A Conflicted Mind

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I eagerly opened my NASB concordance yesterday to find all the references to "double-minded" in the New Testament to get more fodder for this blog. Was I in for a shock! James 1:8 and 4:8 are the only verses that use the Greek word "dipsuchos" in the NT and there is only one word in the Old Testament, "seeph", that is translated as "double-minded" and it is found once in Psalm 119:113 (NASB).

This really surprised me because I thought there would be many more uses of the word (as I led you to believe in my August 8 blog) because the concept of being wholly devoted to the Lord pervades Scripture. So does this mean our discussion ends here? Oh no! Today, I want to toss out an idea I have about double-mindedness and I'd love to hear your feedback on it.

Obviously, being double-minded means "being of two minds". It's an divided mind. Essentially, it is a mind in conflict with itself. This led me to think a bit about the role of conflict resolution in becoming single-minded or wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord. Could it be that part of our problem when we end up being two-faced or wavering in our faith is that we haven't gone through the work of resolving internal conflict? and maybe that we don't know how to do that?

Resolving conflict is difficult and many of us (myself included) shy away from it in any situation (work, personal relationships, etc.). Why would we be any different within ourselves? or with God? So, if you are one of those people who doesn't like conflict, you may have a propensity towards double-mindedness.

What are we to do? Next week we will take a look at ways to resolve internal conflict. For this week, I invite you to join me in asking God for the courage, discernment, and love to deal with the conflicts in our minds.

Comments

  1. AnnaSeptember 3, 2011 at 4:35 PM

    This is a good point, Tracy, about the relationship between resolving internal conflict and double-mindedness and I will have to mull it over. I just wanted to say something about the idea of double-mindedness in the Bible. I agree with you that, even though the actual term is barely mentioned, the idea of being wholly devoted to God pervades Scripture. Your post - and some other things - have got me thinking about this recently. I think Jesus' words about putting the hand to the plough and not looking back are in this vein. Also verses like Jeremiah 32: 39: (“I will give them singleness of heart and actions") and 1 Cors 7: 35 which talks about undivided devotion to God. Another idea has also caught my attention recently: Roms 14 talks about the fact that everyone in the body is different and each person may take a different stand on a variety of issues like eating meat or holy days. Verse 5 says that each should "be fully convinced in their own mind." This impressed me: that in the context of talking about tolerance and acceptance, Paul still talks about the need to be clear and single minded with regard to any decision we have made or "policy" we may have determined upon.

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  2. TracySeptember 5, 2011 at 3:11 AM

    Thanks, Anna, for your input and insight. Your discussion of Romans 14 is particularly helpful to me personally because it speaks to the importance of being convinced in my own mind even if other believers will disagree with me. I find this difficult... maybe because I don't want to do the work of becoming fully convinced or maybe because I don't like the idea of two believers both being fully convinced but disagreeing.

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