How many times in life do we head the advice of James?

Well, let me encourage you today by going back to those verses in James chapter 1. The verses that put our faith in real perspective. The ones that spell out our double-minded faith as unstable and in them we shouldn’t be expecting anything from God.

What does that mean? Double-minded faith?

Let me be honest here. Being double-minded had always been one of my biggest struggles.

If you have read my testimony, you will know that I spent much of my life in rebellion against the rules. Not understanding the true measure of grace that I was granted and gifted by the shed blood of Christ.

I was double-minded. I could play the game, talk the talk, and occasionally walk the walk. Live for myself I did, I could talk out of one side of my mouth like a Christian and like a sailor out of the other (since we are being honest).

Double-minded. I was unstable.

When I had my first child, things were tough, I had severe postpartum depression and never sought any help including help from the Lord.

Why? I doubted. I always doubted. My whole life was about independence and I always doubted that I needed help. I doubted the reality of my desperate situations. I doubted He could help me in my darkest hours.

All my doubts doubled up when they became fears. Fears that were never realized. Fears that I held like a buoy as I was tossed about in the unstable state that I resided in.

All of that eventually came crashing over me. Like the waves, I was being tossed in, I was overwhelmed as they came crashing down on my reality.

Unsettled. Unstable.

What changed?

What began to change my thought processes may seem really strange, but hang in there with me.

I was in the middle of a study of the tabernacle.

Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.” Exodus 25:8-9 (NIV)

And the details went on. And On. And On. 

From the design of the table, what furnishings would be in exactly what place, what offerings were acceptable, all the way down to… finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim woven into them by a skilled worker (Exodus 26:1b NIV)

Why would that matter?

Notice why they were to make a sanctuary for the Lord?

And I will dwell among them.

Not in them. Among them. The plan had to be the exact copy of everything that He told them. The details were perfect and laid out in perfect fashion and God expected them to be perfect for Him to dwell among them.

Friends, that was a building. And I know it was building meant to house the presence of the Lord, but it was perfect.

The plans were perfect. He knew every detail. He knew every thread and where He wanted it placed and how He wanted it formed.

I am glad He didn’t wait for us to be perfect to dwell in our hearts!

How much more can He carry out the plans for your life? For your days? In perfect fashion. In perfect detail. According to His plan.

You are not a place where God can dwell among you. You are the tabernacle that He will dwell within. Perfect plans He has and perfect plans He will carry out.

It is easy to get wrapped up in the heaviness of this world. It is easy to feel unstable and be double-minded. It is easy to say that we have faith and constantly doubt.

We continually believe that we have the control and the perfect plans in our lives until it all comes crashing down and then we want to be rescued.

We gasp for air as we try to grab some sense of normalcy and self-control.

Let Go.

God has you in His hands. He has a design and perfect plan for your life.

Let go of the doubt. Let go of the worry and fear. If He can direct a skilled laborer to carefully stitch cherubim into the curtain of the tabernacle, He can stitch your needs into your days. 

He can foresee the aching of your heart and send comfort. He can carefully weave His grace and mercy into your life beyond what you can expect, imagine, or do on your very own.

Personal Reflection

We can say that we believe and trust God but living it out is a very different.

Faith is action. Are you ready to take that step today? 

Are you ready to lay aside the doubt and the double-minded way of living? What do you hold onto and try to control in your life? 

What is the first step you can take today? 

Are you ready to confess your doubt and ask God to move you forward in your faith or have you grown too comfortable in your control?

I am glad you are here. I want to introduce to you Seeking God Daily. Because a couple friends and I are passionate about sharing God’s Word we have joined forces to bring together a Facebook Group called Seeking God Daily.

Seeking God Daily is a group that offers hope, encouragement, and support in learning God’s Word and applying the truths to our walk with Christ. 

We want to encourage one another through authentic, honest and respectful conversation as we earnestly seek Him daily.

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

This week and next you will get to meet the ladies behind this new adventure. You can join this group by clicking HERE! While you are there feel free to invite some friends along for the journey. We would love to have them!

