Faith Rest and Adversity/Stress; James
1:6
James 1:5 NASB “But
if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and
without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
The testing of the doctrine
in our soul produces endurance, and the result of endurance is maturity. That
is the growth process, you can’t get to spiritual
maturity any other way. It is not by emotion, not by experience, it is by
learning doctrine and applying doctrine day in and day out in the good times as
well as the bad times. Every situation in life to one degree or another
provides a test, an opportunity for us to apply doctrine to that circumstance
or that situation.
Sometimes we don’t know the
doctrine that applies. We may be in a situation where we are confused, and so
we pray. This is verse 5. Wisdom is the knowledge of doctrine pertinent to the
situation or tests that we find ourselves in. “Let him ask of God.” Verse 5
focuses on the character of God in terms of grace orientation, that God gives
to all men generously and without reproach. God does not put conditions on His
giving. But there is one condition in verse 6: “But he must ask by means of
faith.” Prayer in order to have efficacy must be on the basis of faith alone,
and it must be on the basis of a faith that is not distracted by doubts. We need to read through our Bibles on a
regular basis so that we are aware of the incredible promises that God has
given to us so that we can grow by them.
2 Peter 1:3, 4 NASB
“seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life
and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory
and excellence.
So knowing God’s promises
is vital to spiritual growth and spiritual maturity. We must take time to
learn. We cannot apply what we don’t know, and we don’t know when we don’t take
the time and the discipline and the energy to study and to learn for ourselves.
The second stage of the
faith-rest drill is using doctrinal rationales. This is focusing on the
underlying doctrines or reasons and principles that under gird the promise,
focusing on the various aspects of doctrine that is encapsulated within that
promise. The use of doctrinal rationales depends upon having EPIGNOSIS
doctrine in the soul and a maturing faith. Continuing from last time we have the a fortiori rationale. Literally from the Latin what this means is “from
a stronger reason.” In other words, in logic you start off and establish a
strong reason, a major principle. Then you argue that if God can do X (whatever
that may be), and what you are counting on Him to do is Y, and Y is much easier
to do than X, then if God has the power to do X then from a stronger reason (a fortiori) you know that God can do Y. Example:
If God has solved the greatest problem that you will ever face, i.e. the
problem of sin, then whatever problem you face on a day-to-day basis God can
also solve. If He can solve the greatest problem He can solve any little
problem. Romans
As we have gone through
this study we have been looking at building a fortress. The psalmist says over
and over again how the Lord is a fortress, a shield, a bulwark. We build a
fortress around our souls through the use of the ten stress-busters or
problem-solving devices.
The example of the faith-rest drill and
fear
1) The more things in life that you surrender to fear the
more things you will fear and worry about in life.
2) The extent to which you surrender to fear, worry and
anxiety, the greater your capacity for fear, worry and anxiety.
3) The greater your capacity for fear the more you will
increase the power of fear or worry or anxiety in your life.
4) The more the power of fear increases in your life the
more stress builds in your soul.
5) This stress is a companion to the emotional and
arrogance complex of sins, the lust pattern of the sin nature, reversionism, Christian moral and
immoral degeneracy. The result of this is to become a neurotic or a psychotic believer.
The writer of James shows
that the believer is in either one position or another, either operating on the
basis of faith, the faith-rest drill, or not. The other category is that he is doubting, uncertain, not sure that God will answer prayer,
that God is the solution to problems. The result of the latter is that the believer
is unstable and will not have his prayers answered. James 1:6-8 NASB
“But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like
the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
Doctrine (EPIGNOSIS doctrine)
assimilated into the mentality of your soul maintains the normal, cohesive,
integrated and unified soul. There is no fragmentation, it is one unified soul.
Notice Psalm 23:1-3 NASB
“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Because the Lord is our shepherd
there is nothing that you or I lack as believers. God has already provided us
with everything. The root of modern psychology is that people need orienting. All
the approaches to psychology function on this basis of need,
that you have to have certain needs met before you can have soul health.
But Scripture says that God has met all of our needs at the cross, we don’t need
for anything. “He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet
waters,” the source of nutrition, food. God provides the nutrition we need
spiritually to grow through Bible doctrine. “He restores my soul; He guides me
in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.” The word for restoring the
soul is the same as used in 1 Kings 13:6 of God healing a withered hand. The
only solution is the divine solution. Human solutions do not work.
Our lives are the result
of the decisions we make. Who you are now is the result of all the decisions
you made from the time you were about six months old. You may not have been
fully conscious of the fact that you were making these decisions, of all the
ramifications and consequences that might come your way as a result of those
decisions, but everything that you become later in life is the result of those
decisions. Some of those decisions that we make when we are quite young have
incredible, enormous consequences. When we make bad decisions based on human viewpoint
in our soul—always remember that the deceptive thing about human viewpoint is
that it sounds so good—the sin nature dominates. We convert the outside
pressure of adversity into the inside pressure of stress in the soul. Continued
stress destroys cognitive ability and can impair physical function.
There is a definite
relationship between stress and cognition, between stress and the ability to
think clearly. Stress makes you forgetful and impairs your memory. Stress hinders
your ability to learn. Stress affects your perception of reality and the
ability to balance things correctly. When stress is removed cognitive ability
can be restored. If a person remains in a stressful situation too long all of
his cognitive ability is destroyed and he enters into a psychotic state. Under
continuous stress the sin nature further fragments the soul. What happens to
the unprotected soul with adversity coming on it one after another, cracks
begin to appear and the soul begins to fragment. As a result of soul
fragmentation there are consequences in the physical realm. There are
biochemical reactions. Various chemical reactions are produced as you go under
stress. As a result there is a vicious cycle. These chemicals that are produced
in turn create further mental problems. Those mental problems in turn create
further biochemical imbalance.
The solution is twofold. Sometimes
it is necessary for people to go under medication. But this is merely a stop-gap
measure so that this person can achieve a level of functionality in life so
that they can begin to move in a direction of making positive spiritual
decisions and apply doctrine in their life. The medication is simply to
stabilize after years of problems, then the person
works his way out of it through spiritual solutions. Remember, the divine
solution is the only solution; the human solution is no solution. The human
solution will never fully satisfy the underlying issues which are always
spiritual in nature.