March 6, 2002
Tomorrow
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.” 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. Instead you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. James 4:13-16
How many times have I said tomorrow I am going to do something? I never realized that was boasting. Now, we have been told that doing such is evil. Therefore, we are responsible for how we say things and what we say. There is much more than this to this passage. In looking at verse 16 I see something that we don’t always think about. There are sins of commission, the things we do that we should not do. There are also sins of omission. These sins are often much more subtle and harder to recognize. To know something good you should do and not do it is a sin of omission. Now, what kind of things are we talking about here? Well, look at what is says about boasting and bragging. For one, we are now accountable for how we speak of tomorrow or today. To speak with bragging is sin. Now, we know that we are not to speak that way. This would be both a sin of omission and commission.
Let us look further at the sins of omission. How often have you felt the nudging of the Lord to send someone a card that says you care and did not do it? How often have you felt the urge to pray for someone and then forgot to pray? How often have you not spoken a word of encouragement? How often do we know someone who has a need, yet we do not even attempt to meet that need? Those are all sins of omission. There are so many sins that we could not possibly name them all or know what each one is. Therefore, we must rely on the blood of Jesus that he has shed to wash our sins away. Now, this does not mean to live as you choose to live. We are called to live holy lives, set apart. We are called to live in this world, not of this world. We are not to have anything to do with ungodly practices as we have been seeing. We are called to live as Jesus lived. Let him work in you this miracle to make you more and more like him.
Father, in Jesus name, forgive me for all the times I have spoken boastfully without knowing what I was doing. Lord forgive me for all those times when I have not done what was good. Lord I praise you that you are a forgiving God whose blood washes my sins away. I praise you for the perfect way you teach me. I praise you that you are cleansing me and making me more like Jesus. In Jesus name, we pray, amen!
All rights reserved: Amy Seelbach
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