God's Provision in testing of your Faith part 2
James 1:5-8 · Bob Eckel · Feb 5, 2023
James, No. 04
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926193084235

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, so today's part two of God's provision and testing of your faith. And I think we'll appropriately read from James 1 down through verse 8. And next week, we'll move into a different perspective. James has a lot to do with practical issues. And I think that's really going to come up in a major way next week.

So all right, beginning at James 1.1. James, a bond servant, of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ and twelve tribes which are gathered abroad readings. My brethren, count it all joy when you follow the various tribes. How are we all doing this hour?

Somebody quoted that to me the other day. I just kind of paused a little bit. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Wow. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

And we covered those two verses last week. We're going to back up a little bit there too today. This is part two of the same four verses. Verse seven. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He's a double-minded man, unstable in his ways.

All right, so let's just open with prayer. Father, we're thankful for the Scripture and all that it means to each and every one of us in terms of our day-to-day walk. May the Spirit lead as we open this very, very relevant epistle from the Apostle James. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

All right, so as we usually do, Let's review last week. And I'm going to do this in kind of a somewhat different way. And I'm going to load you with scripture. And I'm going to let scripture really tie in to what was covered, Roger, by you last week. OK? That's right. All right. Just look at the two verses that precedes 7 and 8 that we're going to be covering today.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. Now, typically in the scripture, when I bold something, that's a point that I want to emphasize. So pay attention to what's bolded in all the scripture that follows. Let me repeat. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to us liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith and no doubting. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

So the question to the class this morning Whose wisdom is this? And Roger covered that nicely last week. And how do we obtain this wisdom? Do we all have an answer to that? Whose wisdom is this? God's wisdom. A very simple answer. Now you're past first grade, you're in second grade. How do we obtain this wisdom? I think that's a little bit more of a challenging question. Ask God. It's that simple. But there's a process here. That's what I'm looking for. What's the process by which we get wisdom? All right, bear with me here because I'm going to use scripture entirely to answer this particular question.

Acts 7.22, and Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words indeed. What do you make of that? I mean, that's Luke giving us a description of Moses.

Do you know people who are saved or clearly part of the body or pretty wise in terms of the ways of the world? That doesn't mean they're necessarily walking in them. Could we be uninformed about the world that's around us? Look at Paul's training in terms of the Jewish tradition, right?

And pretty smart guy, really. So we're told here that Moses was aware of, I mean, that enabled him for God to use him in Egypt. before the traversing of the Red Sea and into Sinai. So, I mean, that was not lost, but that's not God's wisdom. It's the wisdom of the Egyptians. Okay, point number one. Isaiah 29, 14, for I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. So this wisdom that's described in Acts and Isaiah here is the wisdom of the world system. right?

Not necessarily wrong, but it's not what God calls us to when we approach Him in prayer. Paul says a lot to the Corinthian church about wisdom, and I could quote much more than I'm going to do here, but it says here in 1 Corinthians 2, 4, and 5, and my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Keep in mind, okay, the source.

1 Corinthians 1.30, but of him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So again, the source of God is well stated in 1.30.

And 2.13, the epistle to Corinth. These things we also speak, not in words, which were man's wisdom, teaching us, but the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Okay, so we're seeing power being demonstrated, we're seeing the work of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 1.17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Bringing in somewhat of a new concept there in terms of the knowledge of Him.

Colossians 1.9, for this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

And James 3.17 deals with this again in a later chapter. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now using scripture as I just provided to you to consider How do we get the wisdom of God? You have to know Him. Alright, and what's the mechanism? Well, we get to know the Lord Jesus Christ because the Lord Jesus Christ is, in fact, kind of a... He's relaying God's wisdom.

If you look at Merriam-Webster, Oxford, or other dictionaries and, you know, define wisdom, it's really... an application of knowledge that is fulfilling. I mean, I'm paraphrasing, but kind of summarizing the world system. But here's what I'm going to conclude. This is simply my conclusion. You can argue with it, perhaps.

I said, thus, this wisdom is not of the world, but comes from the power of God. We see that in several verses that I mentioned, working through the Holy Spirit to have us know and increasingly be transformed and conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the power of God enacted through the knowledge of Him that Spirit led. So to gain wisdom, we have to know the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit leads us in that direction. And that's the power of God that's impacting our lives on a day-to-day basis. Discussion?

