Ask in Faith, No Doubting

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:5-8 ESV)

I mentioned in the first devotion posted today, “Do Not Be Anxious About Tomorrow,” that the Lord has lately been having me write these daily devotions a week in advance. So I am actually writing this on Friday, September 27, 2024, now at 7:39 p.m. USA EST. And right now the eastern/middle part of our country has been hit with a major hurricane affecting Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, etc. The flood damage in N and S Carolina is catastrophic! And I live in South Carolina.

So I am most certain that there are people here right now who are praying and asking God for wisdom to make the right decisions, or they are praying for the safety of loved ones who can’t be reached because of cell towers being down. So, it appears to be a very good time to talk on the subject of prayer and how we should be praying and believing God for answers. 

I want to mention first of all the critical importance of reading Scriptures in their context and of understanding that all of God’s promises have conditions (stipulations, requirements). So don’t read verse 5 and stop there. Read through verse 8 and then you will get the whole context of what is being taught here on the subject of praying for wisdom. For not everyone who asks God for wisdom will get an answer from the Lord, because not everyone asks in faith without doubting God.

So, what is faith? The word means “persuasion,” and with regard to the Christian faith, it means to be persuaded by God. And what will God persuade us to do? He persuades us as to his holiness and righteousness and of our sinfulness, and of our need to turn from (repent of) our sinful lifestyles, to die with him to sin, and to now walk in obedience to his commands in holy living, in the power of God, by the grace of God.

And faith to believe in Jesus Christ is authored by God, it is gifted to us by God, and it is not of our own doing – not of the will nor of the flesh of humans. And thus this faith aligns with God’s will and purpose for our lives and with the teachings of Christ and of his NT apostles with regard to what constitutes genuine faith and salvation and the hope of eternal life with God. And they teach that genuine faith results in self-denial, dying daily to sin, and walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commandments.

And that perfectly aligns with what James wrote here in today’s passage. For, since Jesus died on that cross to deliver us out of our slavery to sin and to give us new lives in him to now be lived for his glory in walks of obedience to his commands, then faith which comes from God will act on that. And those of true faith in the Lord will die with him to sin, not just once, but daily, and we will walk in obedience to his commands, in his power, by his grace, and we will not deliberately and habitually sin against the Lord.

So faith and wisdom are intertwined. They work together hand-in-hand. But sadly there are a lot of people who profess faith in Jesus Christ, who will seek the counsel of the Lord, but then they are like the man who looked at himself in the mirror and then immediately walked away and forgot what he looked like (James 1:22-25). If they don’t like the Lord’s counsel they will go elsewhere to find someone to tell them what they want to hear. And that is why they are double-minded. 

They seem to desire God and his wisdom on one end, but when they come up against a situation where they have to choose the wisdom of God or worldly wisdom or their own flesh or their sinful desires, then they go with their flesh and not with God. So they are like one person but two on a see-saw (teeter-totter) going back and forth and up and down in opinion and belief and practice depending on their emotions and desires and what is most important to them at the time they are making a choice.

Since they have divided minds and hearts and loyalties, and they are unstable in their ways, and their hearts are not steadfast in walks of faith and obedience to the Lord, they should not suppose that they will receive anything from the Lord, and that includes salvation from sin and eternal life with God. For Jesus said that not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one doing the will of God. We cannot serve two masters. We will hate the one and love the other. God is not divided.

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-21; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]  

Ask in Faith, No Doubting

Video Talk

September 27, 2024

https://youtu.be/pEat21XGweE

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