Read: James 1:2-8
As I’m writing this, I’m looking out at the sea. Well, the bay, but close enough. Over the past few days I’ve seen how quickly the waves can start to be tossed about when the wind blows or a storm comes.
Here in James, we see this metaphor used to describe the one who doubts. The context of this verse is about prayer – asking God for wisdom. It tells us that the one who asks will receive. Why? Because our God wants to give us good things.
How often do we doubt this fact? That our God wants to give us good things – the best things. It is the very first lie humanity believed. The snake in the garden tempted Adam and Eve by serving them the lie that God was holding back on them. That He wasn’t really, truly the perfectly good God that they thought He was. And when the devil gets us to believe that lie – to foster that doubt – the results are detrimental to us.
For those who doubt will be like waves tossed by the wind. Everything the world throws at us – the trials, the evil, the worries and cares – will toss us about if we don’t anchor our faith in the goodness and greatness of our God. If we don’t reject the lie that our God is not trustworthy. That’s what faith is – it’s choosing to trust in the goodness of our God and His plan even when everything around us seems to be telling us not to. It’s trusting that our trials can and will produce steadfastness and sanctification, even when they just look like pointless trials.
If you look at verse 1, you will see that this letter is written to the Jews in the Dispersion. These people were pushed out of their homeland, forced to go settle in new, foreign places away from all they knew. I don’t know about you, but I would call that a trial. And so we see why James says what he says next – “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds…” These trials could have easily pushed them about like the wind with a wave. But if they had faith, just enough to trust God’s plan – they could not only endure these trials, they could come out on the other side with greater steadfastness. That they “may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Our faith in God’s goodness and His plan for our lives is the rock we hold on to when the wind does come. It is our anchor, keeping us from being tossed about. And it grows and grows and grows over time – as we learn more about Him, but ultimately as we come to know Him more personally and intimately. For as we come to know Him, we come to know His great goodness. Because that is just who He is.
