Who God is and what God wills

I am pleased that by the end of the service on Sunday, we will have made it through chapter 4 of the book of James. To be fair, after spending a whole sermon virtually on the first verse, we’ve probably sped through James a bit quicker than I would have liked.

Just like in today’s fast-paced world, it is easy to have a plan in mind, thinking, ‘well yep, it’s taking a bit of time, I’ve got to set some goals to reach my goals faster,’ but we do this without really stopping to consider, is this what God wills in this situation? We are so often just going off making our own plans and what we are really thinking is, ‘by the sweat of my own brow, by the strength of my own arm, and by the iron of my own will, I will reach my goals!’

What’s worse, and I’m sure many of us have been there, but in chasing after our own agenda, sometimes we get a little judgy of others who might be a hindrance or slowing us down. We might even recognise that those who we are sitting in judgement of, or even critical of, might well be in some need, or even just some measure of Christian charity or grace, and yet, absorbed by our own agendas, we ignore their need.

Our passage this week seems to be speaking into some of the tendencies that we might see above, tendencies that we might even still exhibit today. Can I ask you to take a moment to read our passage and reflect on what this passage might be saying to us. Our passage brings chapter 4 of the book of James to an end James 4:11-17 (only one more chapter to go!). May God bless you in your time with scripture.

Josh