2. Jas 4:13-17 Look here, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.“ (14) How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog - it's here a little while, then it's gone. (15) What you ought to say is, "If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that." (16) Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil. (17) Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. False Confidence
6. Luk 15:11-20 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: "A man had two sons. (12) The younger son told his father, 'I want my share of your estate now before you die.' So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. (13) "A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. (14) About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. False Confidence
7. Luk 15:11-20 (15) He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. (16) The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything. (17) "When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, 'At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! (18) I will go home to my father and say, "Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, False Confidence
8. Luk 15:11-20 (19) and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant."' (20) "So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. False Confidence
11. His Goal Blessing vs Relationship Principles vs Companionship Seek Him First Mat 6:33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. False Confidence
13. James 1: 23-27 For if you listen to the word and don't obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. (24) You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. (25) But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. False Confidence
Editor's Notes
Does God want us to be fatalistic or afraid of the future? Does He want us to take no risks but to rather just not dream? No, to be confident is good. Confidence is a product of faith but true confidence is not independence but knowing our need for Him.
The prodigal son made an error when he predicted for himself a good future based on the incorrect assumptions. He thought that the blessing he was enjoying was founded in either himself or was his right and therefore he assumed that he could do whatever he wished and he would still have it.
He looked in the mirror through prideful eyes and saw a false image of himself. Yes he had the potential to be the eagle but that potential lay not in himself independent of his father.
In our humanity we can easily come to be at odds with God because we do not seek what He seeks. His goal for us is blessing but that blessing is secondary to His highest goal which is relationship. We so easily divorce Him from His principles. God picks us up out of the dust and by teaching us His principles lifts us up on puts us on our feet. Once we gain confidence in our new found freedom and blessing we then often make the mistake of thinking that we can do this on our own. We think the blessing lies in the principles and that all we need is to understand them and to live by them. While the principles to carry blessing, their true power is in Him, our prize is not blessing but it is relationship. We don’t have to choose between the two, it is more a matter of priority. We seek Him first the blessing follows.
We can be at odds with God or be aligned with Him by making our way His way or His way our way. We have to change, we have to discover how our way is different from His way and change.
God’s word is a magic mirror that reveals to us the true state of our hearts. If you gaze upon it with pride, thinking you do not need Him, it will show you your imperfections. Jesus is the only perfect One, by gazing on Him we see our faults clearly. If we gaze upon the mirror with lowliness, fully aware of our failings and sin it will show you what God plans for you. It will show you the possibilities in Him. Jas 1:23-27 For if you listen to the word and don't obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. (24) You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. (25) But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. (26) If you claim to be religious but don't control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. (27) Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.