Faltering Between Two Opinions

by Darwin Hunter

Indecision cripples us. When you are conflicted, half wanting to go one way while also desiring to go the other, you hamper progress in any positive way. Elijah implored his contemporaries to make up their minds! On Mt. Carmel, during the great contest between Jehovah and Baal, the courageous prophet addressed the audience with a compelling question, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21, NKJV). Life often places us at the-crossroads between truth and error, morality and immorality, right and wrong. Mt. Carmel’s events presented such a fork in the road for Elijah’s audience. Indecision between the two paths before them kept some from serving the Lord with a full, undivided heart. It takes courage to make the decision, but it must be made. Elijah had boldly made his decision. He believed in God with a whole heart, and would willingly suffer for His cause. He would risk being killed by Ahab and Jezebel in order to defend the true God of Heaven! For him, there was no turning back.

We are often faced with similar decisions. We cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24). We must choose the world and its pleasures, or we must serve Christ — we cannot do both! We will either give our lives up in Christ’s cause, gathering a harvest of souls for Him, or scattering abroad (Matthew 12:30). Indecision cripples many Christians, too. They flounder around trying to live a worldly life, but at the same time a spiritual life, and failing in their attempt to do either. They have too much religion to live a full-bore debauched life, but too little religion to live a dedicated, faithful life for Christ and His church. They remain in the ‘twilight zone” between two competing worlds, and uncommitted to either. It is a self-defeating dichotomy of the mind! Christian, are you there? It is time to ‘cross the Rubicon” and to commit yourself wholly to a no-holds-barred, no-turning-back commitment to Christ. Nothing else will do! “A double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways” (James 1:8)! So, quit faltering, and start living!