One time Cheryl, our son Michael & I were waiting to place an order in the drive through line at a fast-food restaurant, and it looked like the people in front of us were having a difficult time making up their mind as to what they wanted. Cheryl came up with the idea that they should have two lines at the drive-throughs: one for people who know what they want, and one for people who can’t make up their mind — and Michael immediately chipped in: “Like Dad!”  (Sometimes it’s just hard to know what you want!)

Well, not being able to make up your mind at McDonald’s or Wendy’s is not the worst thing in the world. But when it comes to our commitment to God, we need to be decisive. This what we see in James 1:6-8 today.

Last week we saw that when we are going through trials, we should ask God for the wisdom we need to see things from His perspective, and to act wisely in our trial, and He promised that if we will do that, He would give us the wisdom we need. Now, someone may say, “Well, I asked the Lord for wisdom, and He hasn’t shown me anything.” There may be a reason for that, as we see in verses 6-8:

“But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

These verses show us that a total commitment to the Lord is an important part of “What Real Faith Looks Like.”

I. Real Faith has a single-minded commitment to seek God

James says if you want God to answer your prayer for wisdom in your trial, you need to ask in faith. “But let him ask in faith, without any doubting,” he says. Again, James may be basically quoting what he’d heard Jesus say many times before, in verses like Matthew 21:21, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. So James says we need to ask in faith.

Well, how do you know if you are asking in faith? First of all, the “faith” James is talking about is not just any faith. When James talks about “faith” here, he is talking about the kind of faith he was speaking about in :1, where he said that he was “a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” It is a very specific faith, based first of all on a commitment to put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. So when you are asking in “faith”, you are asking on the basis of that relationship you have with the Lord. 

You’re also asking in faith if you are asking with the kind of fervor and consistency we talked about last week:
— if you ask persistently — more than just a quick prayer.
— if you seek His answer in His word like you would for silver or gold
— if you seek through godly counsel: asking wise Christians who know God’s word what insight they can give you.
— and, very basically, asking in faith means that you really do believe that there IS something in your situation that God is trying to accomplish. James told us earlier: “count it all joy in (our) various trials, KNOWING that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” That word “knowing” refers to the fact that you really believe in God, so you have faith that He really DOES have some specific purpose for what you are going through. If you really believe that, and you search for His purposes the way we talked about, then you are truly “asking in faith.”

So ask yourself, AM I doing that? It is one thing to SAY you want to know God’s wisdom; it is another to really believe that, and to  search for it diligently. 

One time the Lord got me up a little early and I did a little “prayer walk” in circles through the house. About the time I was wrapping it up, I saw that there were some cars out in the street, so I went over and looked, and the whole street was lined with cars! Our neighbors were having a garage sale, and people were getting there early. I looked at the clock, and it was 5:30 — on a Saturday morning! I thought, these people must REALLY want all those “treasures” our neighbors have! And then I thought: do those of us who say we want GOD’S treasures seek for it with that same kind of intensity? Do we get up at 5:00 or 5:30 to PRAY, and to seek God’s word? Are we searching His word like we would for “garage sale treasures” — or to fish, or  for a wild game hunt, or whatever else we might get up early for?

THAT is part of what it means to “ask in faith”: to be truly committed to Jesus as your Savior, to KNOW that God has a purpose for what you are going through, and to seek Him for it like you would for treasure.

I don’t want you to be afraid that when he says here, “ask in faith, without any doubting” that it means that if you have any shadow of doubt somewhere in your heart, that it means that God won’t answer your prayer. That is NOT what this verse is talking about. James describes in the next couple of verses, the kind of “doubt” that he is talking about — and he doesn’t mean someone who has some little nagging doubts. He’s not talking about a Christian person who might cry like the boy’s father in Mark  9:24, “I believe, help my unbelief.” The best and strongest of us have those moments. No, he’s referring to is a much deeper problem, one that goes to the very heart of a person’s commitment to God. Let’s look at the kind of doubting that James IS talking about — because many in the American church are just like the kind of person he describes in these verses:

II. Two Pictures of What Real Faith Does NOT Look Like!
What James was referring to is the lack of total commitment to Jesus that many professed Christians demonstrate. He uses two illustrations to express that lack of commitment:

A. “Tossed by the wind”
He says in :6 that “the one who doubts” in the way he is talking about “is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” What he describes here is a person with a basic instability in their commitment to the Lord. They have no “anchor” for their soul. they are “driven and tossed” like a wave in the wind.

