Monday Meditations - James 1:5-8 – Episode 14

Originally written November 11, 2011 posted here: https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/11/07/monday-meditations-james-15-8/Today’s Meditation Verse:James 1:5-85 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.Today I am giving you more than one verse because these must be read together.The entire Kingdom of God is based entirely on faith.You must believe, and then you will receiveYou must trust in a Jesus whom you have never seen with your eyesYou must sow seed and trust that you will reap a harvestHebrews 11:66 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.Without it, faith, it is impossible to please God.The mark of a child of God is anyone living in full dependence on the heavenly Father, i.e. fully (willingly) relying upon the Lord in glad submission. So, to become a child of God, you must learn to have faith - completely.We are given a measure of faith, and then we are to cultivate that faith by sowing it time and time again in our circumstances and seeing the harvest that it returns. This will in turn increase our faith, and we will have to move to sow into our lives and cultivate an even bigger harvest of faith.Too often we just ‘handle’ the things we have the ability to handle. Then, when a serious situation comes along that we cannot handle, we attempt to exercise our faith. But because we have not trusted God in the small daily things, we have not cultivated our faith to handle the big things.By choosing to handle the small things on our own, we are exhibiting pride.  We can do it ourselves.  We can do it well enough.  We don’t need you for this right now, God.  …but be waiting there for when we need you…I believe that is one facet of a double-minded man. You believe and you doubt. But do you ever really believe? I think if you ever really did believe, you would exercise your faith all the time in everything. You would be of one mind; the mind that faith is the only way to live every day for everything.So, here it is… A double-minded man, a man who only believes part of the time, should never expect to receive anything from God, ever. You either believe in and trust in God fully (willingly), or you don’t. There is no in between.Are you really a child of God? Or, are you a double-minded man? Make the choice today to trust in and rely on God in all that you encounter today, just like a child, a child of God!Shop all versions of my novels here: Shop HereMy Media Website: NancyJacksonPodcast.comCheck out my website: NancyJacksonAuthor.comFollow me here:Substack: https://nancyjackson.substack.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NancyJacksonAuthorTwitter: https://twitter.com/NAJacksonInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/najackson/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/nancyannjacksonYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NancyJacksonTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nancyajackson?lang=en