CONCERT OF PRAYER

Pray Week 975

“Double Minded”

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:8)

Imagine that you are at a public gathering and the featured speaker steps up to the podium and announces that there is a bomb planted in the podium that is set to go off in 60 seconds. Following the announcement the speaker remains standing at the podium preparing to give their speech.

Do you believe that the speaker was telling the truth about the bomb? Do you remain where you are as precious seconds tick away because there is no action by the speaker that correlates with their statement?

If the speaker had immediately instructed everyone to leave the building and quickly moved for the exit door, all would have believed that there was imminent danger and acted in like manner.

Every day the professing Christian is like a guest speaker in a public gathering. Do our actions follow our stated convictions or do we appear to be double-minded? Do we quote Scripture and give counsel to others who then observe our personal lifestyle of indulging our sinful nature? For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer… this person’s religion is worthless. (James 1:23-26)

We cannot lift the banner of God’s Word high for others to see when we refuse to let the whole counsel of God’s Word direct our own personal life. We cannot pick and choose which Scripture we will obey and expect to be effective in personal evangelism.

The Greek word translated as ‘double-minded’ from our reference Scripture literally means to be ‘two-spirited’, i.e. vacillating in opinion or purpose. The sad truth is that many professed Christians are convinced about the truth of God’s Word but lack the heart commitment to fulfill their purpose as followers of Jesus Christ. This double-minded lifestyle produces spiritually sounding intellectualism that fails to bear good fruit. Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. James 3:12

We cannot have it both ways, vacillating between a Carnal life and a Christian life. We may talk a good talk about God and salvation through Jesus; however our words will fall on deaf ears when our actions ‘speak’ an entirely different message.

May the Lord give you unity of mind, heart, and soul and a heart commitment to act in accordance with the infallible truth of God’s Word.