“13 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.’ 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’ 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” James 4:13-17
In 1970, I was on Summer Staff in Hyannis, Massachusetts. with CRU, formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ. During the day, I worked as a carpenter, building a house overlooking the beautiful, serene Pocasset Bay. In the evenings I attended Bible Studies and Evangelism Training classes, before I went out on the main drag of Hyannis and engaged in street witnessing. Every Friday night our team rented the VFW Hall and held an evangelistic rally.
It was a great summer, as we reached out to young people visiting this resort area, from all over the country during the height of the Jesus Revolution. One night during the Bible Study session, I received from one of the instructors the best definitions of sin, I have ever heard.
“Sin is blasting through life, politely ignoring God.”
This statement defines polite, pompous “piousity” posing as piety. Prayerlessness is sinfulness.
When you are too proud to ask The Father for His sense of direction, His promise of protection and His hand of correction, you are full of yourself, not Him. When Jesus prayed, He stayed in prayer until His will was in line with His Father’s will. Follow His lead.
“Not My will, but Thy will be done.” Luke 22:42
This is the point of prayer. Anything less is sin. When James warns you to take prayer seriously, he identifies the cause for breathing your own ether…wait for it…PRIDE.
“You are just a vapor that appears for a little while…You ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills.”
Sound familiar? It should. Jesus prayed this way. Any diversion from the prayer life of Jesus will lead you to the perversion of prayer in your life. Get over yourself.
“You boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.”
NOTE TO SELF: “All such boasting is evil.” Not some. ALL. You make God laugh with all your plans, and instructions that you place before Him and then call it prayer. Prayer is more about you listening to The Father, than it is informing Him of your plans for shaping the world to your image. Knowing the right thing to do, and not doing it is sin. Stop ignoring God. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!