Jim? Getting access to the power of God only comes through scripture, though. Okay. I mean, I think that this summary is a little longer than that, but yes, yes. It comes through the diligent study of the Word of God, because God's Word, the Bible, is the only communication that God actually made for us, you know, and through the Spirit, of course. This doesn't come down to us through angels. No, it doesn't. The point is, this is not experiential. This is ultimately applied scripture, is what it is.

Other thoughts? Wayne? Well, if I go to Paul's writing, the first chapter of Romans tells us that it was placed in him to know his power. Well, is it 20? 19, because that which is known about God is evident within them. God made it evident to them. That's right. of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature. Well, would you define that as wisdom then? Or would you say that's just... That's knowledge. Okay, knowledge. Okay, applied knowledge is that we're created beings, we're not evolved over time.

You know, we all... somebody quote Philippians 3.10? It starts out that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto death. His death, presumably. All right, good. So if you're okay with this, wisdom is not simply that magically happens. It's ultimately the spirit.

Keep in mind, you can intellectually read scripture. I mean, we can put a lot of brain power into memorizing scripture. I often felt I was in a very legal church for a period of time, and they thought that memorizing scripture was really the platform to living a Christian life. I disagree. I think, ultimately, allowing life to have you meditate on scripture is what changes your life. It's not simply memorizing.

It's really putting yourself there in the circumstances that God gives us to grow in great grace and truth. It's experiential knowledge. It's experiential in the fact that you're applying scripture to your day-to-day existence. And by the way, we're saved 24-7. So the wisdom of walking in grace and the power of the resurrection is in fact the wisdom that God provides to us through knowing Him. Hey Bob? Yes, Roy?

Yeah, just some thoughts about, you mentioned the verse in 1 Corinthians 1.30. and we can go back and look at that, okay?

Yeah, it's by his doing that you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness. There's the use of wisdom, but look at verse 24 as well in the context. We preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. But the agency is in verse 30, like you mentioned, it's God's doing, right? That's right. But the wisdom of God is not simply another, let's think about the spiritual gifts, it's not a gift. This is a process that occurs over time through the power of the Holy Spirit. of rightly dividing the world in truth and growing this. As verse 30 says, Roy, it says, for you are in Christ Jesus.

That's positional truth. But from positional truth comes conditional truth and application. And that's wisdom, applied knowledge, if you will. That's another simple world definition of wisdom. The beginning is certainly positional, but then the next phrase is, who became to us wisdom? That's the work of God doing that. And maybe, would it be helpful, simple? Tell me if this is true, that wisdom is really the correct application of knowledge? And when you think of it that way, who can only apply knowledge correctly but God? I have no argument with that. That's good.

And it's Christ living in us, so Christ desires to live out that knowledge within us as we... Yeah, you know, but think about God's wisdom as it applies to our day-to-day life. I mean, every day we have infinite number of circumstances that come up, and how do we respond to those circumstances? Well, we count it all joy for the sufferings that God gives us in trials and tribulations, but all that aside, where does that come from? Is that just simply, gee, I'm going to intellectually say, gee, God said that I should have had during these trials. No, it's the wisdom of God that impacts the life and how it responds.

Well, of course, in this context, he wants to convince us that trials are not unusual in the believer's life. That's part of what James is about here. You know, Father Place, don't be surprised about these trials. They're for your benefit. So he wants to change our thinking and answer our wisdom about trials. Right, Jim, before you go ahead, just a comment on that.

The wisdom of God allows us to put in perspective these trials in terms of their opportunity for growth and grace. I mean, we all have the human nature never leaves us. The sin nature is always there. That's one of the most important things I think we need to teach, you know, believers, even new believers, that your sin nature is never going to change. It's the new nature we need to grow.

And that becomes wisdom applied as we get to know him better. Jim, go ahead. Yeah, in 2 Timothy 2, 7, Paul says, Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. The Lord will give you. It's a process. He doesn't just throw it all on us. He develops it. I like that. You know, this is welcome to life, growing in God's wisdom, through the power of the Spirit, getting to know Him increasingly day in and day out. You know, that's not instantaneous like some people expect it to be, I think.

