Lent 31 Dodgy connection

Short blog post today due the the immense frustrations of having a dodgy internet connection.  Signal just keeps on cutting out.  Ive got no idea why as my laptop is wired directly into the hub and it was all working like clockwork until yesterday afternoon.   But hey ho.  Twenty first century probems!

It got me to thinking about my spiritual connections and how intermittent and unreliable they are.

James  1 : 6But 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. 7For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,8being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.  

That is a tough verse.  It says that if you doubt then not only will you not get what you ask for but you are ' unstable'.  Like my internet connection.  Unreliable, dodgy, precarious.  If we dont have faith - unswerving, constant, solid faith, then there is no firm ground under our feet.    Doubt is one of the key tools in the enemy's armoury.  It was the first seed he sowed in Eve right back at the start and its still one of his first forms of attack now.  ' Did God really say...?'   ' Are you sure you are good enough? '  ' Isnt there someone else who could do it better? '  ' What if all this God business as a load of baloney?'    You know the sort of thing.   You hear it all the time.  We all do.   But hearing isnt the same as listening.

I think the trick to not being tossed about like a wave on the surface of the sea is depth.  Once you go a couple of feet down in the sea the waves are no longer crashing and breaking like they are on the surface.   Things are calmer deeper down.  When we stay on a surface level with God, only letting Him affect the visible, public, surface stuff we are more liable to be ' driven and tossed about'.  But if we choose to go deeper, to let God under the surface and into the secret places then maybe that's where faith is built and doubts are dispersed.    Whenever Ive had times of doubting and serious buffeting in the storms I have reminded myself of the truly life changing deep moments with God which changed me beyond any doubt.  And I have clung onto those testimonies like lifebelts - the incontravertible truth of what God has done for me in the past has helped to anchor me in the present.

It has been a bit of a battle to write the blog today.  The pictures wouldnt load and I lost the page a couple of times in the process.  But we got there in the end!  Maybe part of the lesson is not just to have faith but to persevere :)