the place most people make unwise decisions…

where do you need wisdom right now?  what’s the big decision in your life?  is it a career decision?  marriage?  kids?  church membership?  an investment?

it’s interesting that james, in 1.5-8 and 9-11, gives us a practical application of where we need wisdom.  of all the areas that james could have chosen to give as an example, he chose money.  why?  because more people make unwise decisions and foolish choices regarding their finances than almost anything else in the world.  more people are double minded and unstable when it comes to dollars than any other area.

i see so many CHRISTians in financial bondage because they violated GOD’s principles and the point that james is making in these verses is that regardless of poverty or prosperity we all need to realize that wealth is temporary and won’t last forever.  JESUS said you can’t serve two masters.  you can’t love money and GOD at the same time.  we need to decide.  have we made up our mind what we’re going to save, to spend, tithing, giving, those kind of things?

what is james saying?  he is saying that you are either going to be living this life by choice or by chance.  either based on circumstances where you are a victim of your circumstances; where you let everything batter you back and forth or you will chose to make choices.

listen, the quality of your life is determined by the decisions and choices you make and the wisdom that is behind those decisions and choices.  james is saying that when we do not trust GOD it produces a lifestyle of instability in our lives.  the cause of all the frustration in my life is not my indecision over the job, the marriage, my kids, my health although those are important.  there is a deeper issue and that is my inability to trust GOD and lay it all in HIS hands and ask for wisdom.

just a thought from the front porch…

three ways indecision makes you unstable…

james 1.8 (tniv), they are double-minded and unstable in all they do. 

sometimes you’ve got to make a decision.  being double-minded is devastating, debilitating.  it makes you unstable.  the word is translated, “confused” in many parts of the bible.  it’s used to describe a drunk who’s staggering, reeling, unstable in all his ways.  he’s saying, “if you can’t make up your mind it produces an unstable lifestyle.  all you ways will be unstable, in constant turmoil.

three ways indecision makes you unstable:

1.  unstable emotions.  unstable emotions.  it is a strain when you can’t decide.  you worry and strain, you’re confused.  you can’t sleep and can’t eat.  you wonder, “did i do the right thing?”  it creates emotional instability in your life when you can’t make up your mind.

this guy goes to a psychiatrist.  the psychiatrist says, “are you indecisive?”  guy says, “yes and no.”  “what do you mean by that?”  “well, i used to be but now i’m not sure.”

williams james said, “the most miserable person in the world is the person who is habitually indecisive.”  it causes emotions.

2.  unstable relationships.  lack of commitment destroys marriages.  when you can’t decide, do i want in or do i want out?  i can’t get on with it, i can’t get out of it, i can’t get with it.  what am i going to do?  instability in relationships.  when you’re a parent and say one thing then you say another thing.  we give double messages to our kids.  it causes instability. 

listen, many times it takes more energy deciding than it does to do it.  once you do it, it’s a snap, but the key is deciding.

3.  unstable spiritual life.  verse 7 (tniv), those who doubt should not think they will receive anything from the LORD.

it blocks your prayers.  indecision keeps GOD from giving you and keeps you from receiving what GOD has to offer. 

some of you say, “why doesn’t GOD answer my prayers?”  maybe you’re not specific enough.  maybe you’ve never decided what it is you want and you don’t have a clear-cut goal.

being double-minded can lead to a double life.  a spiritual schizophrenia, dr jekyll/mr. hyde.  in the book pilgrim’s progress it talks about a man named mr. face-both-ways.  that’s when you want to do your will and GOD’s will at the same time.  when you know what’s right but you go the wrong way.  when you’re trying to live for two people.  on sunday you sing onward CHRISTian soldiers and the next day you-re awol.  being double-minded produces instability in all of your ways.  it produces an unstable lifestyle.

just a thought from the front porch…