But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. – James 1:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 11, 2014): James 1

A recent CNN report described the way that ISIS trains youth to fight for its purposes. And not surprisingly, part of the training is the reassuring of the youth that God (Allah) is on their side – and it is his purpose to restore and sustain them. The resulting confidence allows the newly trained recruits to be willing to try anything. Conversely, one of the most effective weapons that ISIS possesses is the ability to sew doubt in the mind of the enemy – and that is something that they seem to be very effective at doing. The result is that ISIS continues to move forward in spite of being put up against one of the most technologically advanced armies on the planet – the United States Military. But if there is a weakness in the U.S., at times it is the high degree of doubt that seems to exist in its political policies. It is a weakness that ISIS seeks to stress into the minds of the soldiers that they are fighting against; it is a weakness that ISIS needs to exploit.

But it is not just in our military endeavors that doubt surfaces as our enemy. Advances in every area of life are routinely made by people who are confident that the answer exists, and the simplest puzzle that we could be asked to solve is unanswerable if we doubt that an answer is possible.

So James exhorts his readers to believe, and not to doubt. His concern is that the Christian who doubts will not be able to stay the course; they will not keep the faith. And unfortunately, Christianity is filled with examples of people who acted against the very things that they said that they believed, and the main reason was simply that at some point they allowed doubt to creep in, and that doubt allowed the offending action to be considered.

We need to believe. And as much as is possible, we need to be certain of our faith. We need to be willing to do whatever it takes to be sure about what it is that we believe. The real difference between the Christian and the ISIS recruit is object of our faith. Ironically, James is advocating faith in Jesus, but that faith was late developing in James’ own life. This half-brother of Jesus didn’t seem to have any faith in his sibling until after Jesus death and resurrection. But then James recognized his error, and placed his faith in the risen Christ.  Eventually, James would rise to the position of being the leader of the church in Jerusalem. And at the time that James wrote this letter, James and his unshakable faith was the most important leader of the early church.      

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: James 2

Note: In my part of the world, today is Remembrance Day, a day that we honor those who have served and continual to serve in our Military. We thank each one of you, in every part of the world, for your sacrifice on our behalf.