If the Lord wills

Yesterday and today, I gave a lot of thought to a couple of verses. A couple of things led up to this. 1) We had planned on having a guest speaker this weekend at Ogletown, and that didn't happen, due to the PHL airport closures, 2) we had planned on having services tomorrow, but that isn't going to happen.

So, a couple of verses...

"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. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 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." (James 4:13-17, ESV)

I may have another opportunity to highlight some things from these verses, but here are a couple for now.

• 'if the Lord wills' is surely not a magic formula, but it is a humble recognition.
• How often do I really recognize God's sovereignty over the things of life?
• How often do I really recognize that 1) I am not in control of many things, and 2) human life is pretty fragile?
• God's providence ensures that we live.
• While none of us would want to be classified as an 'arrogant person,' it is the height of arrogance for Christians to live a functionally God-less life.
• This is quite connected to the Lord's prayer (i.e. Your will be done)

Just a few thoughts from someone who had planned on sharing a few thoughts tomorrow morning however, the Lord willed otherwise.