Series: Life Hacks for Tough Times & Rough Relationships
Week 7: Boasting
I can make plans; I just can’t make them happen. James is going to help us understand: Only God can make plans and make them happen.
James 4:13-17. We can make plans; we just can’t make them happen. James doesn’t tell us not to make plans; but not to exclude God from our plans. Breakdown of verse 13: We can think that we are on our (1) own time (today or tomorrow), (2) own direction (we will go), (3) own location (this or that city), (4) own enterprise (carry on business), and (5) own goal (make money). This is all unknown, but you can start to think that you are your own person, and that you are on your own.
The consequences of excluding God from your plans: Talk the Lie, Believe the Lie, Boast the Lie, Live the Lie, Die without God.
James 4:14 reminds us that we are just a mist. 166,324 people die every day. We have a 100% chance of dying. Do you ever struggle with living your life with a focus on the fact that you do not have control over your plans, or even over your own life?
Need to Know: 2 Life Truths
- What is unknown: your future. (Only God knows the future.)
- What is known: you are fragile. (Only God has all power.)
… so when you get these wrong, you are pretending to be GOD.
James 4:15-17. We are all at risk of raising our fragile greatness above God’s forever greatness. This week’s Life Hacks focused on what we need to do to remind us of what we know: our fragility.
3 Life Hacks:
- Give credit where it’s due. (James 1:17) Where do you take God’s credit? Where do you tend to take God’s credit when it’s due Him? Do you realize how much credit we take for what God has done here on earth?
- Pray through work plans. When Jesus was asked who he was, he phrased it within the context of his God-given purpose. He came to seek and to save. Jesus took time to pray. Why? Because his purpose was to do what God wanted, and he couldn’t do what God wanted unless he knew what God wanted, which he discovered through prayer. Because of the work of Christ on the cross, we can be just as intimate with our Father as Jesus was.
In Philippians 4. “Don’t be anxious for anything.” Well, now, why wouldn’t you be? If I don’t know the future, why wouldn’t I be anxious? Supernaturally move things in heaven to move things on earth. That kind of that practical prayer moves the hand of God to move things on earth. So go engage. Prayer in the most practical area of planning in your work.
- Talk like you’re dying vs. as if you are Divine.
Ernie Johnson won Emmy for sportscaster. When he gave the acceptance speech, he thanked many people. Then right at the end, he gave thanks to his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. A few years before he received that Emmy, he was sitting at lunch and in the course of the conversation Ernie was asked, “What are you going to do with the offer of God? You’re either going to be proud before God and boast about yourself, or you’re going to be humble. And boast about Him.”
Ephesians 2:1- 10. You have two choices:
| Boast in Yourself | Boast in God |
| Full of Pride | Humble |
| Deny God | Believe in God |
| Reject God’s Offer | Receive Christ |
What will you do with the offer of God? You know you don’t control the future. It’s in God’s hands. You know that you’re fragile. And if you apply that to the whole of life, you’re either going to remain proud or you’re going to humble yourself. What will you do with the offer of God?