Well, just think about Paul near the end of his life. He considered himself among the greatest of sinners. I mean, look at Paul. You know, he says, be imitators of me as I am also of Christ. Imitation is the human existence. is how a life can be so dramatically changed by applying the wisdom that he's learned by knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. In that verse, Paul was not underestimating his sin. He knew it exactly. Right. But how many believers just are working to please God and they fall so far short? I came to the Lord to this understanding. I wasn't getting it done. Because the human ability to get it done is impossible.

And scripture clearly designates that. And these verses that try to describe wisdom, and maybe I haven't done it very well, I think really put it into perspective. This is a whole different process than having the wisdom of the Egyptian world, or the wisdom of the world system, or the wisdom in each of our occupations, whatever it may have been. Well, you're doing well. You're letting Scripture explain Scripture, and that does it the best. Well, thanks. Yeah, we'll give this to the Lord.

Any other thoughts on wisdom? I mean, this wisdom is not... He said he counted all joy. Doesn't that sort of imply that maybe it's not always joy, but he counted it as joy. So it's not a thought, well, I shouldn't be happy about this. I'm going to go on a rabbit trail a second, but you know, as believers, we should be filled with joy.

I mean, when I felt that I couldn't please God by every thought and every deed, and I was falling so far short, I came to the end of myself, and that made me have a rest. And beginning with a rest is a joy to be a believer. No longer feel like I constantly am falling short. And that's his work in each and every one of us, giving us a rest. And from that rest comes peace and joy to follow. That doesn't mean there aren't trials. I mean, Peter talks a lot about them. James talks a lot about them. Paul himself talks a lot about them. But yet, joy is really what we need to experience here. All right, moving on.

Today's verses, seven and eight. Okay. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Does anybody have another translation here that they might want to share with us? Jim, go ahead. Yeah, the Holy Christian Center Bible says that person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. An indecisive man is unstable in all his ways.

That's a nice kind of rephrasing of this. I think the interpretation is the same. It's good. All right, let's move ahead then. Okay, so here's the first part of this verse up to the semicolon. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. The verbs let and suppose are imperative.

Why? And Jimmy, read your version again because I think it had expectations in it or something about expecting. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Why not? Don't we have expectations? In the flesh. What leads to impatience in our life? Margaret witnesses this all the time. And Bonnie too. Aren't we, in the flesh, disappointed by our expectations not being met?

I mean, I'll be very warmly here. I went to the Bengals to meet the Chiefs last week. I'll put that to the flesh, big time. But anyway, that's a foolish example. But I mean, doesn't the flesh get disappointed when our expectations aren't met? And I think we have expectations of our people in the workplace and expectations of our family, our children. I mean, and often we're disappointed. Where's that disappointment come from? Yeah, the Lord can never be disappointed.

Other thoughts about this? So why are these imperative verbs? I think it goes back, Bob, I was just going to say it goes back to your previous slide where you bolded the point of ask by faith. And what others have said, it's indwelling on Jesus Christ in the scripture, meditating on the scripture. And if you're not doing that, you're not asking by faith.

And so I think it sort of answers that. I think you've stated it well. And in fact, Jimmy, was that you? Yes, sir. Okay, good. I sometimes I don't see everybody's picture right now. So that sounded like you. Thank you for sharing that. I'm going to go to James one six, but let him ask in faith with no doubting. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea that's driven and tossed by the wind.

Right? How are we all doing here? I mean, so When we act by faith, do we have expectations? Imperative, that means don't suppose anything. Let not each one of us suppose anything that he's going to receive from the Lord. Because we often, as Jimmy pointed out in the verse, we don't ask in faith.

How do you know if you're asking in faith? I mean, that's a question we all should be asking. Patty, you got your hand up? You're giving it to the Lord. I mean, you're putting it in His hand, and you're not taking responsibility for it in some way. Okay, and what's the expectation of that prayer if it's in faith?

That He's going to do it. Well, is He going to? I'm not interested in answering that way. Well, He's going to act, but He may act and answer your request, or He may say, wait. I mean, it's His decision. I mean, that's what Patti's saying. You're giving it to Him in faith and saying, Lord, However it comes out, I trust you for that. I have faith in you.

