The Price of Being Double Minded

I posted this over two years ago and am astonished that this is truer than ever, so I’m reposting. Enjoy!

Lately, I’ve been struck how the world is changing at an alarming rate. What was “in” yesterday is out today. Up is the new down, and down the new up. The unthinkable has become thinkable. Not that many years ago it would have seemed absurd to think our public schools would teach sex education to first graders. Or that our government would be bent on spending us into bankruptcy in spite of our objections. Or that a Libyan mass murderer would be released from prison as part of an oil deal. Or that the teachers we entrust with our children would molest them. And the list goes on. It’s enough to make your head spin.

There are some who’d like us to believe that we are in the enlightened age, that all this change is just part of progress, that the world has become smaller and we just need to get in step and go along for the greater good. And that if we do, we’ll be marching into a better world.

Odd how the Bible differs in this. It says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He never changes, and that means neither does His precepts. What He valued yesterday He values today. What He said was right yesterday is still right today. So why are so many Christians buying into the changes we see? Two words: double mindedness. Believe me, it’s not an enviable position because the Bible says that a double minded man is unstable in all his ways, that he will be tossed to and fro like a wave by the wind, and that he should not expect to receive anything from God. (James 1: 6-8)

Still, the temptation is great to cleave our minds in two, one half conforming to the world, the other half to the things of God. Even if we don’t want to, we are pressured on every side. And I believe this pressure will only intensify as the world worsens. And the world is sure to get worse before it gets better. That means more than ever Christians must remain single minded, and be “not conformed to this world but transformed” if we hope to live lives blessed by God and firmly under His care.

Oh, LORD, that we may be single minded!

Until next week,

Sylvia