These words: “like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind” are some of the very same Greek words that Paul uses in Ephesians 4:14, where he says that when we grow to spiritual maturity, “we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine …”.

In both of these passages, the picture is of being tossed about in whatever direction by the wind and waves. There’s no stability there; there’s no “anchor.” They just go up, down, wherever way the wind blows them.
I’m sure you’ve seen a cork bob up & down on a wave? James had lived by the Sea of Galilee! He had seen things bob in the waves too — and that’s the picture he uses here. Unfortunately, that’s also the picture of many people’s lives: they just “bob up & down” like a cork, sometimes soaring up to heaven, sometimes sinking in worldliness.

One of the things this kind of inconsistency reveals is a lack of a basic commitment to the Lord. RCH Lenski writes: “Alas, too many speak proper words when they pray amid trials, but they do not mean them in the bottom of their hearts.” He’s talking about the person who can’t really decide if they want God’s purpose for themselves or not — or do they want something else? Jesus asked the blind man in Mark 10:51, “What do you want Me to do for you?” — that is NOT always the obvious question we might think it is! What do you really want? 

— Do you really want God’s purpose for yourself, or not?! 

— Do you really want to overcome that temptation, or are you inwardly looking forward to giving in to it again? 

— Do you really want God’s will, or do you just want to consider it? 

— Do you really MEAN the words of your prayer, or like Lenski wrote, are you just “saying the right thing”? 

This is a soul-searching question! What do you really want? THAT is what James is talking about here when he says you mustn’t doubt when you ask. He’s not saying you can’t have little “nagging doubts.” He’s saying you’ve got to be committed; you can’t be be “up and down” about what you really want from God.

He is not saying that unless you don’t ever have any doubts in your mind, God will never answer your prayers. He’s saying that He won’t answer someone who’s not really committed to Him; He won’t answer someone who wants God’s wisdom and blessing one moment, and the world’s wisdom and blessing the next! You can’t be “bobbing up and down” on what you really want, and expect that God will answer you.

B. “Double-Minded”
This word, “double-minded” is “di-psuchos”, literally, “two-souled.” In the whole New Testament this word is only used here and also in James 4:8, where James says, “Purify your hearts, you double-minded.” Many believe that James actually coined this word, because it was never used anywhere in literature before James was written, but it is quoted in several other Christian documents after James. And you can see WHY they would quote it; it’s quite a picturesque word: someone with “two minds.” It describes someone who doesn’t really have a total commitment to the Lord.
— II Kings 17:33 says of Israel that: “They worshipped the Lord, but they also served their own gods.” These people were “double-minded”: they were trying to serve both Yahweh and false gods at the same time.
— In Galatians 2, Paul called Peter out for acting one way when he was with Gentiles, and another way when he was with Jews. Paul called him hypocritical, which is a form of being “double-minded.” He was acting one way with one group of people, and another way with another group.

John Bunyan, in his classic book, Pilgrim’s Progress, calls one of his characters, “Mr. Facing Both Ways.” Charles Spurgeon wrote a typically “Spurgeonesque” description of those who act like “Mr. Facing Both Ways”: 

“New company makes them new men. Like water, they boil or freeze according to the temperature. Some do this because they have no principles; they are of the weathercock persuasion, and turn with the wind… north, south, east, west, north-east, north-west, … or any other in all the world. Like frogs they live on land or water, and are not at all particular which it is …
Others … are so good-natured that they must needs agree with everybody…. Their brains are in other people’s heads. If they were at Rome they would kiss the pope’s toe, but when they are at home they make themselves hoarse with shouting “No Popery.” They admire the vicar of Bray, whose principle was to be the Vicar of Bray whether the Church was Protestant or [Catholic]. … They have no backbones; you may bend them like willow wands, backwards or forwards, whichever way you please. They try to be Jack-o’-both-sides, but deserve to be kicked like a football by both parties.”

