Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

–James 4:13-17 (NIV)

In today’s passage we get insight into how God wants us to interact with him. I remember when I first read these verses, I zoned in on the making money thingy. Wrong. James is not scolding folks for making money. James is scolding us for thinking that our lives are our own. We are finite and mortal, “mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” No, our lives belong to God because he created us, he is omniscient, and he is eternal. He knows how to make us truly happy. We only think we do and there is the rub.

Here James is reminding us to get our ownership issues straight. Nothing we have is ours. Everything we have comes from God. This is not to deny that we work hard or are called to take responsibility for our actions. Rather, James is reminding us that we have life only and because God wills it.

So how does God want us to interact with him? God wants us to remember that he is God and we are not. He wants us to come to him for guidance in every aspect and dimension in our lives. When we do that, we are more often than not surprised at the peace, joy, and contentment that descends upon us. It frees us to be who God created us to be and to use our gifts in ways that are pleasing to God. That is real freedom.

Are you ready to find the peace, joy, and purpose in life that God wants you to have? If you are, give your life to God and let him lead you in ways that will allow you to be the human he created you to be.