Pastor Kyle continued his
Sunday Sermon series through the book of James with more practical life-application
from the first chapter of this great epistle written to the fledgling churches
and individual believers in the earliest church.
James 1:5-8 “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives
generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you
ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the
one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person
should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a
person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”
In life, we are bombarded
with opportunities to live according to divine wisdom when our human senses
scream to do the opposite. Often times, what "feels" like wisdom
(according to our human instincts) is the very thing that gets us in trouble. God’s
wisdom, though, comes to us with unlimited free refills … sometimes whether we
need it or not or when we least expect it. God is generous in His dispensation
of wisdom. Two things are for sure: (1) the only true source of wisdom is from
God, and (2) we are partly responsible for our own moral development for our
growth and maturity. Wisdom gives us a clear view from 30,000 feet of our
situation … a bird’s eye view from God’s perspective, so that we get a sense of
where we are at. When we ask God for wisdom, we are viewing our situation from
God’s view and angle from up above. Sometimes, we don’t know where we are or
where we are going. Sometimes there are roadblocks or we don’t have a map. Sometimes
we don’t know anyone who has been where we are trying to get to. Wisdom is more
than just having the right information - it's knowing what to do and how to
respond with the knowledge we already have. A wise person is not someone who
knows the right thing to do, but the one who knows and does the right thing to
do.
Colossians 1:9-12 “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not
stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all
the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and
please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work,
growing in the knowledge of God, being
strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have
great endurance and patience, and giving
joyful thanks to the Father, who has
qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy
people in the kingdom of light.
To be double-minded is
knowing what to do and then doing the exact opposite. The word “oxymoron”,
which is derived from two Latin words (1) Oxy meaning “wise” & (2) Moron
meaning “fool”, literally forming the seemingly contradictory term a “wise fool". To know
what God, His holy Word says and what to do then doesn't do it, let alone the
opposite is not wise, but is foolish. The ultimate situation is when we hear
from the Lord and His Scriptures, that we had no internal doubts. How many of
us live there every moment of our life? It is the goal, but we are human and
sometimes struggle with what God calls us to do. There is good doubt and there
is bad doubt. Bad doubts questions and
disobeys God, saying “God I know what you are asking, but I’m going to do it my
way because it feel more comfortable. Good doubt says: “God, I do not
understand this and it doesn't make sense to me right now, but I’ll do it your
way anyway because that is what I am hearing and I trust and believe you; help
me with my unbelief. Good doubt obeys God through the struggle.
Let's hold the completion of Pastor Kyle's great message for tomorrow's post.
In Christ, Brian
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