That’s a great picture! Being “double-minded” is like having a “split personality” in your spiritual life:
— It means you have one mind in the church, and another mind on the job
— You have one mind on Sunday morning; but a totally different mind on Saturday night
— You have one mind when you are in Sunday School, another when you’re at the High School.
There are a lot of ways you can be “double-minded”, but it basically means you really don’t have a firm commitment one way or another. And “not having a firm commitment one way or another” is NOT what real faith looks like!

Some time back “Christianity Today” magazine had an article entitled, “Hipster Faith.” It talked about how many younger people today are not content to follow a “traditional” kind of Christianity; rather they want to be “cool” like their friends in the world are: so the “hipster” churches meet in bars; they may sip beers while they discuss theology; they rebel against authority; they curse in their sermons for shock effect, and smoke and drink and do many of the same things their secular friends do. The author of the article didn’t make a judgement about “Hipster Faith”, but he did ASK how they can reconcile being a “hipster” with the Bible’s admonition for us to be different from the world? And he asks: is this not just another example of the church trying to imitate the world, which is a never-ending chase which never brings us closer to Biblical Christianity.

I think that what we see in that “Hipster Faith” is a group of people are paralyzed between the choice of being “cool” and being “Christian.” For a whole generation or two now, we’ve seen in many so-called “Christians” this desire to be BOTH “cool” and “Christian” at the same time. For many churches, it seems like the most important consideration in the choice of a youth minister is that he is “cool.” Doesn’t matter if he knows a lick of theology or not — and many of them don’t! The “unpardonable sin” in much of modern ministry is not being “cool.” The problem is, there comes a time when you can’t be “cool” and Christian at the same time; you have to make a choice. Yet thousands of Christians (or would-be Christians) basically find themselves paralyzed between wanting to both be “hip” and wanting to follow Jesus.

Now, to be fair, many of the “hipsters” are just imitating what they have seen in the older generation, who had their own double-minded compromise with the world. They’ve seen many of the older generation compromise their faith with materialism and the so-called “American Dream,” which equates being a “good Christian” with having a nice home, an SUV, a membership at the golf course, and watching “Fox News.” Many middle-class Americans have their own version of being “double-minded”: which are they more committed to, serving God, or serving money?

Whatever form it takes, this is what James is talking about when he describes the “double-minded” person. They really haven’t decided what they want the most. They kind of want to serve the Lord, but they also really like the world, too. Who are they going to serve?

THAT is the person James says who is not going to get his prayers answered. It is not the person who has little “nagging doubts.” It’s the person who wants to “ride the fence” spiritually, who is half-hearted in their commitment to God — and then wants to claim all these verses like James 1:5 about what God will do for them. Too many people are trying to claim God’s promises without meeting God’s conditions! James says: “Let not that man expect that he will receive ANYTHING from the Lord …”. You won’t get an answer from God until you have a single-minded commitment to Him!

III. Real Faith Affects Your Whole Life
The kind of commitment you have to God will affect everything you do. James said, “The double-minded man (is) unstable in ALL his ways.” This tells us that your faith commitment –- whatever it is — will affect every aspect of your life, for better or for worse. If you are not totally committed to the Lord, then you will be unstable in ALL your ways — it affects every area of your life.

You may have heard of a two-headed snake, but if  you’ve seen one, you’ve seen a rarity. One of the reasons they’re so rare is that they usually don’t live long, because the two heads compete for control of the body. So when they face a predator, for example, one head wants to go one way, and the other head wants to go another way, and the body is basically paralyzed — so the snake ends up getting killed.

The same thing happens to us when we are “double-minded” like James describes here. It makes us “unstable in ALL (our) ways.” You can’t have a solid direction for your life when you haven’t really nailed down who you are going to serve. It just “paralyzes” you, like that snake. And it affects everything you do. EVERY area of your life is affected by your commitment — or LACK of commitment — to the Lord.

