Do you really mean ‘God willing’ when you say it?

This month we are considering “respectable sin” number seven – playing God – (or as my autocorrect preferred: playing golf !).

James 4v13-14 says: “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.”

This is probably the most innocent looking symptom of all our adulterous dealings: the way we plan our lives.

“Come on, James!” you may say. “This is pushing it too far. Surely how I plan my day isn’t a symptom of anything sinister – is it? What’s wrong with a bit of forward planning?”

Well, let’s remind ourselves of the root of our sin. Cast your minds back to Genesis 3. As he chats with Eve, Satan makes it sound so attractive to shake off the confines of God’s restrictive ruling. How? By tempting her to doubt God’s goodness. To make her believe she knows better and go for self-rule.

And that is what every single human who has ever lived has done – except the Lord Jesus. We do the opposite of faith:

• We don’t trust God – we think He is lying or mean or just plain wrong.

• We then play God – thinking we know what is best for us.

• We disobey God and do whatever we like to suit ourselves.

Now we have seen over these past months that James has addressed this as he has uncovered my double-mindedness – in the way I think too highly of myself, shown in the way I speak and act towards others.

James now says this arrogant boasting is revealed in my attitude towards my life and how I use my time. “It’s my life. I can order it as I please. That is my right – to choose what I do and when.”

James says No! Who do you think you are? You are but a mist. Here today; gone tomorrow. You have no clue what tomorrow holds for you. I’m sure when Elon Musk got out of bed on 6 June 2025 he had no idea Tesla shares would plunge by 14% erasing $150 billion off their market value. He probably would have stayed in bed. There are echoes here of Jesus’ story of the rich farmer. “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”

We play God when we leave Him out of the picture and confidently plan our lives without reference to Him, as if we are in charge. As Christians, we know it is God who should be at the centre of our lives. That is His right. Remember how James describes himself in chapter 1v1 – a slave of God and Jesus Christ. When we turn and follow Christ we give up the option to run and ruin our own life. This is what it means to be a slave of Christ.

James continues in chapter 4v15-17: “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 in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”

Now, we know James isn’t saying you can’t put a foot outside your bed in the morning without divine guidance. But he is challenging whether we commit the little and the big decisions to the Lord in prayer, whether we are always conscious that the seconds, the hours, the days, the years of our life belong to him … that we have no idea what tomorrow holds.

Our life is a gift from God – it’s not ours to boast and brag about. James is questioning whether we are mindful of this as we go about our daily business.

So, here’s the challenge. Does God get a vague nod at the fag-end of your day, a sort of checking in as you drop off to sleep: “O Lord! Didn’t I do well? Maybe catch you tomorrow at some point.”

Or are you mindful of your Lord as you plan your day? Your work? Your spending? Your saving? Your investing? Your travelling? Your leisure? Do you say “God willing” and actually mean it?