I’m studying through James this weekend. The opening chapter deals with trials and maturity, and I find reason to be concerned.
“Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. An indecisive man is unstable in all his ways.” – 1:5-8
Wow! Can you honestly say you don’t doubt sometimes. I can’t. It’s not that I doubt our God’s ability to perform or to grant my request. But I’m human. Yes, I have doubts sometimes. There are times I doubt whether He finds me worthy of granting wisdom…whether I’m asking appropriately, with enough reverence. That fleeting thought sometimes does cross my through my head…and although I am able to quickly hush it aside with the certainty that God is God and I am not, His words in this passage are clear…”ask without doubting”…not “ask with just an ounce of doubt”…not “ask with just a smidgen of doubt”…nope…”without doubt”.
And yes, even that last verse gets me thinking…I am often very indecisive. I like to think I can make the critical, life threatening decisions…right or wrong, I can make those decisions and act on them. But the seemingly menial, less important decisions, I often waiver a lot. Ask my wife where I want to eat, or what I want to do today, or some of the other day-to-day decisions around the house, and she’ll tell you…good luck getting a decisive answer on that! I wonder if there’s some grey area in that verse. Does a man have to be decisive in EVERYTHING…or just the important stuff? And if it’s the latter, then that begs the next question…who decides what’s important and what’s not? I’m certainly not qualified to be that person.
I clearly have a lot to learn in my faith…
Love,
Dad