So where's the weakness in all the unanswered prayer that the body of Christ gives to the Lord each and every day? Where's the weakness there? Self? But they were not praying in faith. I bet there are plenty of members of the body of Christ that pray in a tremendous faith. And their purr is not answered in the way they would expect. I'm using that term in her book.

Carolyn, what? What we think you should do. Because I think... I had an incident this week, you know, that I kind of... Expected? I did. And I thought, okay, if I'm giving this to him, which I did in purr, and I thought, so what am I expecting? And I thought that I think what I should expect is that whatever happens, he will do it for what's best for me overall. That he knows what's best for me and whatever happens, because I have given this to him, will be for my benefit. And I thought, but I might not like that. Well, I didn't have to choose that, but I just have to trust that whatever happens, now that I have asked Him to take care of this, will be for my benefit.

Okay, you're praying in faith and the expectation, it may be there, but whatever, however the Lord answers it, it's okay. You know, keep in mind, we pray for others all the time, but that prayer life is really, I mean, Rob's using that in our own lives, isn't he? What are your thoughts? Well, I was thinking of Paul when he prayed. three times for the thorn in your flesh.

And then you quit doing that when you realized that, okay, I'm going to live with it. Did Paul ever express in scripture how disappointed he was that the Lord didn't take this thorn away? We don't see it in the text. So God must not have made that He did it three times just in case.

Well, he came back around and said, well, if that's the case, if that's what the Lord is about, I'm going to rejoice in that. He said, well, wait a minute, I'm going the wrong direction here. So I'm going to take you into the, you know, the, what's I'm looking for, the mountaintop here.

So where's the basis of our understanding how God answers or doesn't answer prayer based on our expectations? Now assume you must be praying in faith. What's the basis of how we deal with this on a day-to-day basis? Yes, Kathy. Well, I think the idea here is that we expect it to be answered in a certain way. And if it isn't, then it's not answered. But it still is answered. He always answers. Right.

Where do we come from in this body of believers here in terms of our foundation? I think it's being established positionally and when we're established positionally then we learn how to pray in faith that ultimately then however God answers it we put that into perspective for our own growth in grace. I think if you're conditional entirely and thinking again that you're not really fully made righteous as we are made righteous ultimately I think we can only in the flesh be disappointed in the absence of the answer of prayer. And that's the wisdom of God, isn't it?

It really is, Roy. Yes, thank you. Yes, it really is. That's wisdom that we get from Scripture. But what does anything in this verse relate? In part, it relates to what we were just discussing. So, let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

You're asking about the context? This is a question about the context? Well, aren't we all talking about these trials and sufferings? He's talking about that. So, it seems like the context here is that the person is praying or asking, about things, about trials, like Paul. So you think this is specifically related to anything we might request?

Well, no, I think it's more focused on the context starting from verse 2 onwards, that he's, you know, considered all joy when you encounter various trials. This kind of carries on with the whole theme, and this is related to receiving anything, in my mind, but receiving maybe relief from that trial or suffering or, you know, Okay, Raj, thank you. Jim? Well, the word anything relates back to the things not asked in faith.

Okay, how about wisdom? Anything would relate, anything that relates to the wisdom God, you know, ultimately partakes to each one of us. I think in verse 5 it says, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally. So anything, I think, is God's wisdom in terms of how to deal with these requests that we make. Let not any man suppose that he will receive anything if he's not has the wisdom to receive them correctly.

I think it could relate to specifics, right? You also say that expecting something without asking maybe is the way of saying you have to. Because first he says let him ask and pay, and then for let not a man expect he would You receive anything from the Lord, not necessarily asking, maybe from nothing.

You see what I'm saying? Yeah. Give me an example. I'm going to say so I guess I don't have to worry about it anymore. Oh, I see. He'll do whatever he wants to do. That's kind of great, isn't it? I mean, I think people don't have to tell or find themselves in a real bad way or something. Somebody had a comment out in the teleprompting field out there? Okay. It sounds to me like Batman is the wrong man. Batman may be the wrong man. How about one of us? Mike, how about one of us? The old man and the new man. Well, yeah, I mean, I think that's implied here.

