The New Year is His Year – EP37
James 4:13-14
"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."
Hello, and welcome to the One Thing podcast! Happy New Year to everyone who is listening. Today is January 2 of the year 2019, so now we're going to have to get used to writing that “9” at the end of our dating rather than an “8.” Praise God for a new time, a new year, and a new season.
One of the scriptures that I was reading this morning that had really touched my heart to share with all of you today is coming from the book of James, chapter 4, verses 13-15, and it says,
“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 we’re coming into the new year, what normally happens is everybody begins to make their new year's resolutions. It’s where people all throughout our nation are making promises to themselves, saying, “This year I'm going to lose weight. Starting tomorrow I'm going to change the way that I eat. This year I'm going to be better with money. I'm going to set myself this goal and I'm going to make sure I accomplish that goal.”
"He is the Lord, we simply come before him..."
Now, there's nothing wrong with goal setting. There’s nothing wrong with kind of planning things out, but it is truly the heart of the matter, and the scripture very clearly says here, “What is our life?” We don't even know if we will be here tomorrow. We know that in a moment we could be called back home to the Lord. In a moment, our life may be required from us.
So, what is the attitude of the Christian? What attitude has the Lord Jesus called us to? Not to have an attitude of assumption, where everyone is just assuming we're going to carry out our own plans, or maybe our own resolutions, whatever it may be. But, for those who know, who are in the Lord Jesus Christ, we know that there are no assumptions, only truth. What is the truth? That the Lord Jesus Christ is the King.
He is the Lord, and we simply come before Him going, “God, we begin this new year, this new day, ready to move with You, ready to walk as You are calling us to walk. And Lord, we don't know what tomorrow may bring. I don't know what this year may bring, but I know that You are God and You alone. So, my prayer, my plan, is simply that Your will will be done in my life. Whatever Your will may be, God, today we don't assume. We don't plan without You, but we plan with You, Father. We plan that Your will will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
"what a wonderful, joyful life knowing that it is the King we follow"Hallelujah! We’re beginning a new year, but may we begin this new year knowing that it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the King, declaring Him as such, ready to move in His will, and simply walk in the direction that He’s calling us to walk. What else shall we do as those in Christ? And what a wonderful, joyful life knowing that it is the King we follow, the King that will take care of us, that as we seek first His kingdom all other things will fall into place.
So, may of our prayer and our attitude simply be, “We will move as the Lord may allow in our lives.” We thank You, God, for Your mercy and for Your graciousness in our life. May your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!