Strengthening Our Wavering Faith - Part 1

0:27 For example, that's how you were saved. how you have a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ. When you come to pray, there's always the issue of faith. When it comes to healing and asking God for healing, there's always the issue of faith. In fact, your whole daily life is an expression of faith, either your unbelief, your doubt, or your faith. And yet, in spite of all that and the fact that we know it, there's one aspect of our faith that all of us have to deal with continually. We don't like to deal with it. We'd like to eliminate it once and for all, but somehow we don't or we can't. So I want you to turn, if you will, to James chapter 1. And you'll recall that he's writing here to those who are going through difficulty and hardship and persecution. So having introduced it in the first verse, he begins the second verse by saying, Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

1:28 And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men or women generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without any doubting, for he who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. But let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Every single one of us has had the problem with wavering faith because there's some things that hit us blindsided or hit us right in the front. There's some things that you and I know that we need and we come to ask God for and we waffle in our faith. We say, well, now, here's what he said.

2:21 Here's what I ask. I'm going to trust God. Hallelujah. Amen. About a half hour later, we say, oh, God, I hope you will. I hope you will. And so, what happens? We go back and forth. You know what he says? He says, don't expect to get it. That's a pretty strong statement. I want us to examine for a few moments what causes us to wave in our faith. We have been saved by the grace of God. We have the Bible. We have the promises of God. We know what he says. We know he's an unconditional loving God. We would agree that he's absolutely faithful. He's what in the world makes us weave and wobble and to and fro and wave in our faith? Why do we do it? Number one is this. If you and I are uncertain about what we're asking about, if we're uncertain about the will of God, if we don't have some promise from His Word, and I don't say that you always have to find some promise, but if you and I are asking, making any request of God, somewhere in the Scripture, there is a promise that certainly would relate to what you're asking for.

3:24 or relationships or whatever it is, the promise is there. So if I don't know what the will of God is and I'm saying, now, Lord, here's what I'm asking you, then where do I start? Here's where I start. I start with this request. Father, here's my need. Here's what I'm asking for. I need to know what is your will about this. That's where I start. What's the will of the Father? Do I have a right to ask God to show me how to pray about a certain thing? Yes. Do I have a right to expect God to show me exactly how to ask Him or what to ask Him for? Yes. Does He want me to ask for the right thing? Yes. Is He committed to showing us exactly what to ask for? Yes. Therefore, when I say, Lord, show me Your will about this, how am I to pray about this? I'm not even sure this is what You want for my life. Show me Your will. God is under divine obligation to show you His will about how to pray for that issue because He wants you to ask the right thing.

4:19 Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Everyone who asks receives. He that seeks knocks. And to the person who is searching, I think, he says, God's going to open the door. God wants you to know. So first of all, you ask him. So one of the first reasons we waver is we don't know his will and we don't take time to find out his will. We just hope it is. Listen, hoping, listen, just hoping that you're praying right won't cut it, friend. If you want God to bless you, then stop long enough to find out

4:50 Number one, I need to know what God's will is. If I don't, I'm going to waver my faith. Second thing is this. Second cause is that oftentimes human reason runs counter or is in conflict to our faith. There's some things that God would require of us that are absolutely not humanly reasonable. For example, give you a scriptural illustration first of all. You remember that when Jesus had barred Peter's boat and they were there close to the shore boat and preaching. And finally, when they finished, he said, Peter, get your buddies together and let's go fishing. He said, we fished all night long. We fished all night. We didn't get one single bite. Throwing the net over, of course. We didn't get a thing. We're going fishing, Peter. Well, and I am sure this is what he must have felt. Well, he is the master, but I've been fishing Since I was a kid, my daddy taught me to fish.

5:49 And last night, we fished all night long. We didn't catch a thing. Yes, yes, master, we're going fishing. Because he was human. I mean, he knew all about fishing. And here's Jesus coming along in the morning. Probably wasn't the best time to fish anyway. The only difference was when Jesus is on board, you're going to get a big catch, no matter what's happening. So what happens? He waived in his faith. Now, every Sunday, many of you come to church in your own church, and you've never settled the issue whether to trust God or not. Oh, yes, I have. Well, prove it. Well, I've been saved. Well, that's pretty good. Well, but why do you have a struggle every Sunday? Well, the reason I struggle every Sunday is because you talk about tithing, and you're telling me that it's reasonable for me to take one penny out of every dime and give it to God, and nine pennies are going further than ten pennies. No way.

