Study of James: Navigating Thru Trials
Sunday, October 06, 2019
Peace to Live By Study of James: Navigating Thru Trials - Daniel Litton
(Tap to play podcast or right-click to download)
For full sermons without edits for time, tap here to go to downloads page.
(Tap to play podcast or right-click to download)
For full sermons without edits for time, tap here to go to downloads page.
[Transcript represents full sermon's text]
Picking up where we left of last week, and we didn’t get very far. James chapter 1, re-reading verse 2 again: “Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of various kinds.”
Last week, after talking about the methods of understanding I want us to use for James, we started to discuss this verse. We discussed what trials are, what people’s responses can be (depending on their Level of Inner-Self, which I outlined), and how our faith is manifested in regard to those trials. Now that we’ve discussed what trials can be, let’s talk about where they come from. Let’s try to get a good understanding on that area—though I’m sure we are already pretty familiar with it.
Basically, three kinds of trials can exist for us. Trials can be self-induced. That is, we deliberately put ourselves in the trial for good reasons. Trials can also be caused by a mistake we have made. Still yet, trials can come to us without us having done anything. They are outside of any of our actions. Let’s go through these one-by-one.
What is the self-induced trial? Well, a good example of this is when a person enrolls in college to obtain a degree. The person enrolls knowing there is going to be hard work involved. There are going to be assignments. There will be papers. Late nights writing and studying. Tests and final exams to be taken. Classmates to work on projects with. Group meetings. At least in some of these things, there will be trialing events. That’s okay, though. The student knew that—that’s why he enrolled. He knew he needed to go through these self-induced trials in order to master his area of study and eventually obtain a degree. That’s the way it works if he wants to work in the certain field that requires that degree.
Then there are the mistakes we make. We make a wrong move. Originally, we thought we were making a right move. I mean, after all, all moves we make are based on a judgment, an evaluation, of what it is we decide to do. Sometimes we have tunnel vision, or we overlooked something, or we just didn’t consider all the things we should have. We’ve made a mistake. An accident has occurred, and it’s our fault. Depending on our level on inner-self, we react in different ways. We may get angry and upset, and be full of guilt. We say to ourselves, “I should have know better. If only I would have done that instead. If only I had waited and not done anything!” Or, if we are on the positive side we say, “Gee, I made a mistake. But I’m not going to blow this up out of proportion. Life is more than any one mistake, and I am too.”
Finally, we have those things that come to us that our outside of our control. There it is. That’s the big word, control, and some of us have a dreadful thought when we imagine a loss of control. What are some things that can happen in this area? A health problem. Death of a loved one. Loss of a career. Trouble with the son or daughter. Money down the toilet. The unexpected repair. The car breaks down. The car has been wrecked. The person talking behind our backs. The false accusation. The subpoena to court. The lawsuit. Our spouse cheated on us. Our spouse left us. They have filed for divorce. The daughter has been found to be smoking pot. The son has been arrested. The dog or cat has died. We feel God has abandoned us.
What is our goal then? James tells us it is “steadfastness.” He said, “the testing of [our] faith produces steadfastness.” Let’s define what steadfastness means. When we’ve been through trials and come out on the other end, we learn that God is faithful. We can look back and recognize that he was with us. There was never a time, not even a moment, when we wasn’t by our side. He helped get us through whatever it was. He helped us to make the right choices. At least, all this being said, this is the way it is for the positive-minded person.
What about the negative person? If we are negative, we don’t learn. We were too upset by the trial. We had our thoughts on ourself. That’s all we cared about. God was still faithful, but it took a lot longer of a time to get through it. We had not only the trial to deal with, but we had ourselves also. We may have found that we were the greater trial of the two. The actual ‘trial’ may not have been as bad as trying to work through our negative emotions about the trial. We were a mess. We don’t let the trial produce the steadfastness. Nah, we flunked out. We were too angry. It really didn’t do us any good, did it?
So, the next sentence from James has its fulfillment: “And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (v. 3, 4, ESV). Yes, this is for the positive, faith-filled person. Those on Levels Three and Four of Inner-Self. The problem is, if we were on the negative end of the spectrum, the trial didn’t have its full effect for us. It was a partial effect, or no beneficial effect at all. We resisted the trial. We didn’t surrender to it. By resisting, we hindered God’s work in us. Now we are not made perfect by it, or complete for that matter, but we are still imperfect and lacking. We, like Jesus disciples a lot of the time, either still yet have no faith, or we are desperately lacking in it. We didn’t grow out of it.
