Is It A Sin To Manifest?

Everybody wants some say in how their life turns out.

That's why manifesting sells so well. Write down what you want, say it out loud every morning, and believe hard enough that the universe hands it over.

People keep asking if that's a sin or if it's just staying positive.

James is talking about a man in the middle of making plans. Today or tomorrow we'll go to that city, stay a year, buy and sell, and make some money.

Read his plan again, because there's nothing evil in it. He isn't stealing from anybody. He's a working man with a year mapped out, and most of us have written something close to it.

Verse 14 is where James stops him. Ye know not what shall be on the morrow.

James lets him keep the plan and takes away the idea that he decides how it ends.

That's where manifesting goes wrong. It tells you that you're the one who makes it happen, and the enemy pushes that hard.

I spent years trying to run my own life. I had money and all I wanted, and none of it ever filled the hole in my heart. Every time I got what I was chasing, the hole was still there the next morning.

I finally quit and handed God my whole life. What He's done with it since is nothing I would have known to ask for. I never saw any of this coming, and it's better than anything I was trying to build on my own.

Manifesting also has nothing to say about your sin.

Manifesting tells you your words are what make a thing real. Nobody has ever spoken themselves forgiven. You can write it on a card, say it in the mirror for a year, and it will never take one sin off you. Jesus paid for that Himself on a cross, at a price you were never going to cover with the right words. The biggest thing that ever needed to change about you was already handled, and not one word of it came out of your mouth. You never wrote that ending, and you don't have to write the next one either. This is why we need Jesus and His blood.

Manifesting asks the universe for something Jesus already paid for.

Look at what James does in verse 15. He gives the man his plan right back, with four words in front of it. If the Lord will.

I'm not saying you shouldn't plan. Write it down and work hard for it.

God knows what you need better than you know it yourself, and He has already shown He is for you in ways no plan of yours ever could. Give Him the whole plan, and trust Him with how it turns out.

Here's how to pray over your plans today:

1. Say the plan out loud to Him instead of to the universe.

You already know what you want. Take it to God and say it plainly. Redirect that energy to Him and He will surely direct the path.

2. Say "if the Lord will" and mean it.

Say it because it's true. He knows what's coming and you don't, and those four words will save you a lot of worry.

3. Plan boldly and surrender daily.

We love to plan things but make sure you're also surrendering the outcome to God. Work hard, and move with ambition but leave the outcome to Him always.

PRAYER

God my Father, I've been trying to run my own life and call it faith.

Thank You that You've never once asked me to speak my future into existence.

Thank You that Jesus paid for me on that cross outright, and that none of it depended on me saying the right words.

Today I'm handing You the plan I wrote.

Do what You want with it, and change me where I need changing.

Teach me to leave tomorrow in Your hands, because it was always Yours.

I trust You with what I can't see coming.

In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.