Discipleship Devotional Study Guide – Knowing God – James 4:13-17- It It Is The Lord’s Will – Growing As Disciples

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. James 4:13-16 (NIV)

Making Plans

What’s your plan? What would you like to do with your life? What would you like your life to accomplish in the short time that you have to live it? When you look back over your life what would have to happen for you to know that your life was well spent? I’m wondering if those are good or trick questions. Why would you say that? There is no guarantee that my plan is your plan. There is the very real possibility that what I might like to do might lead me to misspend my life. What I might want to accomplish might be quite different from what you want to do in and through my life. I’m not sure if I have all the knowledge and wisdom that I would need to decide how to spend my life. Are you saying that you can’t answer these questions? I could answer them. I’m not sure that I can answer them correctly. In fact I have had a history of answering them incorrectly. What do you mean by that? I have made plenty of plans that did not have you in them. I have made plans based on pleasure. I have made plans based on power. I have made plans based on prestige. All of these plans have not ended well. All of these plans have left me unsatisfied, unhappy and unfulfilled. I have known that I have been doing the wrong things for all the wrong reasons.

What do you want? I want to ask you some questions. Go ahead I’m listening. What’s your plan? What do you want to do with my life? What do you want to accomplish in my life in the short time that I have to live it? When we look back over my life together what would have to happen for us to know that my life was well spent? You have turned the table on me. That’s right. Why have you done that? What are you saying to me? I want to know you. I want to know and do your will. I have no interest in making plans without you. I have done enough of that already. I have wasted time and energy and resources doing what wasn’t in your plans for me to do. I want to go where you guide me. I want to do what you ask of me. I want to accomplish the work that you have given me to do for you. I want to bear fruit for your kingdom. I want to bring glory to your name. That is the only way that I will ever know that my life was well spent. So, I’m asking you to use my life for your purposes and according to your plan. That is what I want. That is what you want. That is what we want. Yes, it is.

Lord, I have made plans without seeking to know your will. I have chased after priorities other than knowing you and doing your will. How foolish have I been? Help me now to know you and do your will. Use my life for your purposes and according to your plans. Amen

For today’s complete 4 page Discipleship Devotional Study Guide click here:

Knowing God – James 4-13-16 – Making Plans – 4 Page Discipleship Devotional Study Guide

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