You see, surrender is the key. It’s what I went over last week in our introductory part to the Book of James. One of the pillars to our lives is surrender. When we surrender, we don’t let a trial have power over us. We surrender to it when it comes. In the negative levels of inner-self, there are two incorrect ways we can react. We can resist it or we can ignore it. We don’t want to fight it or resist it. We don’t ignore it or push it away. Rather, we face it head on. We keep our patience and we watch God work. Resisting will only lead us to suppress what we are really feeling. When we fight the trial, we find ourselves not making the right choices. We are angry with God. Angry at others. Angry at the world. Upset with life in general. This doesn’t help us, and it doesn’t help anybody else.
The beautiful thing is, behind every life-trial is a precious awareness to be learned. Now, I know, that doesn’t sound too hot at first glance. You might say, “I don’t want to learn anything new. I’ve been through school and learned enough.” Yes, but unfortunately, really I should say fortunately, we still have much to learn. Yes, there is always something new to be taught. Sometimes within a trial it is not obvious what that awareness is. Sometimes pinpointing it can be painful, especially if we are in the lower levels of inner-self. If we are a prideful person, a trial can take a big hammer smack at our pride, and a big piece of it falls of (if we let it). Sometimes we learn that we need to be more aware of others, and what they are thinking. Another thing is that we need to learn that life is fragile, and we may need to take it more seriously.
Often times trials teach us something that we will need later on. As many of you are aware by now, one of my favorite Presidents is John F. Kennedy. I think in many ways he modeled important and positive character traits in his life for us to learn from. One event that comes to my mind was when he was in the U.S. Navy and was stationed overseas during World War II. He and his group of men where located in the Solomon Islands. And one night their PT boat was destroyed by a Japanese destroyer, and Kennedy ended up saving several of his injured crewmen from the ocean by swimming them to shore after they were floating in the water all night.
Kennedy would later say that by being in the Navy he learned everything that shouldn’t be done. That often can be the case. He also learned the importance and value of the lives of his fellow crewman, that these are real people making real decisions. This would help him later during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He came to the view that the military during his time often didn’t know what they were doing and what was right, and based of this perspective, he was able to make the right choices. And he was able to make those choices in a way where no one got hurt as a result of battle.
Our next verse is: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting” (1:5, 6, ESV). Sometimes within a trial, we lack wisdom as to why the trial is occurring. And sometimes we lack wisdom in a life circumstance which isn’t a trial. We just want to know what to do—or what would be best for us to do. We are undecided about something, as we can see things going good if we go one way, or good even if we were to go another way. Choices can complicate our decision. And, as we are in relationship with God, we want to do what God has aligned in our hearts—what he has put in our hearts. This isn’t always clear. It’s important that we stay aligned with what we really want to do because, if we do something long-term we don’t want to really do, it won’t work. We’ll quit at some point. Only we ourselves know what we really want.
Let us breakdown the word wisdom to help our minds explore what James is speaking of here. To lack wisdom? Wisdom could be defined as understanding, intelligence, knowledge, common sense, the best choice, good judgment, prudence, what is logical, what is rational, what is sound. One reason we can lack these things is because we are not all-knowing and omniscient. We sometimes have to take gambles. This is where a fear of being imperfect needs to be relinquished. The person who always strives to be perfect is incapable of acting in many varying life situations, especially ones like we are taking about that don’t have a clear answer. As I am a human, and so are you (unless you're listening from your saucer), we cannot always make the right choice all the time. It is part of our personhoods, part of our beings, as humans, to make mistakes. There is something wrong with us if we don’t.
What I have found as I have studied various topics, say, in psychology and the like fields that what is true always can be traced back in some way, shape, or form to the Bible. Perhaps you’ve noticed the same thing. There are a lot of works out there in the realm of psychology and self-improvement which contain a lot of truth. Truth, though, has its foundation in God, the One who created it. That’s why so many different types of books, the varying expositions by all different kinds of humans can be helpful for us. The person doesn’t have to be a believer in Jesus to benefit us. Any easy example of this is a doctor who learns how to perform surgeries. That doctor learns those skills based on truth. It is all tied back to what God designed in our bodies.
