But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. – Jms. 1:6-7 KJV
439-Pray To Overcome Double-mindedness_25062021
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The authorship of the Biblical book of James as been ascribed to James the brother of Jesus who was one of the leaders and probably the first Bishop of the church in Jerusalem. He had opened his letter, which was initially written to the twelve tribes of Israel scattered among the nations, but which remains relevant to all believers then and now, with the advise that all who undergo trials and temptations because of the gospel, should count such experience as pure joy as it is actually a test of the faith that the believer claims to possess – Jms. 1:2. That, according to him, will be the process that will make a Christian generally lack nothing including wisdom, and thus will be able to ask for anything in prayer and receive it. The consequence of successfully navigating such difficult moments will be the manifestation of a spiritually matured Christian that will be deemed complete in the Faith – Jms. 1:3-5.
Such requests, despite being presented by the one who has successfully persevered, must still be done in belief and without doubt since according to him, as stated in the foundation scripture for today’s Devotional, whoever entertains doubts when presenting requests to the Lord, even if such has successfully proven to be faithful, will receive nothing from the Him. He actually compared such to the wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. As far as he is concerned, such is a double minded person that will equally be unstable in his ways and so will not get anything from the Lord – Jms. 1:6-7.
Hmmmm. As true as this assertion is, it remains a challenge for men including Christians, to successfully avoid being double-minded without supernatural support. This is because being double-minded hardly has anything to do with the number of occasions that such has persevered under trials and temptations. James says that an individual may have successfully navigated such trying challenges on several occasions, but may still not be able to receive all that is asked for in prayer for the simple reason of being double minded when making a request. No wonder there are so many Christian warriors today who are still unable to receive positive responses to requests made to the Lord. It could just be a simple case of limiting the ability of the Almighty God through double-mindedness.
The story of the man who approached the disciples of Jesus Christ, asking for healing for his son comes readily to mind. The disciples no doubt will be considered Christian warriors, after all they had been sent out earlier and they came back reporting that evil spirits bowed when they issued commands – Matt. 10:1-24; Lk. 10:1-17. They were however unable to deliver the man’s son from the activities of the evil spirit due to what Jesus Christ called unbelief – Mk. 9:14-19; Matt. 17:14-20.
Same can also be said of the father of the boy possessed of evil spirit, as his unbelief also contributed to the lack of success in prayer by the disciples. Jesus had to make him assert his belief to bring his Faith level to a point where he could receive the miracle. He, after all, was the one that brought his son to Jesus Christ and one would have thought that he did so because he believed that Jesus was capable of healing his son – Mk. 9:14-24.
Double-mindedness is actually a consequence of unbelief or doubt that a specific objective will be perfectly achieved through an individual or a process, which is why one can be double-minded about the effectiveness of a process or the capability of an individual. With regards to things of God, it is a physical manifestation of the thougts of an individual, that the Almighty God has limitations with regards to what he can or cannot do. The Almighty God can never be happy with the one who so under-estimates His ability. He desires to be seen as who He truly is at all times, which is the Omnipotent One. He wants to be acknowledged as a God who is Sovereign and does all He wants to do without limits – Exo. 3:14. Whatever He does not do, will never be because He is incapable of doing it, but because He has chosen not to do it at that moment and for a reason best known to Him – Lk. 1:37; Mk. 9:23. The one who chooses to worship Him must see Him from this perspective, else, He will consider such an individual as one who does not respect His personality, and so, will distance Himself from such – Heb. 11:6. Definitely such can never receive any form of support from Him.
The consequence of seeing Him as a god with limitations is for the one who is being confronted by life challenges to, either seek additional support from other means to complement the assumed deficit in His abilities or totally depart from Him to seek other gods, in other to overcome the challenge. Both ways, an abominable act of spiritual adultery would have been performed by the so called believer and such an act will never go down well with Jehovah. He simply will not entertain the worship of any other god by anyone who claims to worship Him – Exo. 34:14; Deut. 6:13-16.
The one who is confronted with such challenging situation will be expected to be blind to the real and obvious challenge, and focus on the unseen but very potent ability of Jehovah God, to provide support needed to overcome such challenges Lk. 22:31-32. That is no longer within the natural ability of man and so the support of the supernatural will be required.
The Christian who intends to remain standing in the face of trials and temptations must acknowledge the limit of natural human ability and consistently plead with the Lord for supernatural support, else it will be a question of time before double-mindedness sets in, which will eventually deprive such of all that he/she may be requesting from Him. May God in His mercy save us all from double-mindedness and its consequences in Jesus name. Amen.
wonderful post