Like A Wave


James 1:2-8
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

It doesn’t surprise me that the times I am most plagued by unbelief are the times when I have become lazy about my faith walk. When my prayer life is slack or my Bible study falls to the wayside, I am subtly but surely drawn into unbelief. Just as a time of physical famine leads to dwindling health, so too a starvation diet for your spirit will eventually lead to spiritual death.

James describes the doubter with a vivid analogy. Have you ever tried to keep your eye on a wave as it moves across the water? I recently took a ferry across Lake Michigan and the waves are mesmerizing. You can try and track one, but it will quickly shift direction, according to the whims of the wind, or disappear altogether. Each wave lives for only a brief time, then disappears into the blue.

When we entertain our unbelief, its power increases. That wave grows larger as the wind of doubt is given attention. As I am pondering this concept of unbelief, story after story from the Bible streams through my mind. Peter had the gift of being allowed to walk on the water during a storm. But his undoing was found in the waves of doubt – literally. Job never doubted his own righteousness, but he did doubt God’s care. Jonah doubted God’s wisdom for wanting to save Nineveh, but never His compassion. Even Elijah struggled with unbelief as he ran for his life from the evil Queen Jezebel.

What holds unbelief at bay is a consistent walk with God that is heavy on prayer and Bible study. As our experiences of God’s providence and care stack up, we can look back and see His faithfulness with our own eyes. Unbelief will always try to rear its ugly head but is consistently defeated by remembering God’s mercies every day.

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