“What is your life?”¹ James asked the churches who were going to be reading his letter. It’s an oddly worded question. He’s not asking What is the meaning of life? or What do you believe? for they knew the answer to those big questions. No. The question James asked was personal. He asked, What is your life like? What plans are you making for your life?

And so it becomes our question. What is our life like? What is the plan for our lives? We know how we are supposed to live. We know the right thing to do, and even when we do not, we can ask God for wisdom and he will give it to us generously and without a lecture!² Knowing the right thing to do is not the problem most of the time. The problem is that we make our plans without considering what God’s plan might be. James says when we leave God out of our planning, we are being arrogant, and arrogance is something God will not tolerate. Arrogance is boasting, and boasting is bragging. When we brag about our plans, we are acting as if we are in control of the future. And we are not! When we leave God out of the equation the best that can happen is that our accomplishments would be like drizzle, “a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes,”¹ because the only thing that lasts is God’s Word. Everything else fades away.  

What is the point, then? Why make plans? Are we even supposed to make plans? Of course, we are! It is good to have plans and goals ahead of us. That’s the whole point of the blogs that I post and podcasts that I produce – that we press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus! Yes, we need to make plans. The sin is not in making plans; the sin is to go about our lives as if we are God and, therefore, not include God. So, James says we are supposed to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that”?³ So, are we really supposed to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that”?  I don’t think so. James’s words here embody the essence of his message. He is emphasizing that because we do not know what the future holds, we must put our plans in God’s hands, and pray that God’s will will be done.  

But he is not saying that we should end every sentence with “If the Lord wills.” We cannot say to our friend, I’ll see you tomorrow for lunch at 12:30—if the Lord wills it. For if we are late or do not show at all, then we can always say it was the Lord’s will! Talking like that makes it impossible for anyone to dispute what we say! Acting that way means we can do no wrong!  We always have an out. We are not to act like anything we do is God’s will. That’s a prideful way to be.

That’s my first point about making plans: Do not boast about them. The second point is Do not make promises! What’s so wrong with that? Making promises is the first cousin to boasting! James says let our “yes be yes and our no be no.”⁴ Why? Promises are not necessary. There should be no need to say I really mean it this time! I promise.

God does not want our promises either. But we make them. We promise to do whatever God wants, if God would only give us what we want. That’s how we like to include God in our lives. That’s our plan! But God does not bargain. He does not cut deals. He does not want our promises or our sacrifices; he wants our obedience. God wants to be—not just a part of the plan—he wants to be the plan.

It sounds like we should only plan important things then, right? Yes! But we do not know what those are! We do not think like God. God can take a seemingly insignificant thing that we planned and turn it into a life-changing event. God is so great that he will insert his power into the smallest act of ours and suddenly our little plan can take on profound worth! When God works his plan into our plan, our lives are not a vapor after all. Our lives do count! Everything we do counts. And God is eternally at work turning even our bad plans into good plans and our good plans into great plans!

We need to make plans. Big plans. We are meant not to just do good things and not to just be good people. We are meant to do great things and be godly people. The answer to the question What is your life? is this: “He died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”⁵ And the second answer to the question What is your life? is this: “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”⁶

We need to stop living for ourselves. That’s a good plan. We need to live by faith. That’s a good plan.

¹James 4:14   ²James 1:5   ³James 4:15   ⁴James 5:12   ⁵2 Corinthians 5:15   ⁶Galatians 2:20