Our scripture this morning is James 4:13-17.
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.
This is a very convicting passage for me. I have failed to do the right thing many times in my life. Thankfully, we worship a forgiving God, who rather than punishment for sinners, desires them to return to be made whole again.
James tells us “Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin”. We can know right from wrong by accepting Jesus as our savior, studying the word of God, being in fellowship with other Christians, and following the example we have been given. We can then go in His name to share the joy of redemption with all the world.
God wants all of us as part of His loving family. He refuses no one, but we can exclude ourselves by our thoughts, words and actions. If we turn to Him in repentance, earnestly wanting to change our lives, we can be free from the sin that is sadly so abundant in our world.
Loving Lord, we are sorry for our selfish and often thoughtless actions. Help us to see what You want for us and what we are called to do in Your kingdom. Amen.