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I was young when I came to know Christ. I grew up in the church and when I made my decision to trust Christ as my personal Savior, it seemed like an obvious choice. I knew I was a sinner and in need of a rescue.

However, that obvious choice didn’t seem to follow me. When I was a teenager, I began making poor decisions. I didn’t really know how to have an authentic personal relationship with Christ. I knew all the rules and how I was supposed to play by them, which lead in part to my rebellion.  

The older I got, the worse the decisions were that I made. It seemed as if there was no turning back. I had failed to the nth degree and I constantly felt the way I had ended up, tossed in the sea.

It seemed somehow in my upbringing, I missed the grace. I missed that the rules were supposed to point us to Christ but then were free to walk in His grace. We were no longer in rebellion to Him but were truly His children meant to be the inheritors of all that Christ was and has to give us.

I stayed infant in my thinking and as a result didn’t really experience the grace that was gifted to me through the shed blood on the cross.

One of my scariest encounters with the ocean was when I was living in Hawaii. The currents were especially strong one afternoon. As the waves came in they literally picked me up off the beach and drug me into the water.

As I was tossed around in a cycle, like in a washing machine, I wasn’t quite sure I was going to get out. The shore break was big and the water kept turning over and over. If I had not been pulled out, I am not sure I would have been able to fight the force of the wave.

My decisions in my life often left me feeling the same way. Living life as an infant Christian, I had never grown to a place where I saw the real rescue. The result was a life feeling tossed back and forth between the things of this world and the convictions I felt deep in my heart.

Even though I knew in my heart that Jesus was the answer, I believed the lies of the world that I could conquer all things by myself. I guess you would have to say, I doubted God was really capable of fully rescuing me.

I knew trusting Him as my personal Savior meant rescuing me from hell and eternal separation from Him, but I never relied on or trusted Him to rescue me from myself or from the situations I had gotten myself into.

The result was always feeling this compulsion to be pulled into the world and all it claims to offer. I felt like I was being tossed like the day at the beach. I felt unstable. As I look back on it, it feels so reckless.

Here is the biggest problem with living this way.

Ouch! That one seems to hurt the most.

Living, what James calls, a double-minded life leaves me tossed around in my life. It leaves me unstable.

I can’t say, I have put my faith and trust in God and then never live a day for Him. I was meant for worship. I was meant for fellowship with my King. That is why we were created to be in communion with Him.

Three of the biggest things that I missed out on by living a double-minded life.

Not receiving blessings from God. James 1:7 says I shouldn’t have expected to receive anything from the Lord.

Not giving glory and honor to God.

Not being a light that reflected or pointed people to His kingdom.

While so much time feels like it was lost on myself, I learned a valuable lesson in my dependence on Him. Not to miss another day.

If you feel like this double-minded person or the person that is struggling between choosing the things of this world and things that are eternal. Don’t lose heart.

Make today count. You can turn from those ways. Understand that you are no longer in rebellion to God. You no longer have to live in this world like the sinner you were before you put your trust in Christ. You are free to obey His Word.

Christ has come not only to make His dwelling among us but in us. We are the home in which He resides and what we are to reflect is that He is welcome to live and love us there.

It would do us good to regularly remember and thank God for what He did for us at the cross. I think we can be so accustomed to saying it that it loses it awesome ability to transform or hearts and minds.

Feeling torn between two places. The choice may seem obvious from these verses but life doesn’t always appear that easy. It is a real conscience decision that you must make.

One way to learn the best ways to follow Christ is to earnestly seek Him through His Word. There is nothing that will be more life transformational.

In lieu of having a featured friend this week, I want to introduce to you Seeking God Daily. Because a couple friends and I are passionate about sharing God’s Word we have joined forces to bring together a Facebook Group called Seeking God Daily.

Seeking God Daily is a group that offers hope, encouragement, and support in learning God’s Word and applying the truths to our walk with Christ. 

We want to encourage one another through authentic, honest, and respectful conversation as we earnestly seek Him daily.

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

While we are still getting final details underway, I hope you will join us in preparation for this group. You can find it by clicking HERE! Simply Hit the Join button and your requests will be sent. 

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