TEXT TO REFLECT ON
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
JAMES 4:13 – 16
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
JAMES 5:17 – 18
REFLECT
This is one of life’s greatest paradoxes: that we are as insignificant and ephemeral as a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes, yet having such an audience with God that God would alter the course of nature in response to our prayers. This reality is so extreme that few, if any, of us is able to grasp either of the extremities of this truth.
We find it hard to accept that we are nothing more than a passing mist. To us, the progressions in our lives are so important. Within our lifetime, we earn degrees in education, rise in the ranks of our professions, moving from mere employees to supervisors and then to managers and then directors. Each promotion no small feat. We advance in levels of opulence, upgrading from a small flat to a larger one, and then perhaps to landed property. Our status and standing in society trends upwards as we reach the pinnacle of our social standing. It would be understating the importance of our lives to describe it as a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. In our striving for significance and recognition, it is near impossible to grasp the idea that we are little more than nothing.
Yet the truth is that we have hardly any control over our destinies. We may be able to make some choices in life, but that hardly counts as control. I did not choose the country nor the family to be born into. The school in which I spent 12 years and which played a large part in my future career was chosen because it was affiliated to the church that my parents happened to worship in. Even my early career as a lawyer and the subsequent switch to becoming a pastor was the consequence of a chain of events that I had little control over. As I look back over the 62 years of my life, it is clear to me that I had little control over my destiny. As a Christian, I see it as God charting my life. If I were not a Christian, I would have concluded that I am a mere punctuation in the history books.
On the other hand, it is equally inconceivable that God would alter nature in response to my prayers. James argues that “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours”, implying that God would do for us what He did for Elijah if we would trust God as Elijah did. Elijah was known for the miracles that he performed. James wanted his readers to know that Elijah was an ordinary person, not unlike any of us. The implication being that we too can perform miracles if we pray. This truth is so hard to grasp as well. Really? That God will work miracles in response to our prayers?
So we are presented with two truths that are hard to grasp: one, that we are really nothing and have no control over our destinies, and two, that God will alter nature in response to our prayers. And putting the two together makes it even harder to grasp.
And yet, it makes perfect sense. It is only when we accept the reality that we are not in control of our destinies, and throw ourselves into the arms of God and at His mercy, that we discover how much God loves us and how important we are to God. On our own strength and merit, we are really nothing. Nothing of our accolades and achievements amount to anything. We are like mist in the morning. Yet, to God, we are precious beyond anything we can understand. He loves us not for the reasons that we can understand. Certainly not for our abilities or achievements, nor social standing. He loves us for reasons only God knows. Our task is not to understand, for that is beyond us. Our task is to believe and receive. If God says I am His beloved and that He will listen to, and answer my prayers, then I shall speak and I shall pray.
REST
TRUST AND OBEY
1. When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
o Refrain:
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
2. Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.
3. Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth richly repay;
Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross,
But is blessed if we trust and obey.
4. But we never can prove the delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favour He shows, for the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.
5. Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet,
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way;
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey.
Trust and Obey by John H Sammis 1887
Chiu Ming Li
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