Good Wednesday morning. 5.20.20 has a nice ring to it, very mathematical. Maybe that’s why I slept in until 5:20 this morning! Someone ate my oranges and all the jelly in the oriole feeder last night. I wonder who that could be? Racoon? I’ll watch for the sticky critter.


Back in the day of James, around 60 CE, Christians were a tiny minority among large, but indifferent or hostile populations. James’ letter is concerned that these early Christians not adopt, or fall back into the values or the behavior of the surrounding population. The testing that the Christians were experienced could help them learn and be transformed.


James 1:5-8 (NRSV)


“If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”


The term, “double minded”, is unique to James. It does not appear anywhere else in the bible. It means holding two incompatible views, wavering in thoughts, insincere, marked by hypocrisy. The term “double-minded” comes from the Greek word dipsuchos, meaning “a person with two minds or souls. James writes of the doubting person that he is “like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” A double-minded person is restless and confused in his thoughts, his actions, and his behavior. Such a person is always in conflict with himself. One torn by such inner conflict can never lean with confidence on God and His gracious promises.


It brings to mind the “pushmi-pullyu” of the Dr. Doolittle stories, an animal with a head at either end of its body and which was constantly trying to walk in two directions at once. Such is the double-minded human.



I pray that today, you single-mindedly focus on God and His gracious promises. That your day is filled with faith, love and hope, and that you walk in one direction toward God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.


Blessings on your day,

Pastor Sue