Ever heard this phrase: “Man proposes, but God disposes?” The phrase is centuries old, apparently occurring first in Thomas à Kempis’ 15th century classic, The Imitation of Christ. And you will find it in a number of other places. In fact, if you do a Google Image search on the phrase “Man proposes, but God disposes” you will be directed to the above photo, a 19th century oil-on-canvas painting by the English Painter Edwin Landseer.
In the painting Landseer depicts the aftermath of a ship lost in the arctic sea and the ensuing disappearance of 129 men, explorers who had sailed in 1864 in search for the Northwest Passage. The ship and the men disappeared into the arctic ice. Man proposes, God disposes.
The idea is that man may plan the events or the course of his life, but the God who is sovereign will do as He believes best. Even the JB Phillips paraphrase of the verses of our study contains this heading above the verses: “It is still true that man proposes, but God disposes.” Here is how James puts it in James 4:13-17:
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;
14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
God’s sovereignty precludes our presumption. This really is at the heart of what James is teaching in these verses. Most pressing on his mind is the presumptuous planning of Christian merchants, but his warning applies universally to all people in all times and in all situations: God’s sovereignty precludes man’s presumption. Solomon put it this way in Proverbs 16:9, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”
Let us turn now to James’ text and examine it more closely, noting no fewer than three facts about life.
**Three facts about life…
Life Consists of Uncertainty
This first point is unmistakably present in the words of James. He cautions: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit…”
James has in mind primarily Christian merchants or businessmen, men who travel and trade goods and services for profit. We may picture a man unfurling a huge map, flattening it out on a table and pointing to various places of interest where he hopes to go in order to “buy and sell, and make a profit.”
On the surface there is nothing wrong with this kind of thinking and planning. We all plan events and give thought to the days ahead in terms of what we will do or what we hope to accomplish. There’s nothing wrong with having a day timer or using the calendars on our computers or smartphones. In fact, because God is an orderly God, there is something of our mirroring our Creator when we plan our days and structure our lives. Created in God’s image, our orderliness reflects the glory and grandeur of an orderly God.
Planning the future is not the problem. What then is the problem? Fundamentally, it is the problem of presumption. It is the brazen and arrogant way we may plan our days and events as though we were in charge of everything and that everything we plan will come to pass.
A key to understanding what is wrong in verse 13 is to consider not so much what is said but what is not said. The key to understanding what is wrong with the speaker’s presumptive boast in verse 13 is to consider what he leaves out—or better, who he leaves out.
How much of our own lives do we live or plan without giving so much as a thought to God’s plans?
When you read verse 13, do you see any reference at all to the One True and Living God? No. There is no mention of Him. And lest we become too critical, how much of our own lives do we live or plan without giving so much as a thought to God’s plans?
The futility of presumptuous planning is especially proven by the next verse: “whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow…”
James sounds a bit like Solomon: “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth (Proverbs 27:1).”
Who knows what tomorrow holds? Life is full of uncertainties. This truth can actually liberate us from so much fretting about and losing our temper when things don’t go “our” way. Belief in the sovereignty of God—that God is absolutely in control and is overseeing all events for His glory and our good—means we may rest assured He is doing what is best. The Christian knows that God always does what is right, every single time without exception.
Frankly, the fact that we do not know what tomorrow holds is nothing short of a profound mercy of God. I’m not sure I want to know the future! Thankfully, God knows what we can handle and what we can’t handle. He knows for our own good whether to give or to withhold a happy providence. He also knows exactly when to unveil a trying or difficult circumstance meant to grow us and conform us to greater Christlikeness (Romans 8:29). God knows best and always acts rightly.
Life consists of uncertainty. Second fact of life:
Life is Characterized by Frailty
This is such a humbling truth! We are not as strong as we may think. James asks and then answers a question worthy of sober reflection: “…For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a time and then vanishes away.”
The Greek word translated “vapor” here is an old word meaning “mist.” It’s the word from which we get our English word “atmosphere.” Our lives are like that evanescent misty steam rising from our morning coffee. We see it but for a moment and then it is gone.
How foolish that we should speak so presumptuously about our plans for the future when our lives are so fragile, so fleeting, so frail.
How foolish that we should speak so presumptuously about our plans for the future when our lives are so fragile, so fleeting, so frail.
Of course this does not mean we are to live our lives dejectedly, consigning ourselves to the fatalism of a meaningless existence. That is not what James is teaching! Quite the contrary: created in God’s image we have real meaning and purpose. God has designed us to live our lives for His glory and when we live for Him we experience life on the most joyous level possible.
James gives us what we ought to say instead of boasting of our self-made, self-determined plans. Rather than saying, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit,” James argues, “Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
“If the Lord wills.” That’s how we are to speak: “If the Lord wills, I will be alive tomorrow.” Pretty humbling, right? So someone invites you to go somewhere, imagine you reply: “If the Lord allows me to live.” Sounds kind of morose, doesn’t it?!
