certainty of human planning?
• Why does James call it arrogance to be certain of tomorrow’s plans?
• Why shouldn’t we depend on our skills and thinking when we make plans?