But I think when we pray in the flesh, what do we expect? We expect answers. And if they're not answers, we doubt God. We're to pray in a way that we accept whatever answer God gives us. Remember, we're positionally placed. And we're sitting in Philippians, and our Bible said, to whom? And the verse we're starting next time is, our citizenship's in heaven. We ended at verse 19 in Philippians 3 the other night. So our citizenship's in heaven, so everything there is in place in terms of our being made righteous in the way God looks at us. So we need to learn that true wisdom about our position and how God uses that perfect righteousness in terms of growing us in grace. Okay, the second part of this, a double-minded man, is unstable in all his ways. Double-minded is a compound word in the Greek, and I won't go into the Greek, but it means wavering, uncertain, and doubting.

So, Jim, what was your translation and your version there? And an indecisive man is unstable, you know. Unstable, okay, that's not in the strongest definition, but nevertheless unstable would be equally as applicable, wavering, uncertain, doubting. Hesitating. Hesitating, okay. Other thoughts here about the double-minded man? Remember, the wind's blowing him back and forth, right? Okay. Now, I thought this was kind of, go ahead, somebody was gonna say something? For me, it's that, it's that, nevermind. Okay, all right, when it comes to mind, let us know. We're not teasing you of being double-minded, all right? Okay. So Bob, in the Schofield Bible, in this verse, it refers It refers us to Proverbs 3, 5, which is, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Now you're looking at the handout. I keep threatening not to give the handout before the class. I'm going to go there, Kathy. That's going to end the class today if we ever get there. No, you're good. Perfect. I think it's perfectly applicable here. And I'm going to paraphrase that a little bit and put it under circumstances of interpretation as to how we can turn to the Old Testament.

Anyway, so I think this is of interest, and I'd like the class to give me their idea. Of interest, man here is Aeneir, indicating that male sex, not anthropos, which is a more general term to indicate a person of either sex, is utilized. And in James, This same translation of man is used time and time again. Verse 12, verse 23, chapter 2, verse 2, chapter 3, verse 2.

What should we make of this? Is he talking about mankind? So, why do you think? Who's this epistle written to? Basically, who's the audience here? Remember we covered that? Maybe you don't remember it. Well, tribes. Tribes. Yeah. Presumably over that area to whom James is writing. So what do you make of this? Why wouldn't James use Anthropos meaning a man or a woman? I mean, I don't have an answer. I'm just interested in what people are thinking.

Because the men were the ones who taught. Many thought that they needed the message more than they were taught. They needed the message more than they were taught. They were not allowed even to know how to read any of this. Well, is that just a chronological issue, only at that time? Or does that relate at all to today's body of Christ? I thought this was written for believers.

When we think of The acts that are involved here is doubting. When we think of that in contrast to believing in trust, absolute trust, who does the doubting and who does the trusting? Our old man does the doubting. Our new man does the trusting. And I think James is very consistent.

I think the Holy Spirit was very careful here in not talking so much about sex as he was about the kind of a person that doubts is who we used to be. It's not who we are now. So you would say that it has a more general application, both men and women, then?

Yeah. Well, let's take out our old nature, the old man. You mean there's no shortcuts? You got one, Mike? You're talking about relating it back to our old nature, our old man kind of focus? Right. Okay, that's what I thought, yeah. I would agree, that's good. Okay, that's one interpretation, good. Directed to the Jewish congregation, keep in mind these are Jews that are believers. They are no longer Jews, but the tradition of the Jews, you know, ceremonies where ultimately men were always put in a position of leadership.

And Paul has a lot to say about men and women, their roles. I mean, a man's role is really spiritual leadership, isn't it, in a relationship? But what about single women? I mean, the issue is where is that leadership coming from? It's coming from the Word of God. But I think Roy's interpretation is an interesting one. Maybe this is the old man that this is appealing to.

And we can't really We can't be double-minded here. One of the things we learned in 1 John was that the new man does not sin, cannot sin. And doubting is sin. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. I don't know if that helps or not, but just another thought. All right. But we need to keep moving here a little bit now.

You know, by the way, this is only used twice in James and here and in James 4.8.

James 4.8 says, in James, this double-mindedness. But nevertheless, I think we can think about how it might apply elsewhere. What do you think about this?

