But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.” Jas. 1:5-8
God wants us to remain in an aggressive stance against our #1 coram Deo enemy: doubt. He wants us to never be satisfied again with the casual kind of faith that ebbs and flows “like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” Doubts are not to be entertained even for a second. That’s a command straight from God’s Word, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Co. 10:5)
The biggest mistake we make is in trying to out-argue each doubt instead of simply demolishing it. We do this because we are even double-minded about the fact that the lying doubts originate from the devil! (Jn. 8:44) Because we fail to discern his tricks, we deflatedly think we are half-hearted hypocrites because we had such thoughts. It’s a mad cycle. There is nothing the devil who is craftier and much more powerful than us would like more than to engage us in mind games.
Two of the times Christ encountered the devil, He did not engage him in clever mind games; after all, how can you persuade a being who has no truth in him? Christ knew this well and said, “Away from me, Satan!” and “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me.” (Mt. 4:10 & Mt. 16:23) Instead of reasoning with the father of lies, He simply resisted him.
Think of a person you know who is so far removed from speaking and reasoning truthfully that nearly everything about their conversation is tainted with deceit. You simply learn to receive nothing as truth from that person until it is tested. You learn to automatically shield your heart and mind from that person’s probable lies without much ado. Do you see how we can apply this same principle in our internal battles with temptation? While we may hear the evil one’s lies, we can choose not to ingest even a dribble of his potion. God says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God.” (1 Jn. 4:1) Adapted from the Coram Deo Secret
Adapted from the Coram Deo Secret
http://www.marisarickerson.com/coram-deo.html
God wants us to remain in an aggressive stance against our #1 coram Deo enemy: doubt. He wants us to never be satisfied again with the casual kind of faith that ebbs and flows “like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” Doubts are not to be entertained even for a second. That’s a command straight from God’s Word, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Co. 10:5)
The biggest mistake we make is in trying to out-argue each doubt instead of simply demolishing it. We do this because we are even double-minded about the fact that the lying doubts originate from the devil! (Jn. 8:44) Because we fail to discern his tricks, we deflatedly think we are half-hearted hypocrites because we had such thoughts. It’s a mad cycle. There is nothing the devil who is craftier and much more powerful than us would like more than to engage us in mind games.
Two of the times Christ encountered the devil, He did not engage him in clever mind games; after all, how can you persuade a being who has no truth in him? Christ knew this well and said, “Away from me, Satan!” and “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me.” (Mt. 4:10 & Mt. 16:23) Instead of reasoning with the father of lies, He simply resisted him.
Think of a person you know who is so far removed from speaking and reasoning truthfully that nearly everything about their conversation is tainted with deceit. You simply learn to receive nothing as truth from that person until it is tested. You learn to automatically shield your heart and mind from that person’s probable lies without much ado. Do you see how we can apply this same principle in our internal battles with temptation? While we may hear the evil one’s lies, we can choose not to ingest even a dribble of his potion. God says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God.” (1 Jn. 4:1) Adapted from the Coram Deo Secret
Adapted from the Coram Deo Secret
http://www.marisarickerson.com/coram-deo.html
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