I’m not sure that James actually means we are to say these exact words every time, but I do believe he wants us to think this way every time. We are to be thinking this way, deep down in our hearts, knowing that our lives are full of uncertainties. We will only do this or that if the Lord permits.
The Apostle Paul thought this way. We see evidence of it in his first letter to the Corinthians. He writes, “I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills (1 Corinthians 4:19),” and, “I hope to stay awhile with you, if the Lord permits (1 Corinthians 16:7).”
This is a healthy and humbling way of thinking: “If the Lord permits” or, “Lord willing.” Christians of earlier generations would often conclude their letters with something of their plans and then append the Latin phrase, Deo Volente, God permitting.
Our lives are characterized by so much uncertainty and frailty. No one knows for certain what’s going to happen tomorrow or in the next few hours. This truth takes us to the final fact of life:
Life Calls for Humility
It is the obvious response. The cure for presumptuous thinking, planning, and living is humility before God. James bemoans the lack of humility in his hearers: “But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”
Rather than saying, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that,” the arrogant, prideful, if even “successful” businessman boasts, “I’m going to go and do this or that and make a profit,” leaving God’s sovereignty entirely out of the equation.
James says in verse 16, “You boast in your arrogance” and, “All such boasting is evil.” The man who “boasts in his arrogance” is like the popular mountebank portrayed in old Western movies. You know the character: he’s the fellow who has a cart full of various elixirs, nostrums, and potions. He jumps up on a soapbox and begins to boast about how he can cure this and fix that. And he can do nothing of the sort. He’s a charlatan.
But we are no different when we “boast in our arrogance,” planning the business trip without bathing it in prayer, seeking companionship without seeking God first, or preparing for a career without ever considering how God may be glorified in it. “All such boasting,” warns James, “is evil.”
So James concludes: “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” He is addressing what is frequently called a sin of omission. Most of us are aware of sins of commission, deliberate sins, the active doing of something we know to be wrong.
Sins of omission, on the other hand, are those occasions where we remain passive, leaving undone the things we ought to do. To quote James again: “to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
Given the immediate context James is saying, “If you fail to humble yourselves and you continue to speak and act presumptuously, leaving God out of your thinking and planning, you have sinned.”
Life consists of uncertainty and is characterized by frailty. Therefore, life calls for humility.
“Given what James teaches in these verses, how can I practice humility this week?”
Let us conclude our study by asking a practical question: “Given what James teaches in these verses, how can I practice humility this week?” Consider three ways:
1) You are weak and fragile, so trust God with your life
Remember that you depend upon Him for everything. Everything. Food, clothing, shelter, rest. Our lives are a vapor, a mist, here for a moment and gone. We must depend upon God for everything.
2) You don’t know everything, so trust God with your plans
“Remember James warns: “You do not know what will happen tomorrow.” Be humble: You don’t know everything. You don’t know the future.
Never forget that not knowing the future is as much a mercy of God as a mystery of God. God knows what we can handle and when we can handle it. He knows for our own good whether to give or withhold information. He is always working, growing us and conforming us to greater Christlikeness. God knows best and always acts rightly.
So don’t worry about the future and trust God with your plans.
3) You can’t keep breathing forever, so trust God with your soul
This is a clear and blunt conclusion given James’ teaching in these verses. Because our lives are like the evaporating steam rising from our morning coffee, we ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live…”
Ultimately, God alone keeps us living. Ultimately, God alone keeps us breathing. How foolish we are if we do not trust Him with our soul and live for His glory.
I saw an image once in an online article that gripped me. The story was about efforts to revive someone whose heart had stopped beating. What struck me was the image: a couple of doctors or nurses standing over a man who was lying motionless on a gurney. One of the doctors was holding defibrillator paddles above the patient as though he had just tried to shock the patient’s heart into beating again.
What was so gripping about the image was the look on the faces of the doctors as they stood over the patient. They stood motionless, their eyes fastened to the heart monitor, waiting to see whether the man’s heart would start beating. Their frozen posture indicated that they had done all that was humanly possible to revive the man. There was nothing more they could do except watch to see whether the man’s heart would beat again.
That image is a memorable reminder that ultimately God alone keeps our hearts beating. God alone keeps us living and breathing.
Many of us grew up praying a certain bedtime prayer. The words have changed a bit over time. We now teach our children to pray it this way:
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
Guide me safely through the night,
and wake me with the morning light.
It’s not a bad prayer. I used it myself when raising my boys. But as I’ve grown older I have gained a greater appreciation for the prayer I was taught when I was small:
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
And If I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
I think that prayer is more honest, more humble in its petition. I believe it conveys a far better understanding of, and appreciation for, the God who is sovereign over the affairs of men—including His sovereignty over our very souls.
You are not going to go on breathing forever, so trust your soul to God. See you tomorrow, Deo volente…
What About You?
- What part does God play in your plans for the remainder of the week?
- How can you use this passage when sharing the gospel?
- How many sins of omission did you commit last week? Last hour? What does this teach about the human condition and our need for a Savior?
Gersom Clark
Another similar verse is Proverbs 19:20-21.