6:40 Prove that. $100 and you're telling me if I give God $10, my $90 are going further than $10. I can, it's just, it's a human reasoning. I can prove it won't work. If I go to the store and something costs $100 and I give him $90, he's going to say, no deal. So don't give me this reasonable stuff that tithing my income is reasonable. I never said it was reasonable. There's nothing about it that's reasonable. I agree. Human is not reasonable. But I challenge any person alive who has ever tithed their income to deny the fact that you do far better financially when you trust God with one-tenth of your income or more. Your 90% is going further every single time. And I would challenge anybody, and I've been tithing and giving more than a tithe since my first job, which was 13 years of age.

7:35 I made $4. present day, I've always given God more. And I can tell you, when you put it on a piece of paper and try to add up and subtract it, it never works. Here's what I want you to see. If it did, he wouldn't take any faith. Here's what happens. When you and I trust God, do you know what happens? The sovereign, omnipotent, almighty, all-knowing God who is sovereign of this universe, when you and I trust him, he, listen, he gets involved in whatever I'm dealing with and in his awesome power provides the need no matter what. You see, that's why it doesn't have to be reasonable. The Christian life is not reasonable. Let me ask you a question. Can you reason this one out? How can one man die 2,000 years ago on a cross and you 2,000 years later be absolutely, totally forgiven of your sin, have absolute, total, eternal security when one man back there that you have never met, never seen him, he died 2,000 years ago, and today you're forgiven of your sin.

8:40 That doesn't even make any sense, except that he's God. A lot of things don't make any sense except that there's God. And so, when you think about how he operates, God enables us in whatever circumstance we're in. It doesn't make any sense. Agreed. Just remember that. It's not even supposed to make sense. It just works because God's in it. He can take whatever you give him and multiply. When in need, give. If you feel lonely, then what do you do? You give yourself to someone else. You reach out to be a friend. When you are hurting, you reach out mercifully to someone else who is hurting. When you're despondent and you're depressed, you reach out to someone. You say, well, that's hard to do. I understand it's hard to do. Whatever we give, it shall be given back.

9:33 As you see, this is how wise God is. He didn't say, give money, give this, give that. He said, give and it shall be given you. Good measure, listen, good measure, press down. Shaken together, press down. What is he saying? You're going to get more than you give. That's the way God operates. Not reasonable. So, if I wait till I can reason it out, my faith is going to waver because I'm going to say, How are you going to do that? Yeah, I know that's what you said, and I believe what you said, but so our faith wavers. A third reason it'll waver is this, and that is when our feelings overshadow or overcome our faith. Now, most people have the biggest problem with their faith in this whole area of feeling. For example, somebody says, well, yeah, I've asked the Lord to show me. Well, are you trusting? Well, I, you know, I just, you know, to tell you the truth, I just don't feel worthy of God answering my prayer.

10:28 worthy. Forget it. So, feelings of unworthiness. I'm telling you, feelings are total disaster because they change continuously, not daily, but moment by moment. Listen, if you go by your feelings, your faith is going to wobble all over the place. Then I think also in terms of wavering faith, I think about the fact that when we fail to see God at work in our circumstances. So somebody says, well, you know, I asked God, I got on my knees and I got the word out and I prayed and I said, Lord, here's what you said. I'm trusting you. I'm believing you. And so what happens? Then we don't see anything happen. And listen, most of the time in big issues, God doesn't work real fast. And so what happens is because you and I can't see him at work,

11:23 we don't see the end result. Well, you know, if I could just see how it's going to turn out. No. Here's the problem. The problem is this. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that I'm to live by sight. I am to live by faith. And the whole issue of faith is I can't see. Now, what does the Bible say? The Bible says that you're not to walk by faith, not by sight, not by feeling. Two real obstacles to fully trusting God are sight and our feelings we like this idea of I want to feel that God's going to do it. I've had lots of answers to prayer that I didn't feel anything about. I just said, God, here's what you said. I'm trusting you for it. I'm going to believe you for it no matter what I see and what I feel. And so oftentimes we are waiting for God to show us the end result. He's not going to do it. Most of the time, 99.9.9% of the time, God is going to make us wait and lead us one step at a time.