When we ask God for wisdom, the beautiful thing is that he will deliver to us. James says we need to be open-minded and faith-filled. I have found that God has delivered wisdom to me through books, secular televisions shows, talk shows, driving down the road, and yes, of course, other people in my life. The reality is, wisdom can come from pretty much anywhere. But God gears it toward our situation so that we hear, or see, exactly what we need to—that which enlightens us to help us with our situations, whether it is a trial or not. And the beautiful thing is, James also tells us that it is God’s delight to give us this knowledge. He wants us to be wise and thus successful. He wants us to have success at whatever it is we are setting out to succeed in. God loves it when we thrive, not when we dive.
Ah, but doubting can be a problem for some. James says, “for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (6-8 (ESV). This is what happens when we are not founded in the Word of God. This is why we need the Bible. James says, “the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.” Without God’s Word, things that aren’t true can seem good and reasonable. Ways that won’t work can seem right. Evil masquerading as the truth is a problem. The absence of the Word of God as a person’s foundation for all truth means that person can and will accept ideas that aren’t sound.
Doubting is something we find common at the first two Levels of Inner-Self, The Depression State and The Negative Existence. I think a root behind a lot of doubt is the fear that what we want won’t happen. And behind the fear of a wish not being fulfilled means the person wants whatever it is too much. Think about it. The want can be to get out from the trial. Why else is someone seeking wisdom for the trial? Wisdom is our way to try to overcome the problem. But the want is too strong. This causes the person to petition for wisdom from God. But because the want is too strong, the person is fearful they won’t get what they want—release from the trial. And because they fear they won’t get what they want, they doubt when they go to ask God for help.
This is why doubting is bad, and why we are not to live on a negative level of thinking. Doubting is negative. The Level Three and Four persons have overcome doubt and are in a positive state of being. How does one overcome doubt? By surrendering the desire for wisdom, that’s how. When a person goes to God in prayer and asks for the understanding, the person should say to themselves, “I will be happy if God gives me the answer, and I will be happy also if he chooses not to.” You might say, “But isn’t that doubting! You are saying to yourself that God may not help you!” Actually, it isn’t. Doubting is when a person genuinely believes that God doesn’t want to help them, or just won’t help them for whatever reason. The strong-minded person knows God will help them. But they are surrendered to the desire for that help. In other words, what matters is God, and whether or not the answer is received is secondary. There’s not too tight a grip.
A person who isn’t completely surrendered to a situation is double-minded and unstable. That’s what is so great about surrender. When we go to God in prayer, we what? We surrender whatever it is. Don’t believe me? Peter said it, remember? 1 Peter 5:6-8, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful” (ESV). That’s how we humble ourselves before God: surrender. Then Peter tells us our answer, our wisdom, our release from the trial, it what? It comes at the proper time. At that time God exalts us out of it. So, instead of being double-minded, we are sober-minded. Do you see? Sober-mindedness is the opposite of double-mindedness. When we are sober-minded we aren’t drunken with this or that idea, or trying to go in this and then that direction. Rather, we are “watchful” for our answer to come.
Okay. James 1:9-11: “Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.” The reality is, no matter who we are, we all have the same fate at the end of the day. It doesn’t matter what our level of wealth is. We can be very wealthy, but we cannot escape death. But really, if you think about, why is death something to be feared, or something to have a longing to escape? That’s a negative attitude. Rather, the time death occurs should be embraced because it brings us to exist permanently with our Creator.
Money is no respecter of persons when it comes to what Level of Inner-Self we currently are on. A person can be very wealthy and yet very negative. Wealth also doesn’t make a person happy. A person who doesn’t have a lot of money can be very happy. Likewise, a person who has all the money in the world can commit suicide. We’ve seen it in the news. The fate, though, is the same for the poorer and the richer. Both enter the afterlife. The lowly person might see the exit from this life as a great gain in riches. If a rich person held onto his or her riches, that’s unfortunate because they about to lose them. But, if the rich person was rich toward others, all will be better for him or her.
