If the Lord wills

Jas 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
Jas 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
Jas 4:15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

If the Lord wills.

If the Lord wills we will live.

If the Lord wills we will live and do all that we do.

How can we truly believe we have control over our lives? We believe that though, we really do. We make our plans and when they fall through we get upset. When they're successful we boast as if we were truly the force behind that success.

The very breath we breathe is given to us by God and yet we lay claim to that as well don't we? We live because we choose to do so. We live because we choose not to end our lives. We live because we were born- something out of our control but something that was in the control of our parents- beings like us who made the choice to have us. Because we are allowed to make choices we believe we are in control of all things and that's not true. God gave us the breath of life no matter what anyone says. God put the beat in our hearts. Yes, sometimes that breath isn't there for long, and sometimes our hearts only take a few beats and the tragedy of life ending is awful but our God- who knows the beginning and end of all things has reasons for it all that we cannot begin to understand, not in the least. We want to yell and scream that it's not fair and if there is a God He must hate us etcetera but the truth is, we HAVE to admit God knows things of eternity and we haven't a clue. God lives in the realm of the eternal and His understanding isn't our understanding. We have to TRUST, we have to have FAITH, and only then can we truly live in God's will without wanting our own will done all the time, without expecting our own wills to be paramount in all things- good and yes, even bad.

Faith calls for us to live for God's will, not our will.

When we say God's will be done we have to mean it, we have to believe it, we don't have to like it especially if it's something causing us pain, but we must accept it and continue to love the God who knows our eternity.

We ought to say-


If the Lord wills.

Let's make plans, let's make choices, let's make decisions but in ALL we do let us say first- IF THE LORD WILLS.

We must try this, really we must because for far too long we've been totally bent on having our own will done.

We need God's will to be done- we need to desire God's will to be done, not ours. We need to give our lives to God- our lives we live right now and the lives we will live for eternity.

God's will.

Let us accept His will, not fight it, not rebel against it, not hate it, but choose to accept His will in all things.

ALL BY HIS GRACE! All through HIS righteousness! All through HIS power!

ALL IN HIS LOVE!

Amen.