Double-Minded Trouble

You cannot heat a pot of water and freeze it at the same time. You cannot walk eastward and westward at the same time. You cannot climb up a flight of steps and walk down it at the same time. Yet there are times when we claim to be walking by faith, and are performing works of unbelief. We say that we are looking up to God in heaven, while we are looking down upon that after which our sinful nature lusts.

That is why James in chapter 1:8 wrote, "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." That double-minded man will be getting himself into trouble. Being unstable he will fall into trouble and not be climbing up to a better life. He will be going down the steps to ruin.

Those who go to church on Sunday, and then on Monday through Saturday go with the world in its evil ways, are going to quit that Sabbath worship. That is the sad truth about us so often. We have the new man in Christ, who wants to walk in love to God; but we also have yet within us that old man of sin wherewith we were born, and which we got from fallen Adam. The many temptations that confront us are sent by Satan in his attempt to turn us away from Christ and make us antichrists. For that Greek pronoun "anti" means "against." We are against Christ and thus are antichristian.

Therefore James exhorts us, when we find temptations confronting us, and our new man in Christ has one thing in mind and the old man of sin has the opposite in mind, to ask God to strengthen our faith, so that we stand firm in those temptations, not going with Satan, but walking in love toward God.

We need faith, but we also need the strengthening of that faith. We need to believe that, and not claim to be such strong believers. If we pray for faith and stand fast in it, those temptations will not hurt us but serve the strengthening of that faith, and enable us to walk in love to God, when even stronger temptations come against us.

Read: James 4:1-10

Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism

Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:

1 Kings 22:1-53 
Acts 13:16-41 
Psalm 138:1-8 
Proverbs 17:17-18

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Quote for Reflection:
“Once more the sword of the world-power shall be turned against the saints of Christ.  They shall be killed.  And besides, they shall be allowed no room in that empire of Antichrist.  Social and economic outcasts they shall be.  In the literal sense of the word they shall be cast out. For they shall not be allowed to buy or sell unless they worship the beast and his image.  All this will literally be realized in the period of the Antichristian dominion. No one can escape this persecution.  And hence, there will be great tribulation, such as the world has never seen before.  ~ Herman Hoeksema