No matter what we have, no matter how beautiful we are, this earthly beauty won’t last—at least here. What is James getting at? What is the concern on his heart? What is the concern behind his words? There it is again, a longing that is too strong. Things that aren’t surrendered. We should care about how we look. It’s not wrong for a person to dye their hair or even to use makeup. The problem is when the focus is too strong on these things. What is a good test to use to test your own level of desire? Simply this: if you feel great anxiety in dying right now versus living then some things aren’t surrendered. I know, that’s deep. Let’s make it easier. If the thought of your body in the grave right now bothers you greatly, then may I suggest your desire for how your body is and the way it looks may be too strong? The flower falls and the beauty perishes.
I care about my body. I exercise daily. I lift weights; I try to build muscle. I eat right. I monitor my diet. I like to wear nice looking clothes. I like my hair to look good. In honesty, though, if God were to require my soul of me tonight, I really don’t think I would be bothered by the loss of all this. There is no way to know for sure. But I think my reservation would be that I would have to leave instead of accomplishing more to leave behind to benefit humanity. I would be concerned about my loved ones, and who would help them. But, really, that’s not being too humble, is it? God is the one who helps people, and he uses all kinds of means to do that.
Yes, I have pursuits and so do you. Most of us do, whether they are big or small. Depending on our current level of thinking, our pursuits will be either based on what we can obtain for ourselves (again, wantingness), or on how we can help and be a benefit to others (how we can rest in our contentment). So, wantingness versus contentment. The higher we are on the levels of Inner-Self, the freer we come to find we are. And as we become freer, we realize that it is the love, joy, peace, and patience that really matters. Anxiety, self-righteousness, aggravation, and wantingness have been overcome, and so death is easy to accept, and in fact welcomed. The fear of it is gone; the pride of life is seen to be overrated; and the longing to continue with the pursuits of this world has been surrendered.
It is gracious of God how he permits people to grow old. This makes it easier for people to accept the fact they are going to die, and it makes it easier for the people around them. As they see their bodies starting to wear down, starting to fade, they know the time is drawing nearer. And as those who are young observe, they come to this realization as well. The body is telling us that we’re not going have this life forever. A transition is going to occur. The day will come when we transcend into the third realm of existence, the physical Heaven, where Jesus is now, in his physical body. Then all of us will return to earth once everything has been redesigned how God wants it.
- Daniel Litton
Today’s Acknowledgements:
John F. Kennedy
Picking up where we left of last week, and we didn’t get very far. James chapter 1, re-reading verse 2 again: “Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of various kinds.”
Last week, after talking about the methods of understanding I want us to use for James, we started to discuss this verse. We discussed what trials are, what people’s responses can be (depending on their Level of Inner-Self, which I outlined), and how our faith is manifested in regard to those trials. Now that we’ve discussed what trials can be, let’s talk about where they come from. Let’s try to get a good understanding on that area—though I’m sure we are already pretty familiar with it.
Basically, three kinds of trials can exist for us. Trials can be self-induced. That is, we deliberately put ourselves in the trial for good reasons. Trials can also be caused by a mistake we have made. Still yet, trials can come to us without us having done anything. They are outside of any of our actions. Let’s go through these one-by-one.
What is the self-induced trial? Well, a good example of this is when a person enrolls in college to obtain a degree. The person enrolls knowing there is going to be hard work involved. There are going to be assignments. There will be papers. Late nights writing and studying. Tests and final exams to be taken. Classmates to work on projects with. Group meetings. At least in some of these things, there will be trialing events. That’s okay, though. The student knew that—that’s why he enrolled. He knew he needed to go through these self-induced trials in order to master his area of study and eventually obtain a degree. That’s the way it works if he wants to work in the certain field that requires that degree.
Then there are the mistakes we make. We make a wrong move. Originally, we thought we were making a right move. I mean, after all, all moves we make are based on a judgment, an evaluation, of what it is we decide to do. Sometimes we have tunnel vision, or we overlooked something, or we just didn’t consider all the things we should have. We’ve made a mistake. An accident has occurred, and it’s our fault. Depending on our level on inner-self, we react in different ways. We may get angry and upset, and be full of guilt. We say to ourselves, “I should have know better. If only I would have done that instead. If only I had waited and not done anything!” Or, if we are on the positive side we say, “Gee, I made a mistake. But I’m not going to blow this up out of proportion. Life is more than any one mistake, and I am too.”
