S195P10 – The other side of faith: a stable mind

Jam. 1:5-8

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.  For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

He signed up for the tournament because it was what he needed to do if he wanted to build a career in the sport.  His local challengers had not put up quite a fight against him, and it was clear that it was time for him to try and slay larger dragons.  He started the tournament with excitement, but that changed once the draw was released.  When he saw the opponents he might have to defeat in order to lift the trophy, his belief began to die.  He just kept thinking that he did not stand a chance against any of those guys.  When the first match started, he already knew that his competitive spirit would not be on display.  His usually confident mind was resigned to defeat before he even stepped foot on the court.

There are many layers to this faith of ours.  It takes work in the heart, in the spirit, and in the soul to stay on the straight and narrow.  Sometimes we forget how much our spiritual stamina relies on the mind.  We might think of faith as an issue of the heart and facts as an issue of the mind, but this is not so in God’s kingdom.  A proper exercise of faith and the fruit that comes from it can do wonders for our mental stability.  To be committed to believing for God’s hope manifesting in our lives regardless of how things look makes our minds resilient to those discouraging factors.  Our center of logic is transformed into another center of faith when we determine that our hope is solid truth and not mere wishful thinking. 

I would wager that every single one of us has offered up prayers for results that we know God can deliver but were not sure that He would deliver.  We might pray for healing because we know that He heals, but then we doubt that the prayer will be answered.  We pray for possibilities instead of praying for certainties, but our Father wants us to be certain.  He wants us to believe in our minds that He not only can but will.  There should be no difference between our faith and our facts, between what we believe and what we know.  Father, increase our faith so that we would know in fact all the things we believe You will bring to pass.