When Our Faith Wavers

James 1:1-8

1 James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.
2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,
8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Faith is the heart of our Christian life. It is the means by which we are saved, receive forgiveness for our sins, enjoy a personal relationship with the Lord, and have the assurance of our salvation. By faith, we experience the peace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

The Bible also tells us that praying in confident trust “avails much” (James 5:16 NKJV). Yet our lives and especially our prayers tend to be characterized by doubts and wavering faith. Our faith wavers when . . . We apply human thinking to our circumstances. Sometimes God is going to require us to do something with which human reasoning disagrees (Isa. 55:9). We allow our feelings to overcome our faith.

It could be a sense of unworthiness or inadequacy that trips us up. Fear of criticism or failure might cause us to doubt we can do what the Lord asks. We fail to see God at work in our circumstances. Doubts creep in when we have asked Him to take action but nothing appears to be happening. We have guilt over sin, past or present.

We cannot operate with strong faith when we are under conviction of sin or dwelling on guilt over past wrongdoing. WE We listen to the enemy’s lies. Satan is the father of lies, and his objective is to have us reject God’s truth and believe his deception instead. Faith is defined as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). What is the condition of your faith? Do confidence and conviction describe you?

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