James 4:14-15

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.

When we start off on the first hole, we have our minds set on playing either 9 or 18 holes. Most of the time we reach the end of the set goal without issue. However, sometimes unforeseen emergencies or a change in the weather force us to cut things short. We live our lives in similar fashion. We assume that we are warranted for a good 80 or maybe 90 years and make plans accordingly. We will graduate from a couple of institutions, get a good job, marry the love of our lives, have 2.5 children, work until 60, and then have those children take care of us during retirement. Sometimes these assumptions, expectations and desires are made to be our prayers without any consideration as to God’s plan. Confusion ensues when things do not happen according to our blueprint.

When I was younger, I was intrigued by our pastor when he pretexted everything with “Lord willing.” After a Sunday morning service, he would even give the happening of an evening service to “if it be the Lord’s will.” I thought to myself “what could possibly happen in six hours to change us not having church?” As I got older, I began to understand what can and will happen in the course of hours and even minutes. We have had March snow storms, power outages on a cloudless day, and sicknesses which have altered our assumed schedule of events.

We cannot take anything for granted or assume it is God’s will for all of our plans to come to fruition. When we pray for things to happen according to God’s will, it does not change the mind or sovereignty of God. By pretexting our plans and desires with “if it be the Lord’s will”, we indicate our desire to act in accordance and in the knowledge of His will or plan.

In Psalms 47:4, we are told that, “He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.” It is easy for us to try and choose our own inheritances, crosses, talents and blessings. Many emotional and financial stresses are created when we attempt to impose our will upon God. The quicker we accept God’s will as our own, the sooner we come to the realization that His plan is perfect and best for our life. Many of us have came upon an accident on the interstate and then reminded of the short delay which prevented us from getting on the road those couple of minutes on our “planned” departure. These realizations give us a great perspective of His plan.

A great contentment is realized when we are able to make God’s will and our desire the same. It is impossible to be fully contented solely with our own selfish desires. We have much experience in the times our life does not go according to our plan. There are delays, missing pieces, lost keys, sickness, and uncooperative people unto which we have placed dependence. If our will is disconnected from God’s will, heartache is inevitable.

By accepting and desiring God’s will, the believer is able live a contented life. When we ask for His will be done, we must be acceptance of this plan. Before we accepted Christ, our will was based upon our own worldly perception and dependence upon our own abilities. The convicting Spirit gave us the knowledge of our insufficiency. Let us desire this same leading and convicting Spirit as we live a dedicated life solely according to His plan.