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WHO’S DIRECTING YOUR PLANS?
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, May 2, 2025 – We all have plans. Lots of them. From the time we wake up in the morning until the time we go to sleep at night, we’re making plans: Work plans. Meal plans. Shopping plans. Travel plans. Sometimes we even make plans to make time to make plans.
And yet, with all our planning, who’s directing us? Are we inspired by God’s Spirit or by our own will and impulse? Do we do what we do because we think we should do it (because someone has told us we should do it)? Or do we do what we do because God has advised us, one on one, to do it?
Who exactly is directing our plans?
The day I was born-again, I started reading the Bible. Better said, I started eating and drinking and absorbing God’s Word. I was spiritually ravenous. Like a newborn at the teat, I sucked and slurped and couldn’t get enough. And yet, there were some parts of God’s Word that were hard to swallow at the time. They stuck with me because they seemed to stick out. And every time I would read through the Bible, I would trip over them.
One of those parts is in James’ letter:
“Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
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.
For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” (James: 4:13-17)
It seemed to me at the time that James was being a stickler. What did it matter if we prefaced our plans with “If the Lord will”? Surely God would support all our efforts to do good in his name and that of his precious son? Surely nothing that we did in his or Jesus’ name would go to waste? Surely everything we did with our heart in the right place would be duly noted and weighed in our favor? Surely it couldn’t be considered “evil” or “sin” if we did what we did with good intentions?
You would think. At least that’s what the world tells us: “His heart was in the right place”, “he had good intentions”, “he meant right”. I mean, wasn’t it James himself who told Jesus to get out there and do things to prove to the world that he was the Messiah (only to be knocked back by Jesus with that very same advice James would later give to us in his letter)? The world’s way of doing things is to do something because it seems like it should be done, or to jump in head-first and worry about the details later. Duty and compulsion. That’s the world’s way.
But is it God’s way?
Scripture very plainly says we’re to be patient and wait for God’s directive and timing. We’re always to be patient and wait for God’s directive and timing. We can’t assume tomorrow, let alone next year: We can’t even assume the rest of today. We always need to be patient and wait for God’s directive and timing.
Years ago, I tried to start a Bible study. I did everything I thought I needed to do to prepare for it, but no-one showed up. Day after day I waited in the appointed meeting room at the appointed time, but no-one showed up. Even the people who’d contacted me to tell me they were coming were no-shows. Eventually I gave up and realized that God didn’t want me to do the Bible study, at least not at that time. It was a very humbling experience for me, but also a profound teaching moment.
If God isn’t in it, it has no value. If God isn’t personally directing your steps, you’re better off standing still and remaining silent. How many of us make wild and empty gestures thinking we’re doing the right thing – “the Christian thing” – but how many of us will instead end up like King Saul, who also thought he was doing the right thing by sparing the choicest livestock for later sacrifice, even though God had specifically told him to kill everyone and everything and take nothing with him?
Make sure your offers of sacrifice are God-directed and not self-directed. There is no such thing as “a Christian thing to do”: There is only what God wills and what he doesn’t will. All our plans, whether directly in service to God or in our more mundane daily rounds, need to be inspired and directed by God. If they’re not, they’re not worth doing, and they might (like Saul) even get us condemned.
James was absolutely right in saying that we need to defer to God in making our plans. He wasn’t being a stickler; he was stating the scripture-based obvious. Some of us just take a little longer than others to get it.
BIBLE READ-THROUGH: DAY 39 REFLECTION (JAMES – JUDE)
“40 Days and 40 Nights of God’s Word”
DAY 39: AUGUST 30
JAMES – JUDE
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, August 30, 2021 – Most of the letters we read today were written by the disciples who were with Jesus during his ministry years, so it’s not surprising to hear some of Jesus’ words repeated in them. Gone are the brash and oftentimes confused young men “of little faith”, and in their place are mighty apostles, strong in word, deed and faith, and teaching others the Way as Jesus taught them.
- A few main themes emerge in these letters. One of them is the unavoidability of suffering. Remember that during the early years, the church was under heavy persecution. Suffering was the order of the day for many believers, either through incarceration, torture, banishment, or death. We will also suffer, if we’re true believers. The world hates us and mocks us (I know, because I used to be one of the haters and mockers), and things will only get worse for us as our numbers diminish and evil expands.
