James 1:6-8, The Danger of the Double Minded

James 1:6-8, “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. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

“Ask in faith, nothing wavering.”

The Christian walk requires faith. We start this life by faith as declared in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” These verses reason clearly that if salvation were by works, we would have saved ourselves giving us cause to boast of ourselves. We know that we don’t have the ability to save ourselves. We rely on God for all matters, and we have no cause to boast in our lives. What we have is cause to give God the glory. “By the grace of God I am what I am.” (1 Corinthians 15:10a)

We also know that “without faith it is impossible to please [God].” (Hebrews 11:6a) It is no wonder that we also must ask in faith, whether we are asking for a quality like wisdom, or we are asking for growth, or we are asking for God’s intervention in a matter. Unwavering faith is required to see God work.

“Let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.”

My dad’s testimony is that he was not saved the first time he recited words asking for salvation. His heart was that maybe it was true that Jesus would save him and that he would give it a try. He was not placing his faith in Christ the first couple of times he recited words, and he knew that there was no difference in his heart—that nothing had changed. But he came to realize that he had to ask in faith, and upon placing his faith in Christ for salvation, Jesus saved him. Dad could then testify that he knew that he had eternal life!

Christians approach prayer in this way sometimes. We might ask God our petition, but do we really believe? We know we need to grow in an area such as wisdom or the like, and we ask for God to work so that we can grow, but we waver at the trial as if God had made some sort of mistake. If we don’t place our full faith in God AND in His ways, why should we expect to receive anything from Him? In fact, it is presumptuous on our part to expect God to do some kind of work when we don’t even trust Him. Scripture describes this person with wavering faith as “a double minded man.”

“Unstable in all his ways.”

The double minded way presents danger to the Christian. This type of believer has some sort of desire to follow God but lacks the faith to do so. He might want to grow, but he struggles to trust God’s methods of growing him. God allows the trials that will work patience and thereby grow the Christian to completion, but the double minded man sees the trial and runs toward his own way. He becomes a Christian at variance with himself, opposed to his own new nature given to him at salvation.

One danger, which we have already discussed, is that this double minded man will have an ineffective prayer life. James 5:16 remarks that “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” We see effectual prayer from the righteous man in chapter 5, but in chapter 1 we see ineffective prayer from the double minded man. What a contrast! The faithless should not expect to see God work, but the righteous man exercising faith in God will see much victory! We should take serious warning to the double minded lifestyle if we want to see God work in and through us.

A second danger is that this double minded man is unstable “in all his ways.” In a previous post, I referred to the person with wavering faith as a “seasick Christian” using the image from verse 6, “For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” Seasickness makes you stagger. It is difficult to remain stable no matter what direction you try to go. The double minded Christian thinks to follow God but, with the application of trials, turns another way and spins around enough to make him unstable in any direction he goes. The only stable way is the way of faith to follow Christ. The only surety we can have find is in trusting Christ for our growth and our needs.

The bottom line is that we should ask of God, but we should ask in faith. God desires to give liberally, but we must ask with unwavering faith. We have no right to expect anything of God if we are not going to trust Him. Trust His methods, trust His timing, trust His answer, and trust His heart.