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Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:15)

As the father and the husband, the wife, and mother, or a single Christian, male or female, we have dreams of the kind of work we want to do, the type of job, church life, or family life. This is perfectly fine; James is simply recommending that God be at the forefront of any decisions we make. James wants us to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” This does not mean that everything that we think, do, feel, or believe in our life is the will of God because we are imperfect humans, and we are living in a wicked world that is ruled by Satan, the Devil. This is not to say that human weaknesses, a fallen world, or Satan can foil God’s will. It means that we will not perfectly follow the Lord’s will at every moment of our life. If we did, we would be perfect.

Being imperfect humans, who are ‘mentally bent toward evil,’ possessing a deceitful heart that is desperately sick, and a natural desire for wrongdoing, we can do but one thing. We need to heed the following verses,

Matthew 7:21-23 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

²¹“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²²On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.’

1 John 2:15-17 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

¹⁵Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. ¹⁷The world is passing away, and its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

How are we to know the will of God? We do so through the inspired, fully inerrant Word of God. If we have a biblical worldview and we follow Scripture, interpreting it correctly, we will do the will of the Father. What we do not want to do is to adopt some cliché, repeatedly saying, ‘If the Lord wills it.’ This makes it superstitious, some routine or habit, which is using it to be noticed by others. This becomes insincere or phony and a mockery of the principle behind James’ words. We need not say it out loud but know in our heart of hearts that we seek God’s will and purposes in every decision in life, and when we fail to do so in a case of human weakness, we will correct it most of the time when it comes to our attention.

Instead you ought to say. Instead of doing our will and purposes, doing what we have been doing, we need to instead realize our absolute dependence on the will and purposes of God. Every one of our lives and accomplishments is subject to his will. Now, we need to offer a warning and word of caution here. Many Christians confuse their will with the will of God. They simply make their choice and then say, ‘it is God’s will for me’ or ‘I am doing the will of God.’ How then are we to know what the will of God is? It is simple, (1) apply what the Bible says into your life, (2) live by the Bible, and (3) if what you are doing isn’t biblical; then, examine yourself. Does our job consume so many hours of our time, or do we have so many obligations on our time that we do not have time for God? Do we have time for (1) family, (2) all church services, (3) the time to study and prepare for those services, (4) personal Bible study, (5) family Bible study, and (6) proclaiming, (7) teaching the good news to make disciples?

If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. The marks of a true Christian would be like the different lines that make up a person’s fingerprint, a print that cannot belong to any other person. The true Christians contain their own unique grouping of marks, forming a positive “fingerprint” that cannot belong to any other person.

Are we sure that we are truly walking in the truth? What kind of self-examination is fitting for servants of God? The Apostle Paul exhorted the Christians at Corinth to “examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” (2 Cor. 13:5) Why should Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians be of interest to us? We can do the same today. It will protect us from being uncertain about whether we are walking in the truth. What standard do we have for testing whether we are in the faith, and why is that the perfect standard? If we are going to take a test to see whether we are truly in the faith, namely, truly walking with God, we must measure our conduct while considering the Word of God.

William Lange Craig wrote, “Remember that our faith is not based on emotions, but on the truth, and therefore you must hold on to it.” What truth? Jesus said to the Father in prayer, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth .” (John 17:17) By identifying the Scriptures that actually say, “You are my disciples if …,” we can know if we are truly Christian. A test that can actually tell us whether we are walking in the truth should never be based on emotionalism but instead on Scripture. Do our words, thoughts, actions, mind, and heart attitudes harmonize with the Scriptures? Within this publication, we will be able to let the Word of God prove who we really are. Let us follow the Apostle Paul’s counsel by testing ourselves to determine whether we adhere to God’s Word.