Morning Moments

JAMES Devotional Outline

I. Wisdom's Wealth - Chapter 1
II. Worthwhile Works - Chapter 2
III. Wholesome Words - Chapter 3
IV. Worldly Ways - Chapter 4
A. Conflict 4:1
B. Covetousness 4:2-3
C. Compromise 4:4-10
D. Criticism 4:11-12
E. Consumption 4:13-17

4:13. Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14. 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. 15. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. 16. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. 17. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

I use the word "consumption" because our lives seem to be based upon consumption these days. We consume fuel, food, finances, and just about everything else at a rate never before known to man. Sometimes we are not sure how it could be Friday because it was just Monday yesterday it seems. We are fast paced people and live as though tomorrow is a certainty. God wants us to know that there is more to life than consumption.

These verses are simply telling us not to be presumptuous. Life, as smoke over a fire lingers a little while then leaves. We may make all kinds of plans only to discover that our plans vanish with many of our dreams. The important thing about life (of faith) is "doing good" which is very simply living out the faith we profess.

We have become masterful at living the flesh life, even as believers. We measure success by what we attain and obtain, but God measures it by how we remain and sustain. We see life as acquiring, but God sees it as abiding. I love the way Andrew Murray puts it in one of his illustrations. In essence, he says the branch does work up a sweat to produce fruit, it just abides in the vine and the vine produces the fruit through the abiding branch.

As a young preacher it used to aggravate the stew out of me that some of my older godly mentors didn't move with more haste. Yet I found them to be more productive. I learned over time to watch nature a bit more closely and by so doing I observed that the most beautiful things in nature take the longest time to produce and usually the production comes through the cold, the wind, the rain, and the sun.

The other day I was driving and the guy behind me was in such a hurry. When he got the opportunity to pass, he flew by me in a cloud of dust. The interesting thing was that when I reached the traffic light, I pulled up beside him, looked over and smiled. He got there first but had to wait longer. It is a good lesson to learn.

Think of it this way: I have always been in a hurry, but cancer came and changed all that drastically. First it was prostate and then it was duodenal. I almost wish it had happened to me years ago, but better late than never. I learned what I thought I knew but didn't practice - It is not how much one can do in little time but how one handles the myriads of things that distract us from the little time we have. Just ABIDE! Move with God and not without Him. Why look for tomorrow when you can't see today? As we live and breathe, let us "Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecc 12:13).

BLESSINGS!