Does this imply that this man is necessarily a hypocrite or simply inconsistent and unpredictable in intent? What's a hypocrite? A person who pretends to be one thing but is actually another. So my interpretation would be this is not a hypocrite. This is a sane person who in fact waxes back and forth. His faith is lacking. Not praying in faith does not have the wisdom of God. I mean, by the way, many commentators, or many, at least one in particular, thinks this is evidence of a hypocrite. I think a hypocrite is someone, as Vonnie said, is always in the plastic, if you will. Not really real. Well, if we go back to the previous verses, he's being tossed to and fro. So he's already in this unstable position. This is just more information about that. All right, good.

And how do we know if and when we are double-minded? That's probably a class in its own right. Won't the Holy Spirit, you know, kind of convict us of that and we'll realize that... Yeah, I think that's the wisdom of God as we do grow in grace is ultimately the Holy Spirit is more capable of recognizing what the source is of our thought process and our dealings with issues that come up in our life. We need to look at ourselves the way God looks at us.

That's positionally based, Roy, thank you. So Peter's an example of many other examples in scripture about this double-minded man, if you will. All right, so being unstable in all its ways is only used here, but the idea of this not being a new thing is really demonstrated in the Old Testament, and Elijah came to all the people and said, how long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him, but if Baal, follow him. But the people answered him not a word. Isaiah, therefore the Lord said, inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from me, and their fear towards me is taught by the commandments of men.

Hosea, the heart is divided. Now they are held guilty. He will break down their altars. He will ruin their sacred pillars. Matthew, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Revelation 3.15, a great example. I know thy works, and you are neither hot nor cold. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then because you're lukewarm, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Examples go on and on about this unstable, double-minded individual. Constable, I think, summarizes this pretty well.

In summary, God will help us take his view of trials, which James explained in verses 3 and 4, if we ask him to do so in prayer. We can be joyful while experiencing trials that constitute temptations to depart from God's will. We can do So because we know that if we remain faithful to God, he will use these trials to produce what is glorifying for him and what is good for you or for each one of us. But although he gives liberally, we pray doubtfully. Manton says, I think interestingly, is doubtfulness of the mind then the cause of uncertainties in our lives and conversations?

And Peter says something about this. You therefore, beloved, Since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. And I think we all are in a position to ultimately have that occur. So to close, Kath here, really, you know, closing in what you really projected.

Although these verses are from the Old Testament, I think these verses in Proverbs, they reflect a principle of God that's applicable to the double-minded man. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Bless the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, and all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.

Amen. Amen. Okay, and to end quickly, prayer requests. Carolyn, did you want to mention anything in relationship to what you mentioned earlier? No. No. Yeah, I got one. Being in this car, I hope the Lord would drive it, not me. Let him put me where I'm supposed to be, I guess. Well, in terms of driving the car, let's play with wisdom in that request, okay? Okay, well, we're concerned, Mike, about you always saying we want to trust that the Lord is going to use circumstances to bring you to the attention of what's doing right.

Okay, our daughter-in-law has just been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. What disease do you know? I've got three words to it. I can't remember. It starts with, well, it affects her eyes, throat, and ocular. She gets things in her throat, blisters and that kind of stuff. So she's being treated for that. I think she's taking a medication that they use for cancer. Okay. Immunomodifier probably. Yeah. All right. So we'll pray. And what's her name? Angie. Angie. Yeah. Okay. Angie. All right. Other requests there this morning?

Margaret and I are heading to Morocco on Wednesday. We're dealing with a Gentile world from Europe that I'll be with, and also the Arab world. We're going to be circumstantially placed in an environment that is really a needy environment in terms of the ways of the Lord. We have a week there and we'll be back.

Let's turn to the Lord in prayer. Father, there are many requests that have not been shared. We lift up Mike Hapola and his circumstances. We feel for Mike, and we want the wisdom of you to be provided to him as he considers next steps going forward. We'd like to help in many ways, so guide us in that direction.

We pray for Angie and this recent diagnosis, symptoms that relate to it. We pray very, very selfishly that, of course, you would bring her to complete relief and ultimately good care to the physicians that are taking care of her. We're thankful for that. And for our trip abroad, may we be safe but also effective in ultimately presenting a Bible that the world never reads in terms of the way you work in us to have our lives be manifested to your glory. We're thankful for the service to follow and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.