The Lord willing and the Creek Don’t Rise
James 4:13-17 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. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
When I was very young it was not uncommon to hear someone say in response to an invitation, “I’ll be there, the Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.” I have to believe such a response was because of this scripture in James.
I have never considered answering in the affirmative about keeping an appointment to be boasting. Instead, we simply take for granted that tomorrow we will awaken and go on with our daily activities. But James seems to think it is presumptuous to make assertions about our lives.
James finishes by saying if anyone knows good but doesn’t do it, it is sin. So, inaction is equated to wrong actions. I think this gives us some insight into how God thinks. We are judged not just by our actions, but by failing to act according to God’s Word.
May we follow God’s Word faithfully as we continue on the pathway of holiness.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Seeking Holiness 