When you are a genuine believer, every area of your life is affected by your commitment to Christ. Landry Jones, the former quarterback for the University of Oklahoma and the Pittsburgh Steelers, is an example of someone of that. In an interview with the Baptist Press, he said that he was not a football player who happens to be a Christian; he is a Christian who happens to play football. There is a BIG difference! Too many people really want to be something else — and just happen to be a Christian too. They want to just “add” Jesus as a little part of their life. They want to do whatever they were going to do anyway — only now with a cross around their neck, so they can think they’re going to heaven. That is NOT “What Real Faith Looks Like.” 

Genuine faith does begin with a confession of Jesus as your Lord & Savior. You realize that God made you to know and love Him — but you also realize that you have sinned, and fallen short of what He made you for. Then, yes, you understand that Jesus died on the cross and paid for your sins, and you commit your life to Him. But that faith in Jesus is NOT just some little thing you “add” on to your life; if it’s real, your faith will affect everything you do.

For example, Landry Jones’ faith affected his entire life. As a junior at OU, he was projected to be a first-round draft pick in the NFL, and make millions of dollars. Instead he chose to come back to OU for one more year. People speculated on why he made that decision, but the truth finally came out. Many were shocked that it had almost nothing to do with either money or football. Jones had just married another strong Christian, OU women’s basketball player Whitney Hand. They decided that it would not be good for him to be away at the NFL for the first year of their marriage. So they decided he would come back to OU. It wasn’t money or his “career” which was most important, it was his commitment to his marriage because he is a follower of Christ that determined his decision. That’s what it means that Jones is not “a football player who happens to be a Christian.” His commitment to Jesus Christ determines what He will do in every area of his life: even his football; even his money. That is what total commitment means. It affects every area of your life. That “is what real faith looks like”!

Now, contrast that with a lot of other football players and celebrities who “profess” to be Christians, but party like the world, live immorally, and act in every way just like lost people, the only difference is that they claim to know Jesus. But their lack of a genuine commitment to Christ shows, because the double-minded man is unstable in ALL his ways. Your faith, if it is real, will affect EVERYTHING you do. The way you live reveals if your commitment to the Lord is really genuine.

This scripture today calls us to ask ourselves: “Who am I really going to be?”:

—  Are you going to be a totally committed follower of Jesus Christ, no matter what? 

— Or are you going to be a “cool person” no matter what? Or a rich person no matter what, or a popular person no matter what — or anything else no matter what? What is the most important thing in your life going to be?

The thing is, you can’t be both sold out to Jesus and to something else at the same time. You can only be sold out to one thing. The subtitle of that Christianity Today article on “Hipster Faith” was “What happens when cool meets Christ?” That’s an important question: what DOES happen when “cool” meets Christ? What happens is what happens ANY time two priorities collide: you get faced with a choice as to who or what you are really going to be committed to.

Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters; either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.”  Jesus said the Great Commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart”. Not SOME of it — ALL of it! Jesus made it clear that you cannot remain “double-minded” and belong to Him. You have to make a choice — a real commitment to serve Him, which will affect every area of your life, and everything you do, ALL the time. 
— Joshua told the Israelites in Joshua 24:15, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve”. Then he made his choice: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
— Elijah said to the Israelites on Mount Carmel: “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” (I Kings 18:21)

You have the same choice this morning: Who are you really going to be? What is the one thing you are going to be sold out to? God is calling you to choose Him, as the One, True Lord & God of your life. Hebrews 6:19 says when you do, it will be like “an anchor for your soul.” When you have that solid commitment to Jesus, you won’t be like that two-headed snake; you won’t be driven here and there by the wind like James talks about, but you’ll be solid, anchored by your commitment to Jesus Christ. And you can be confident that God will answer your prayers, and He’ll give you the wisdom you need in your trials. But if you really DO have that commitment, it won’t be hard to spot, because it will affect every decision you make, and everything you do in your life. THAT is “What Real Faith Looks Like”!