Spinning like a Merry-Go-Round

James 1:5-8 (NIV) 
⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. ⁶ But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷ That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

A few years ago I experienced a very bad bout of vertigo.  I was laying on my bed, looking up and the room was spinning round and around and around.  It was like involuntarily being on a merry-go-round as it spun faster and faster and faster.  It was a very disconcerting thing for me.  I felt sick to my stomach; I had lost control and couldn’t stop this awful ride.  To put it plainly it was hell.  Eventually I had to go to the emergency room and get checked out.  After a series of tests it was revealed that I had a buildup of fluid behind my ear and this was the culprit to my world spinning around. 

Isn’t it funny how such a small thing can become such a problem in life?  I struggled with my world seemingly spinning out of control and it happened that one of my ears had an issue.  It makes you really appreciate and also realize just how delicately balanced our lives and bodies are. 

So it is with our faith as well.  Not so much on God’s end, but our end.  We are often like a merry-go-round in our faith.  We go round and round and sometimes we never come to any decision and we make no long term commitments to God.  Yet God is standing there ready to supply us with the wisdom that we need if only we ask Him.  Why is it that we forget that He’s there?  Why is it that we don’t cry out to God every day when our world seems to be spinning around us? 

I think pride is a part of it.  All too often we feel as if we need no one’s help and if we were to ask it would be a sign of our weakness or inability.  Yet God wants us to call on Him in every season of life, spinning or not.  He knows how difficult life is because Christ lived it.  Jesus came to our level and He can truly identify with our struggles, our temptations, and our pains.  Having this knowledge of His intimate understanding of the human existence, it would be foolish NOT to call upon Him in our times of need and contentment.  Pride shouldn’t play a part in us missing out on His wisdom and strength. 

Lastly, as James writes, we shouldn’t doubt that when we ask God that He will or will not respond.  God is always faithful to those He loves…and guess what?  He loves YOU!  So don’t have second thoughts about God hearing you, answering you or being there for you…He will be there, He will hear and He will answer!  If there’s one place in the Universe that you can place your faith and your hopes upon it’s our Father in Heaven.  He will never let us down! 

A closing word of caution: 

Even though He will never let us down and He hears us when we call, don’t treat God like a good luck charm or a ‘Get out of Jail’ card.  He doesn’t work like that.  His desire is for us to seek Him every minute of every day.  He desires a relationship with us that is so much more than a word of pray in the midst of our troubled times.  God desires our hearts, our lives our love.  When we have this type of relationship He not only intercedes amidst our merry-go-rounds of trouble, but He joins us in the battles and in the struggles.