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Compare Matthew 10:19-20; Mark 13:11; Luke 21:14-15; John 14:26
Jesus teaches his disciples that they’re to rely upon the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when they speak.
This does not, however, mean that they shouldn’t be trying to learn and to understand in the interim. Later, he would tell them that “the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (John 14:26)
To have things brought to your remembrance, though, they must at least once have passed previously through your mind .
As the Lord taught his missionaries in this dispensation through a revelation given in September 1832, “Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:85)
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A very similar sentiment (against boasting or too-confident anticipation of tomorrow) is expressed at James 4:13-16:
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. (New International Version)
This is, if you’ll pardon my pointing it out, a very Islamic sentiment. One of the most commonly heard phrases in the Arabic or Islamic world is إن شاء الله (in sha‘a Allah; “If God wills”). It’s said whenever a promise or a commitment is made, or a hope expressed. And Muslims mean it. To not say it is to come across as arrogant, as, in a sense, rejecting the sovereignty and providence of God.
“When does God laugh? When humans make plans.”
“Man proposes; God disposes.”
We shouldn’t make the error of falling into a fatalistic passivity, but there is much wisdom in such statements. We have a great deal of control, but not ultimately. In the end, time and chance happen to us all. We are not the masters of our fates. We are not the captains of our souls.
Posted from San Diego, California
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