Finally, we have those things that come to us that our outside of our control. There it is. That’s the big word, control, and some of us have a dreadful thought when we imagine a loss of control. What are some things that can happen in this area? A health problem. Death of a loved one. Loss of a career. Trouble with the son or daughter. Money down the toilet. The unexpected repair. The car breaks down. The car has been wrecked. The person talking behind our backs. The false accusation. The subpoena to court. The lawsuit. Our spouse cheated on us. Our spouse left us. They have filed for divorce. The daughter has been found to be smoking pot. The son has been arrested. The dog or cat has died. We feel God has abandoned us.
What is our goal then? James tells us it is “steadfastness.” He said, “the testing of [our] faith produces steadfastness.” Let’s define what steadfastness means. When we’ve been through trials and come out on the other end, we learn that God is faithful. We can look back and recognize that he was with us. There was never a time, not even a moment, when we wasn’t by our side. He helped get us through whatever it was. He helped us to make the right choices. At least, all this being said, this is the way it is for the positive-minded person.
What about the negative person? If we are negative, we don’t learn. We were too upset by the trial. We had our thoughts on ourself. That’s all we cared about. God was still faithful, but it took a lot longer of a time to get through it. We had not only the trial to deal with, but we had ourselves also. We may have found that we were the greater trial of the two. The actual ‘trial’ may not have been as bad as trying to work through our negative emotions about the trial. We were a mess. We don’t let the trial produce the steadfastness. Nah, we flunked out. We were too angry. It really didn’t do us any good, did it?
So, the next sentence from James has its fulfillment: “And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (v. 3, 4, ESV). Yes, this is for the positive, faith-filled person. Those on Levels Three and Four of Inner-Self. The problem is, if we were on the negative end of the spectrum, the trial didn’t have its full effect for us. It was a partial effect, or no beneficial effect at all. We resisted the trial. We didn’t surrender to it. By resisting, we hindered God’s work in us. Now we are not made perfect by it, or complete for that matter, but we are still imperfect and lacking. We, like Jesus disciples a lot of the time, either still yet have no faith, or we are desperately lacking in it. We didn’t grow out of it.
You see, surrender is the key. It’s what I went over last week in our introductory part to the Book of James. One of the pillars to our lives is surrender. When we surrender, we don’t let a trial have power over us. We surrender to it when it comes. In the negative levels of inner-self, there are two incorrect ways we can react. We can resist it or we can ignore it. We don’t want to fight it or resist it. We don’t ignore it or push it away. Rather, we face it head on. We keep our patience and we watch God work. Resisting will only lead us to suppress what we are really feeling. When we fight the trial, we find ourselves not making the right choices. We are angry with God. Angry at others. Angry at the world. Upset with life in general. This doesn’t help us, and it doesn’t help anybody else.
The beautiful thing is, behind every life-trial is a precious awareness to be learned. Now, I know, that doesn’t sound too hot at first glance. You might say, “I don’t want to learn anything new. I’ve been through school and learned enough.” Yes, but unfortunately, really I should say fortunately, we still have much to learn. Yes, there is always something new to be taught. Sometimes within a trial it is not obvious what that awareness is. Sometimes pinpointing it can be painful, especially if we are in the lower levels of inner-self. If we are a prideful person, a trial can take a big hammer smack at our pride, and a big piece of it falls of (if we let it). Sometimes we learn that we need to be more aware of others, and what they are thinking. Another thing is that we need to learn that life is fragile, and we may need to take it more seriously.
Often times trials teach us something that we will need later on. As many of you are aware by now, one of my favorite Presidents is John F. Kennedy. I think in many ways he modeled important and positive character traits in his life for us to learn from. One event that comes to my mind was when he was in the U.S. Navy and was stationed overseas during World War II. He and his group of men where located in the Solomon Islands. And one night their PT boat was destroyed by a Japanese destroyer, and Kennedy ended up saving several of his injured crewmen from the ocean by swimming them to shore after they were floating in the water all night.
Kennedy would later say that by being in the Navy he learned everything that shouldn’t be done. That often can be the case. He also learned the importance and value of the lives of his fellow crewman, that these are real people making real decisions. This would help him later during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He came to the view that the military during his time often didn’t know what they were doing and what was right, and based of this perspective, he was able to make the right choices. And he was able to make those choices in a way where no one got hurt as a result of battle.
