Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hpe fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. I Peter 1:13
I ask because I want . . .
I want because I do not have . . .
I wonder on that I do not have . . . that’s doubt.
I reason when I wonder . . . that’s distrust.
I get so confused . . . that’s distraction.
I want to live from faith to faith . . .
But, I doubt when I lose faith . . .
And, I do not believe when I doubt.
If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything form the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. James 1:5-7
Lord Jesus, this unsettles my soul. I am fearful . . . I am that man. I know the battlefield is not for my heart — it already belongs to you! The battlefield is for my mind. I thought about my children this morning in the early hours, about your words from Proverbs 22:6, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” I find great comfort in knowing this, as my children face so many obstacles — none too large for you. As you know, I thought, too, how our minds are much like children — they need training. While my soul belongs to you and my spirit lends its ear for hearing you, my mind . . . well, it has a mind of its own. My mind has been trained to speak loud against my spirit and disbelieve many things. When I disbelieve, I disobey. But this is more than just a declaration, it’s a prayer of revelation — one of finally seeing the root of my angst, the nourishment of my doubt and the birth of stillborn hope. Renew these thoughts into a river of peace, resting in the joy of faith, not by sight, but faith through belief in who you are and what you are doing in me.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2
I ask because you make it possible to come before you to seek you in fulfilling the desires of my heart (Psalm 37:4) . . .
I seek you with my desires because I want to experience you in all things (Matthew 6:33) . . .
I trust you in all things with all of my heart (Proverbs 3:5-6) . . .
I live from faith to faith, believing you when what I see does not make sense (Luke 1:45).