Boasting in Arrogance

James 4:13-16 (ESV)

Come now, you who say, “ Today or Pantoprazole sod Lg ally review dr 40 Vasotec side effects mg tab tomorrow we Right parietal lobe will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.”  Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.  What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.  Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”  As it is you boast in your arrogance.  All such boasting is evil.

This past Sunday we looked at this passage and let me tell you, it is convicting in so many ways.  It pointed out to me the many different areas of my life that I leave out the Lord.  I am a very self-reliant person.  I am confident in my abilities to achieve what I need or want in life.  This is not necessarily a bad thing but it can become a major stumbling block if I try to do things on my own.

What James is saying is that we need an attitude of humility in all things before the God who created us.  We need to seek the Lord in how we spend our time, money, relationships, and everything else.  There is no area that we should not recognize the Lord’s power and seek out His will.

I find it interesting the contrast that James brings out in the two statements made above.  In the first, the people speaking are assuming on everything all the way up to the outcome.  They will make a profit.  The statement James suggests assumes nothing.  The first statement assumes being alive while the second puts that in God’s hands.  Everything encompassed in living is in Gods hands and we need to recognize this.  Anything else is boasting in arrogance and God says this is sin.

So, no matter how trivial or important the decision, we must make it with humility, knowing that our very life and everything that makes it up is ultimately in the Lord’s hands.

Lord, please convict me of the areas of my life where I rely on myself instead of you and help me to change.  Teach me humility.

Brian