Our next verse is: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting” (1:5, 6, ESV). Sometimes within a trial, we lack wisdom as to why the trial is occurring. And sometimes we lack wisdom in a life circumstance which isn’t a trial. We just want to know what to do—or what would be best for us to do. We are undecided about something, as we can see things going good if we go one way, or good even if we were to go another way. Choices can complicate our decision. And, as we are in relationship with God, we want to do what God has aligned in our hearts—what he has put in our hearts. This isn’t always clear. It’s important that we stay aligned with what we really want to do because, if we do something long-term we don’t want to really do, it won’t work. We’ll quit at some point. Only we ourselves know what we really want.
Let us breakdown the word wisdom to help our minds explore what James is speaking of here. To lack wisdom? Wisdom could be defined as understanding, intelligence, knowledge, common sense, the best choice, good judgment, prudence, what is logical, what is rational, what is sound. One reason we can lack these things is because we are not all-knowing and omniscient. We sometimes have to take gambles. This is where a fear of being imperfect needs to be relinquished. The person who always strives to be perfect is incapable of acting in many varying life situations, especially ones like we are taking about that don’t have a clear answer. As I am a human, and so are you (unless you're listening from your saucer), we cannot always make the right choice all the time. It is part of our personhoods, part of our beings, as humans, to make mistakes. There is something wrong with us if we don’t.
What I have found as I have studied various topics, say, in psychology and the like fields that what is true always can be traced back in some way, shape, or form to the Bible. Perhaps you’ve noticed the same thing. There are a lot of works out there in the realm of psychology and self-improvement which contain a lot of truth. Truth, though, has its foundation in God, the One who created it. That’s why so many different types of books, the varying expositions by all different kinds of humans can be helpful for us. The person doesn’t have to be a believer in Jesus to benefit us. Any easy example of this is a doctor who learns how to perform surgeries. That doctor learns those skills based on truth. It is all tied back to what God designed in our bodies.
When we ask God for wisdom, the beautiful thing is that he will deliver to us. James says we need to be open-minded and faith-filled. I have found that God has delivered wisdom to me through books, secular televisions shows, talk shows, driving down the road, and yes, of course, other people in my life. The reality is, wisdom can come from pretty much anywhere. But God gears it toward our situation so that we hear, or see, exactly what we need to—that which enlightens us to help us with our situations, whether it is a trial or not. And the beautiful thing is, James also tells us that it is God’s delight to give us this knowledge. He wants us to be wise and thus successful. He wants us to have success at whatever it is we are setting out to succeed in. God loves it when we thrive, not when we dive.
Ah, but doubting can be a problem for some. James says, “for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (6-8 (ESV). This is what happens when we are not founded in the Word of God. This is why we need the Bible. James says, “the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.” Without God’s Word, things that aren’t true can seem good and reasonable. Ways that won’t work can seem right. Evil masquerading as the truth is a problem. The absence of the Word of God as a person’s foundation for all truth means that person can and will accept ideas that aren’t sound.
Doubting is something we find common at the first two Levels of Inner-Self, The Depression State and The Negative Existence. I think a root behind a lot of doubt is the fear that what we want won’t happen. And behind the fear of a wish not being fulfilled means the person wants whatever it is too much. Think about it. The want can be to get out from the trial. Why else is someone seeking wisdom for the trial? Wisdom is our way to try to overcome the problem. But the want is too strong. This causes the person to petition for wisdom from God. But because the want is too strong, the person is fearful they won’t get what they want—release from the trial. And because they fear they won’t get what they want, they doubt when they go to ask God for help.
This is why doubting is bad, and why we are not to live on a negative level of thinking. Doubting is negative. The Level Three and Four persons have overcome doubt and are in a positive state of being. How does one overcome doubt? By surrendering the desire for wisdom, that’s how. When a person goes to God in prayer and asks for the understanding, the person should say to themselves, “I will be happy if God gives me the answer, and I will be happy also if he chooses not to.” You might say, “But isn’t that doubting! You are saying to yourself that God may not help you!” Actually, it isn’t. Doubting is when a person genuinely believes that God doesn’t want to help them, or just won’t help them for whatever reason. The strong-minded person knows God will help them. But they are surrendered to the desire for that help. In other words, what matters is God, and whether or not the answer is received is secondary. There’s not too tight a grip.
