Pray BEFORE you Plan...

James

I've been reading in the book of James for the past three weeks, and after hearing a lecture on the last 3 chapters what convicted me the most (besides the whole part on guarding your tongue) was how we need to be careful what we say we will do.

James 3: 5

⁵ Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.

 This verse talks about how powerful our words are and how a small thing like a tongue could get us into a lot of trouble.  Keeping our mouths closed is a wise thing.  I once heard that owls are so wise because they have great big eyes to watch with and very small mouths to speak with.  We humans need to keep our words to a minimum or at least pray before we speak.

God convicted me of boasting about my plans.  I plan to do this that and the other thing.  Listen I am just wired to plan ahead and I don't think that is a bad thing, but I do think God wants me to stop, look, and listen to what HIS plans might be for my life and day!  I need to stop look and think about and even consider that I might have all these great plans for the future but that God might have something else in mind and therefore I might need to adjust my life or my way of thinking.

James 4: 7-10 says

⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

 I am learning that being a Christian means I need to submit to God...daily.  And that means giving God my plans and at the very least running them by Him.  What right do I have saying, "I plan to have 7 children!" when I have not even asked God about what He thinks I should do.  So often we plow ahead and make our plans without ever considering our heavenly father.  How prideful is that?  We are to be humble before God.

So often we make our plans and then pray...God is teaching me to PRAY before I plan.  I'm so thankful for this new thought because it has allowed me some freedom in worrying about the future and what God holds for us as a family, as far as homeschooling, and ministry, and more children.  God's plan is always 10 times better than my plan.  So I will be humbly asking Him to show me His plan instead of boasting about my own.  I want to boast about His plan!!!

James 4:13-16

¹³ 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.” ¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”