April 6

Read: James 1:2-8

Purify your hearts, ye double minded (James 4:8).

The Disappointed Christian

Do you know of any disappointed Christians? Would you classify yourself in this group? If so, let God talk directly to you about your Christian experience, about your disappointment, about the only way out of it.

In our scripture, James informs us that this man is a Christian — one of his brethren. But there is something about his religious experience that is not at all commendable: he is a double-minded man. On this same theme the Apostle Paul Writes of the carnal mind and the spiritual mind. There is always a conflict between these two, the one warring against the other until we have a Christian of divided loyalties, divided vision, divided affections; a double-minded man who is unstable; unsteady in all his ways.

This makes him a disappointed Christian. With his faith too weak to meet the emergencies, too wavering to depend on, how could it be otherwise? If you have similar experiences, you know just how grievous such disappointment can be.

In our text God’s Word gives direction for disappointed Christians: “Purify your hearts, ye double minded.” Elsewhere Paul prays: “Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (II Corinthians 7:1). We may not like “the words the Bible uses, but our task is clear: we are to purify ourselves by confession, by consecration, by separation, by faith. God’s work is to cleanse, to fill, to indwell, to unify, to possess:

Prayer For Today

Lord, I have been a disappointed Christian. I long to find the way out. From the depths of my spiritual need, from the desperation of my disappointment I come for help. I open my heart to You in earnest prayer. This moment, by faith I accept the adequacy of Your infilling Holy Spirit.