One downfall of doubting

I've been jumping around in the bible a lot lately. It's all so good, I just can't decide where to plant myself for awhile! As I was in the book of James for the millionth time the other day, God showed me something I hadn't gotten out of it yet. For the record. I REALLY love that I can read and reread books in the bible and get something new every time! God is SO awesome! Anyways, back to what I was saying. James 1:5-6 says this, "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. , because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind." God wants to guide us in everything we do. but that isn't going to happen if we are doubting ourselves or doubting that He can do absolutely anything! I don't think that God gives us anything we ask him for, but I do think he gives us the things we need. If we ask God for something and he says no, then chances are you were asking Him for the wrong reasons. Our requests need to align with God's heart. What I just said definitely wasn't new news for me, but I struggle with it constantly.

But like I said above, I got something totally new out of reading this the other day! "But when he asks he must believe and not doubt" I think learning how to do this is VERY important if we want to truly find wisdom is God's word. No one can learn anything from God if their mind isn't fully prepared to listen. Instead, God wants us to submit to Him with everything we are...not just some of us. If I were to go and ask God for something, and not be fully submitted to what God wants me to hear, then I would walk away empty handed. Why? Because I would go in with the mindset that I can pick and choose what I want to hear. For example, if I go to God and ask him help me stop a bad habit and my mind is fully submitted to Him, then he will help me out because I truly believe what He is trying to tell me is what's best for me! But on the flip side, if I go and ask God to help me with a bad habit and not fully convinced that God can help me, then I am allowing my opinions and the opinions of the rest of the world to come into that conversation as well. By doing that, I would be treating God's advice like the advice of any other human being. It would be impossible for God to actually get through to me, because my mind would be clouded with other people telling me my habit isn't that bad. Even if I know in my heart it's not OK to be doing what I'm doing and I actually want God to help me, I would still be holding myself back because I'm doubting Him. We cannot treat God's word like we treat the words of humans. Every one of us are sinners and guaranteed to mess up. God is here to guide us because He has never sinned, and will never sin! We must go to God with full submission to truly hear what He is saying!