Statements about God’s sovereignty litter the pages of the Bible, with some going down to the smallest of details. Just one example is Jesus saying: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father” (Matt. 10:29). And if a sparrow doesn’t die outside of “the will of your Father,” what about all the things that happened to you today or yesterday? How would they escape God’s will?

I want you to stop and consider something for a moment.

Reflect on today and recall what happened to you, the things you did, and the experiences you had. If it’s early for you right now, substitute yesterday for today and do the same thing.

All done? Now let me ask you: would any of that have happened had God not willed that it would?

I’d wager that the vast majority of us, whether Christian or not, believe we’re mostly in control of what goes on in our lives. We call the shots, make the decisions, and determine the outcomes we experience.

But James warns us this is an arrogant way to live because it omits the fact there’s a sovereign God who’s behind everything we see and don’t see. James says: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that’” (James 4:13–15).

Re-read that last verse and ask yourself, what does James mean when he says, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that?” What happens if the Lord isn’t willing?

I suppose James could just be making a general, high-level statement about us not forgetting about including the idea of God in whatever we plan or do. Perhaps he’s just reminding us about something that Paul said: “whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

Maybe. But as you read through Scripture, you see this “Lord willing” statement add up to something more.

For example, Paul told the Ephesian Christians, “I will come back if it is God’s will” (Acts 18:21); he told those in Rome, “now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you” (Rom. 1:10); he told the Corinthians, “I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing” (1 Cor. 4:19); he promised the believers in Corinth to spend some time with them “if the Lord permits” (1 Cor. 16:7). The writer of Hebrews told his audience the same thing: “And this we will do, if God permits” (Hebrews 6:3).

Statements like this about God’s sovereignty litter the pages of the Bible, with some going down to the smallest of details. Just one example is Jesus saying: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father” (Matt. 10:29).

And if a sparrow doesn’t die outside of “the will of your Father,” what about all the things that happened to you today or yesterday? How would they escape God’s will?

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