THE SIN OF PRESUMPTION

James 4:13-16 says, "Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapour that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil."

Planning is good, normal, and healthy but when planning becomes presumption, we have encroached into ‘sin territory’. When things don’t go our way, we become angry and bitter with God but, if we recognize that God is in control and we are not, it is much easier to be flexible and malleable to the plans of God as they unfold. We must become wise stewards of time, energy, and resources. God loves that! BUT DO NOT IMPOSE YOUR WILL ON GOD!

Each day we need to seek our Lord for daily provision!

The key is that we cannot presume upon certain future events unfolding in our lives on earth when we make our decisions today. We are not God, and such thinking is pure arrogance.

The key is that we must retain an attitude in our hearts which says, "If the Lord wills" (c.f. Paul in Acts 18:21). This is a humble, proper attitude before a Sovereign Lord.

(Caution: This does not mean you have to say "if the Lord wills" after everything we say or plan to do. It is not some magical charm as if there is power in the words!)

What God is after is a heart attitude that does not presume which would otherwise cause us to boast in our own power and self-sufficiency. He wants hearts that acknowledge that He is over all things. God wants us to yield to His plans and purposes for our lives, whether at home, at work, at school, or anywhere/anytime!

This is one of the predominant ways in which we fulfil God’s command in Proverbs 3:6 to acknowledge God in all of our ways. Then surely God will direct our paths. He will take us where He knows we ought to go if we let Him. God opposes the arrogant (James 4:6) but gives grace to the humble, to those who seek His will and yield to His leading.