Many Christians say they believe in God and Christ, but they don’t. In many cases, they really think that they believe in God and Christ, but they nevertheless truly don’t. This article will teach that many Christians do not really believe and what the consequences are for not truly believing.
James tells us in James 1:6-8, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
Often, biblical scholars, commentators, and preachers, for example, include the passage about the “doubting” Thomas in John 20:24–29 with the passage in the book of James above to discuss Thomas’s doubting Christ, but this should not be the case. The passage about “doubting” Thomas concerns his doubting the disciples who told him that Jesus had come to them. He did not doubt Jesus, or he would not be a disciple of Jesus. He doubted his fellow apostles, who had told him Jesus had come. When Jesus came eight days later, the Bible says nothing about Thomas putting his hand into Jesus’s side or his fingers into the place where the nails were. Jesus invited Thomas to do so, but he apparently did not. Jesus was all it took!
This passage in the book of James is talking about faith and doubting God. Faith and doubt in God cannot coexist in a person. This passage tells us that when we ask God for wisdom (v. 5), if we doubt anything about God, we will not receive anything from God, not the wisdom, not anything. It is as Jesus told the two blind men who came to him in Matthew 9:28: “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” We must know for sure that God can do something before we ask for it. So, our prayers to God if we doubt God in any way result in Him not answering our prayer.
Although Satan may cause us to doubt God, in Romans 8:35, we are told: “Who can separate us from the love of Christ?” The answer God gives in the bible is “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:37-39)
The Bible is clear about Satan. He is referred to as a liar, “the father of lies” (John 8:44). He is called a deceiver (Rev. 12: 9). He is the opposite of truth and righteousness. He has also been referred to as “a murderer from the beginning.” The Bible tells us that Satan comes to us in a disguise, even “as an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14). We are taught that Satan even seeks to take the gospel away from believers, through persecution and opposing our efforts (1 Thess. 2:18). Christians are told to always be on the alert for Satan’s advances upon us. And we are told to watch for Satan’s temptations, because they would distract us from the gospel (1 Peter 5:8). There should be no question among Christians about who Satan really is.
So, Satan is just trying to murder, lie to, deceive, and take the gospel of Jesus Christ from us, as he normally does. We should reject what Satan is telling us and remember the verse above, that we cannot be taken away from God. It is just a smokescreen by Satan. If we originally believed in God, we cannot lose that love for God, the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
Christians must have an unwavering faith and not doubt God. If we pray to God with faith and confidence in our Christian identity, we will probably receive an answer to our prayer. But if we doubt God and ask him confidently for something in prayer, he will probably ignore us. Because God will know that, though we have a confident attitude, it is false, and we have our doubts about God. So when we go to God in prayer, we should have the attitude that we either don’t doubt God or we are asking for God’s help in that area.
A Christian must have a steady and sincere mind that God can do anything before we go to him in prayer. As Matthew Henry put it in his commentary on the book of James, “A mind that has but one single and the prevailing regard to its spiritual and eternal interest, and that keeps steady in its purposes for God, will grow wise by afflictions, will continue fervent in its devotions, and will be superior to all trials and oppositions.” If a person has doubts about anything God, the Father, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit is, does, or thinks, then we are not Christians and should ask God to help us with our unbelief and doubts.
Any Christian who lacks faith and holds a doubting spirit cannot expect God and Christ to answer his prayers. In this case, the Christian is “double-minded.” However, if we are confident in who God, the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are, then we can worship them as our God and, with assurance, pray to them through faith, expecting an answer.
