Don't Be Water

Have you ever noticed that when you put water into any hard or stable container, the water takes the form of that shape? Or if there is sitting water in a puddle, lake, or pool and there is a good wind, it will move with the wind? Drop something into the water and it completely disrupts the stability of the water in its circumstances. Water is completely unstable in and of itself; it is completely controlled by its circumstances.

Boy, sometimes I think I am just like the water, but that is not how God intended me to be. He designed me to be stable in Him. God is a 100% perfect moral being and since we are created in His image (Genesis 1:27), He expects us to strive for that same perfection (1st Peter 1:16). However, because we are sinners and constantly fighting our fleshly desires (what I want and think I need over what God wants and knows I need), there is the battle inside to do what is morally right versus what is desired by me. I am so tired of people saying there is moral flexibility! If there had been moral flexibility, Jesus would not have been a suitable payment for our sins. There would have been no standard of perfection, sinlessness, or moral righteousness by which he could stand blameless in God's sight and be our sin offering; he could have just done whatever felt good to him at the time and done what he thought was best "as long as it didn't hurt anyone else"…sorry, but that ideology is plain rubbish and stupid! Every decision we make has moral implications and affects either you and/or those around you, and ALWAYS affects your relationship with the Lord. Our decisions either bring us closer to or push us further away; no one stays neutral.

So when things happen to us God expects us to seek wisdom to know how to interact (I like that better than react). In James 1:2-8 (HCSB) James wrote:

"Consider it a great joy my brothers, whenever you experience the various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work , so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect anything from the Lord. An indecisive man is unstable in all his ways."

So in 2-4 we know that "trials" will come. This word here is the same one used in Luke 10 which means, "to fall into". So these trials he is referring to have to do with ones that we have "fallen into", ones that we did not bring upon ourselves but the Lord allowed to occur in our lives for some reason or another. So that is why James then says in verse 5, "Now, if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and without criticizing and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting." Sometimes we need to take the time to decipher whether we are going through something because of a poor, sinful, immoral choice that we made and now we are suffering the consequences due us, or are we going through something that God is allowing in our life … so that "[we] may be mature and complete, lacking nothing"(vs. 4)? His main desire is that we be conformed to His image (Romans 8:28-29).

However, James tells us to have faith when we ask. Faith in what? Faith in God, in His sovereignty, in His love for us, in His truth, in His promises. He has told us that He will complete what He has started in us (Philippians 1:6), He loves us (John 3:16), He will never leave us or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6), He does discipline (teaching{pedagogy} and actual discipline) those He loves (Proverbs 3:12; Hebrews 12:6), and He loves the "world". So, we need to have faith in what He is doing, even though we may not understand, like, or agree with our circumstances. We need, and he wants us, to ask for wisdom in our circumstances. He wants us to find joy in what is to come because of our circumstances…we will be made "mature and complete, lacking nothing".

Don't be like the surging sea [water], driven and tossed by the wind…an indecisive [wo]man unstable in all [you] do. Have faith in what God is doing, stand firm in your faith in Him, in His outcome, in His choices, in His moral standards (not the worlds), and do what is right! An unstable person (water) "should not expect to receive anything from the Lord" (vs. 7). He wants to give you wisdom, but you have to make up your mind. Are you going to keep trusting yourself, the world, those around you, money, work, things… or are you going to put your faith in God and what He is doing? Do not be unstable! Don't be water!

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