Double-minded

James 4:2-10  -  You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.  You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

I started to say I was sorry…that I had a much longer group of verses for you to read…but upon reflection I will not apologize for them…for they contain a very intense message. That word…’double-minded’….it hit me right between the eyes last night.  God is once again speaking straight to my ME disease.  I must not be the only one who suffers from this trickery of Satan.  It must be a disease he has fought in his children for a long time…for James was given these words a long time ago...for the people he wrote to as well.

Double-minded…a man with two souls…one that wants to be in the world…and one that wants to grasp the peace of heaven at the same time. The double minded man wants to hold on to the pleasures…to seek his happiness from the material things he can purchase with money and favors to people…and still seek God’s peace…hold a piece of heaven in his hand…just in case. But James is clear here…you can not have your cake and eat it too…you can not be of the world and have God’s love as well.

That sounds pretty final to me...I guess I had better start working a little harder to get rid of the rest of the world in my life.  And I admit up front that it will be hard…but after reading these verses…how can I justify ever choosing a pleasure from this world over the God who has worked so hard to show me who he really is?  James words…I have read them before…in many  books before his….the ones that told me to humble myself….purify my heart…to ask God for the strength and power to rid myself once and for all from this ME disease that keeps one foot in the world…that keeps me from jumping into the deep end of the pool on pure faith.

Father…I hear you loud and clear today….give me a double portion of your power and spirit as you continue to reveal to me the things of this world that keep me from knowing you as deeply as you have planned for me. Forgive me for needing so many messages…so many times that you needed to tell me to give up the world’s pleasures so I can experience more of you.  Help me to see and throw off quickly anything you tell me is separating me from the sweet love and peace that comes from trusting in you COMPLETELY…and bind Satan from tricking me with any new schemes.  Thank you for helping me to come this far…so close that I could not bear it if I strayed farther away. Amen.