“Strengthened in faith” (Romans 4:20)  

Saints have faith in God who is active, engaged, intimately involved in the affairs of the saint. This is called saving faith, as opposed to every other kind of faith. Most church-goers aren’t saved, and one of the ways you can tell, is when bad things happen, instead of staying submitted to Christ, they get out from under His Lordship. They probably had no idea of the significance of the salvation prayer: “I want to trust you as Savior and follow you as Lord”. If you’ve gotten out from under His Lordship, you should examine yourself, whether your faith is saving faith (2 Corinthian 13:5). 

 The Apostle James suggests the person that gets out from under the Lordship of Christ doesn’t have saving faith. “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe - and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” (James 2:19-21). 

 So what does James cite as Biblical evidence you’re saved? Saving faith produces patience. “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:2-8). 

 The evidence you possess saving Faith is trusting God enough in a bad situation to stay submitted to Christ, expecting that God will make a way where there seems to be no way, either through giving you the wisdom to change the situation with integrity, or some providence known only to God. The saint doesn’t need to know how God will make a way, he just needs to remain under the Lordship of Christ and patience will have its perfect work. Most of the time, God makes a way through giving the saint wisdom, which requires saving faith to receive and continue to receive, because believing God is giving you wisdom is a state of being which requires infinitely more faith than just accepting the fact that God will make a way. Your flesh and your Old Man will scream, “go back to sin!”, but you must remain under the Lordship of Christ, trusting He’s giving you wisdom to change the situation with integrity.  

This is called patience. The Greek word translated patience is Hupomeno, which in context means, “staying under the Lordship of Christ”. The Greek word translated “double-minded” is dipsuchos, which means two-souls. The person that’s not submitted to the Lordship of Christ has two souls, one for the good times and another for the bad times. “Let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord”.