- Suffering is not something anyone willingly does, if they’re sane. Suffering is something to be endured. The letters point out that there are two types of suffering: the type that is earned by error and sin, and the type that comes from being a follower of Jesus. There are also two ways to suffer – the right way and the wrong way. The right way to suffer is as Jesus suffered – totally aware of what was going on and why, but remaining non-combative and silent, knowing it would eventually pass. The wrong way to suffer is probably the way most of us do it (moaning, groaning, complaining, blaming others, etc.) until we remind ourselves of the right way, and then (hopefully) do it.
- As James points out, God doesn’t tempt us or make us suffer; he permits us to be tempted and to suffer. This is done through the wiles of the devil, like it was to Job. God doesn’t do evil; as Jesus stated in the Gospel, God is actually the only one we can legitimately call good; even Jesus refused to be called good. But but God did create evil, just as he created the destroyer. So if you suffer, suffer in silence, knowing you either had the suffering coming as a reward for your error or sin, or you’re being tempted by the devil as a way to prove you. God permits suffering because it has a purpose – to pay an error or sin debt, or to bring you up higher in his Kingdom. In both cases, suffering should not be fought against or cursed, but accepted.
- I know that the unavoidability of suffering is a hard teaching and makes our skin crawl, but it is what it is. You can bet that we’ll be tested on this teaching in the weeks and months to come. The good news is that if the suffering comes from being a follower of Jesus, it’s a cause for rejoicing, like Peter and John rejoiced in Acts. If we suffer for being a follower of Jesus, it means God considers us worthy. There is no higher recommendation.
- Another theme in the letters is a warning against those who have fallen away and are preaching another gospel. As I mentioned in yesterday’s reflection, false prophets are not a 20th or 21st century phenomenon. The early church was just as plagued by them. The letters also warn against imposters – that is, people who pretend to be believers but are not. They impose themselves on the church, but their presence only stirs up trouble. You can easily tell these people because as much as they say they are believers (and they can be very mesmerizing and convincing talkers, like skilled sales people or politicians), their actions speak otherwise. Avoid them and pray for them, but otherwise let them be. They are God’s concern, not ours.
- The doing of faith rather than just the saying of faith is also a big theme in these letters. Talk is cheap. We know Jesus’ parable about the son who said he’d do his father’s will but didn’t do it, and the son who said he wouldn’t do it, but later changed his mind and did it. It was the son who actually did his father’s will, not the son who only said he’d do it, who was justified. A lot of people contacted me to say they would be participating in the Bible read-through, but only a handful have made it this far. People have good intentions, but if they don’t follow through with actions to back up those intentions, their words have no value. THEIR WORDS HAVE NO VALUE. We are not judged by our intentions, but by our actions. We can spout a list of good intentions until the cows come home, but only those things that we make real by our actions are counted as real. The rest is so much fluff.
- John’s letters focus on the primacy of love. He’s not talking here about romantic love, but the love of God that works through God’s children. God is love, so if we are in God and God is in us (as he was in Jesus), God’s love will work through us. This is the very great joy of being born-again
- God working through us is also the only way we’ll be able to love our enemies, because being kind and forbearing to people who purposely hurt us is definitely not something we can do on our own steam. Loving our neighbours and loving our enemies are decisions of the will, which, once made, God then effects by his Spirit working through us. I have been drunk with fine champagne when I was an unbeliever, and I have been drunk with God’s Spirit working through me to love my enemies, and I can tell you with all certainty that being drunk with God’s Holy Spirit is a far greater high. There is none better on Earth. And in Heaven (if we make it there), we’ll live that high all the time.
“‘Twas the night before Revelation…” – if you’ve made it this far in the Bible read-through, you’re close enough to the end of the tunnel that you’re not only seeing the light, it’s illuminating you. You’re bathed in it. Even so, congratulations aren’t in order yet. We still have one more book to get through, and what a doozy of a book it is!
That’s all I’m going to say for now about Revelation. God bless you for your efforts over these past 39 days and nights. Whatever you invest in God’s Word, you’ll get back a million-fold.
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The schedule for the BIBLE READ-THROUGH is directly below.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 