A person who isn’t completely surrendered to a situation is double-minded and unstable. That’s what is so great about surrender. When we go to God in prayer, we what? We surrender whatever it is. Don’t believe me? Peter said it, remember? 1 Peter 5:6-8, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful” (ESV). That’s how we humble ourselves before God: surrender. Then Peter tells us our answer, our wisdom, our release from the trial, it what? It comes at the proper time. At that time God exalts us out of it. So, instead of being double-minded, we are sober-minded. Do you see? Sober-mindedness is the opposite of double-mindedness. When we are sober-minded we aren’t drunken with this or that idea, or trying to go in this and then that direction. Rather, we are “watchful” for our answer to come.
Okay. James 1:9-11: “Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.” The reality is, no matter who we are, we all have the same fate at the end of the day. It doesn’t matter what our level of wealth is. We can be very wealthy, but we cannot escape death. But really, if you think about, why is death something to be feared, or something to have a longing to escape? That’s a negative attitude. Rather, the time death occurs should be embraced because it brings us to exist permanently with our Creator.
Money is no respecter of persons when it comes to what Level of Inner-Self we currently are on. A person can be very wealthy and yet very negative. Wealth also doesn’t make a person happy. A person who doesn’t have a lot of money can be very happy. Likewise, a person who has all the money in the world can commit suicide. We’ve seen it in the news. The fate, though, is the same for the poorer and the richer. Both enter the afterlife. The lowly person might see the exit from this life as a great gain in riches. If a rich person held onto his or her riches, that’s unfortunate because they about to lose them. But, if the rich person was rich toward others, all will be better for him or her.
No matter what we have, no matter how beautiful we are, this earthly beauty won’t last—at least here. What is James getting at? What is the concern on his heart? What is the concern behind his words? There it is again, a longing that is too strong. Things that aren’t surrendered. We should care about how we look. It’s not wrong for a person to dye their hair or even to use makeup. The problem is when the focus is too strong on these things. What is a good test to use to test your own level of desire? Simply this: if you feel great anxiety in dying right now versus living then some things aren’t surrendered. I know, that’s deep. Let’s make it easier. If the thought of your body in the grave right now bothers you greatly, then may I suggest your desire for how your body is and the way it looks may be too strong? The flower falls and the beauty perishes.
I care about my body. I exercise daily. I lift weights; I try to build muscle. I eat right. I monitor my diet. I like to wear nice looking clothes. I like my hair to look good. In honesty, though, if God were to require my soul of me tonight, I really don’t think I would be bothered by the loss of all this. There is no way to know for sure. But I think my reservation would be that I would have to leave instead of accomplishing more to leave behind to benefit humanity. I would be concerned about my loved ones, and who would help them. But, really, that’s not being too humble, is it? God is the one who helps people, and he uses all kinds of means to do that.
Yes, I have pursuits and so do you. Most of us do, whether they are big or small. Depending on our current level of thinking, our pursuits will be either based on what we can obtain for ourselves (again, wantingness), or on how we can help and be a benefit to others (how we can rest in our contentment). So, wantingness versus contentment. The higher we are on the levels of Inner-Self, the freer we come to find we are. And as we become freer, we realize that it is the love, joy, peace, and patience that really matters. Anxiety, self-righteousness, aggravation, and wantingness have been overcome, and so death is easy to accept, and in fact welcomed. The fear of it is gone; the pride of life is seen to be overrated; and the longing to continue with the pursuits of this world has been surrendered.
It is gracious of God how he permits people to grow old. This makes it easier for people to accept the fact they are going to die, and it makes it easier for the people around them. As they see their bodies starting to wear down, starting to fade, they know the time is drawing nearer. And as those who are young observe, they come to this realization as well. The body is telling us that we’re not going have this life forever. A transition is going to occur. The day will come when we transcend into the third realm of existence, the physical Heaven, where Jesus is now, in his physical body. Then all of us will return to earth once everything has been redesigned how God wants it.
- Daniel Litton
Today’s Acknowledgements:
John F. Kennedy