Reflexively including God in our planning and goals is a great relationship builder – with Jesus.  See the column below.  

On a personal note, today I’m remembering minister and friend Russ Blowers, whose funeral was 15 years ago, Nov. 15, 2007.  The unexpected bright side that day was that I met my wife Pam there – she playing tympani in the brass ensemble, and I was a pall bearer.  I wrote about it back in 2021, columns 763, 764, and 765, which are easily searched in the white box in the upper left hand corner, just above). - Bob

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Spirituality Column #835

November 15, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Lord Willing

By Bob Walters

“… you ought to say, ‘if it is the Lord’s will we will live and do this or that.’” – James 5:15

I’ve always over-simplified this seemingly straight-forward passage, “Lord willing!” and confined it to sort of begging God’s approval for what I plan to do.

“See you tomorrow!” Or, “Let’s meet for lunch Tuesday.”  I reflexively, piously, and maybe quasi-reverently say, “Lord willing,” the same way I reflexively pray, “In Jesus’s name,” without thinking through all the depth involved.

The key thing I tend to miss in saying “Lord willing” is that I’m really thinking about my plans, not God’s will.  Yes, “Lord willing” is a perfunctory nod to God’s will, and in most simple, routine planning, it’s not a terrible habit.

However, the large point here is not just identifying and nodding to God’s will as we plan, but truly including God’s will in all things that we intend.  This general epistle credited to James, the brother of Jesus and first head of the Jerusalem church, is for Christ-believing Jews in the mid-first century, here focusing on business and money. 

Jews were long noted for their trading and financial acumen, and James is telling these new Christian believers to include God and the lessons of Christ in their business planning, beyond what they had known and practiced from the Law.

And what, now, was new?  God’s love, mercy, forgiveness, grace, personal sacrifice, humility, and the totality of His presence through the example of Jesus.  How they acted in business and elsewhere was now their witness for Christ. 

James was driving that point home.  Christian faith encrypted a whole new way of looking at life: they were now, through Christ, not a sinful and rebellious nation but forgiven heirs of God.  They – we – must act like it.

The Law, remember, laid out specific times and places for doing things.  There was none of that in Christianity.  Jesus had declared He was the Sabbath – i.e., He was to be honored at all times and in all places, not just on a given day and or a given place.  The New Testament says nothing about festivals or temples (except our bodies).

Jesus is with us always, and He sent the Holy Spirit to assure us of His abiding presence.  When we are with Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, we are in the Sabbath – the peace, love, and presence of God. 

Early Christians celebrated the first day of the week as The Lord’s Day, commemorating Jesus’s resurrection.  And for 2,000 years the church – on Sunday not Saturday – has more or less co-opted the idea of continuing the “seventh day of rest” described in Genesis and called for in Mosaic Law.  But Sunday isn’t the Sabbath.

Where the fourth commandment, “keep holy the Sabbath,” means a specific day to the Jews; that’s how the Law works.  In Christ “keep holy the Sabbath” means keeping Jesus in our hearts, minds, souls, spirits, and planning … all the time. 

That means living in and witnessing to the grace and integrity of our Lord moment to moment, season to season, and year to year.  The sacrifice He wants from us isn’t dependent on a law or code, it is the perpetual entirety of our lives and love.

Jesus is with us all the time … if we want Him there. 

Lord willing, we do.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) generally still seems to recognize God’s will after something has happened rather than with the prophetic discerning of God’s will in advance.  It keeps life interesting, that’s for sure.