What is your habitual response when you are in the middle of a huge life crisis that you did not cause? This trial hit you from the blind side. 

Many Christians pray, and tell God all about their problem. They may also seek counsel from family and friends who offer their best guess. Sometimes they remember how He solved a similar problem before and position themselves for Him to do it again just that way. For example, if they fasted five days during the last trial and God gave them the victory, they fast five days this time also. Fasting is their default response for life’s trials and tests. Telling God about the trial, guesses from our friends and family, and practicing religious rituals will not guarantee victory.

We discussed in the March 2, 2020 blog, When Trouble Comes, ( http://bit.ly/38jrPdM ) the teachings of James, the brother of Jesus, who wrote, “If you do not know what to do when trouble comes, ask God for wisdom. 

“I did ask God,” you might reply, “I prayed all day about this problem and God did not answer me.” Did you? Or did you just tell God about it, complain about it, or cry about it? And if you really did ask for wisdom, did you heed James’s precaution?

James wrote that we must accept the wisdom God gives without doubting. Often the answer is so alien to our flesh, we think that it will not work or that the answer came from Satan. Or we may think that He would never answer someone so sinful or who comes to the throne room so many, many times crying, “Lord, I need you again!” Big Mistake!

Here is James’ advice to those entrenched in various life trials and want God’s wisdom:

“But he must ask [for wisdom] in faith, without doubting [God’s willingness to help], for the one who doubts is like a billowing surge of the sea that is blown about and tossed by the wind. For such a person ought not to think or expect that he will receive anything [at all] from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable and restless in all his ways [in everything he thinks, feels, or decides],” James 1:6-8, Amplified Bible).

God will not answer if you doubt Him!

I don’t know about you, but I do not want with my own stinking thinking and doubt to prevent God from giving me the wisdom I need to be an overcomer. I do not want to be double-minded. 

Double-minded is being “in the middle ground between faith and unbelief. You are not completely convinced that God’s way is best. You treat God’s Word like any human advice and retains the option to disobey. You vacillate between allegiance to personal feelings, the world’s ideas, and God’s commands” (paraphrased, Mission Ventures Ministries). 

If you have not done it in the past, make your default response when trouble shows up in your life to immediately go to God, wait for His answer, and do what He says. Make up your mind to trust God wholly; no more wavering or being tossed like the waves of the sea. He is trustworthy, faithful, and all-wise.  He will answer, if you ask with unwavering faith. But of you do doubt, ask Him to help your unbelief (Mark 9:14-25). 

Where are you on the spectrum of faith in God’s wisdom: trust Him immediately and respond; must think about it a while before obeying; never sure the answer is from God so you do nothing. #Jointheconversation.