James 1:6

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.
(NIV)

From the previous verse we learned that when you are lacking in wisdom, you should ask. God is a generous God who gives to all who ask, and He does not show favoritism. You do not have to meet some quota of goodness or righteousness before you can ask God for wisdom, or anything else for that matter. If there was a quota, you would never meet it anyway.

The word believe here is normally translated as faith, and the two words are closely related. When you ask God, you must believe that He can deliver. We see this so many times in the gospels when the people come to Jesus and ask for healing. So often Jesus will say to someone, after they are healed, "...your faith has made you whole."

The faith must be centered in Christ himself. It is not to be centered on what you want God to do. Many people make that mistake, they start praying and asking God to give them what they want instead of praying., "Your kingdom come!" Our faith must not be in what God does, it must be a faith that is IN HIM.

Faith in Christ is a steadfast and sure faith. It does not waiver or change because it is focused on the Unchangeable One. The person who focuses on what God will do is the one who doubts. He waivers from a lack of knowledge of God's ways, which are much higher than ours. The one who doubts is the one you see at church with their hands lifted high because God just met some need, but then the next week they won't even come to church because in their minds God has failed them. They are now even toying with atheism because they are not even sure their is a God. They come and they go, they are high then they are low because their faith is misdirected.

Where is your faith today?