12:23 and when we least expect his answer, there it is looking right at us. Now, that leads me to something else, and that is one of the primary reasons that we waver in our faith is because we listen to the negative counsel of other people. And so oftentimes we face a situation or circumstance, first people think, people think, let me tell you what's going on. What would you do? That is the worst thing you can do. Listen, everybody has advice and everybody has an opinion. Now, listen carefully. Because most people have a hard time with this. God has a unique will for your life. His will for your life is not like his will for anybody else's life. You are a specific individual whom God created for the purpose of ultimately bringing him glory, but accomplishing something in your life and accomplishing something through your life and for you. Therefore, no one else knows the will of God for your life.

13:19 That does not mean that God cannot give people insight to give you wise, godly counsel, but ultimately, you've got to have an affirmation from God. Listen, if you make decisions based on what other people tell you, you're going to make the wrong decision most of the time because most people, in order to get your approval, are going to tell you what they think you want to hear so they'll feel good and you'll feel good. That's why it's unwise. And so, you may seek godly counsel, but even if you've sought godly counsel, listen, you want God to affirm that counsel in some fashion. And so, if you wait and you just want to hear what someone else says, because you've heard people say, now, here's what I would do. They don't have any earthly idea what they would do until they're in your shoes. Listen, they've got to be in your shoes with your personality, with your emotional makeup, with your relationship to God, with your insight or your lack of insight, your knowledge or your ignorance, and there's so many things involved in them doing what, having you do what they would do, forget that.

14:27 And yet, that's what makes our faith way. Well, you know, I got in and I prayed and I asked the Lord to show me, and here's what I believe God said. But then, you know, I asked so-and-so, and they said, oh, God doesn't work that way. So, Lord, here's what you said, and I believe what you said, but then I went, I asked my best friend, and he said, man, you're dreaming. I don't want you to be disappointed now, so don't ask God for something that you're not going to have, and then you get disappointed, and it'll hurt your faith. Well, listen, they're destroying my faith by telling me that. And I can remember as a kid growing up when I still remember how I went through that, and this is what happened. Happened to go to a particular church. It was legalistic. And so, I heard this stuff all the time, sin after you're saved, you're going to hell." Well, you know, at 12 years of age, I was saved in 13, 14, those teenage years, and I'd get on my knees at night and ask God to forgive me for whatever in my life had not been right that day.

15:25 And then I'd remember what the pastor said, "'You sin against God, you're going to hell. So that sin it that shall die.'" I think, oh, whew. And then as I prayed, it's like I had this feeling, you're not going to hell. So, I thought, maybe that's the Holy Spirit telling me I'm not. Yeah, but this is what the pastor said. And as a kid, you know, I believe whatever he said. Well, he said I was going to hell if I sinned. I know I've sinned. And God, I'd get the Bible out and read me a few verses. And then I'd say, well, I'm not going to hell. Then I'd lie down and I'd think, yes, I am. I mean, I'm telling you, listen, my friend, legalistic church, you're already in trouble.

16:14 You're already in trouble. It'll cause your faith to waver. Listening to that kind of stuff cause your faith to waver. Well, I think also, when I think in terms of one of the primary reasons is that we focus on the circumstance. Listen, you're going through some difficult and hardship in life. What happens when you look at your trouble? What happens to the size of your trouble when you look at it? It's bigger and bigger. More and more complex. look at it, the larger it gets, the more complex, the more difficult it looks. You see, if I want my faith to be sturdy and strong, I need to get my focus on my Father, not on my problem. If you don't keep it on Him, here's what Satan will do. Satan will do everything in his power to cause you to keep your attention on the very things that destroy your faith. What we see, what we hear, what we feel, that's not the way God operates.

17:11 Another thing I think is very important to remember here is this, and that is that when a person is ignorant of God's ways, when a person doesn't know how God works, you're going to waver in your faith. Now, when you and I learn the ways of God, we can face anything in life, no matter what, remembering that our God is absolutely sovereign.

17:35 of our life, only what he allows, only for his purpose, only for his timing. He can change any circumstance, any purpose, any direction, any time he wants to do it. If I understand the ways of God, that's the whole issue of tithing. That's one of the ways of God. The whole idea of waiting upon the Lord for his time, that's one of the ways of God. We could just go through the Bible. The ways of God are many, many, many ways, how he operates. So listen, when I understand, when I can grasp this truth that God allows hardship and pain and suffering for the purpose of purifying our heart, strengthening our faith, teaching us endurance, enabling us to walk steadfastly in order to use us in a greater fashion. I understand that's one of his ways that I can face those difficulties and hardship and pain and suffering. What? With a sense of confidence and assurance and even joy amidst that because I know that the end result, I'm going to love the end result.