James 1:5-6
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
Do you have difficulty understanding the troubles in your life? Do you need wisdom? Do you experience fear or regret about present or past decisions?
I know I do! I desperately need more wisdom for parenting teenagers and young adults, helping my aging parents, and for my own health issues. I don’t understand the most important variables let alone the solutions to these problems. As soon as I feel like I have something figured out, a new complexity arises.
In the storm of trouble, doubt, and fear that rages in my heart, I have found these words at the beginning of James 1 to be a great source of hope. James, the brother of Jesus, starts his letter by saying “whenever you face trials of many kinds…” (James 1:2). In other words, we should expect difficulty in this life.
Then comes one glorious promise and two commands.
The first command: “if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God.” Remembering to pray for wisdom is half the battle for me. It’s so easy to be lulled into a false sense of self-sufficiency. Or to be so frantic with trying to figure things out myself that I forget to pray. God is glorified when we realize our foolishness and ask him for wisdom.
The glorious promise is this: if we ask for wisdom, God will always give us the wisdom that we need (“it will be given to you”). Matthew Henry, in his commentary on James, describes several ways that this verse encourages us to ask God for wisdom. First, the giver is God who is the “fount of all wisdom”. Second, “God is a bountiful giver” who gives generously “according to His own abundance”. And third, God is a “gracious giver” who gives without finding fault, without considering “our former folly and unworthiness.”
The second command: “but when you ask, you must believe and not doubt.” This is the hardest part for me: to trust that God has provided and will provide all of the wisdom that I need in every situation. I feel like my brain is hard-wired to doubt and second-guess. God is glorified when we have faith.
How can we learn to believe and not doubt? The answer is not found in our resolve but rather in the character and promises of God. In the words of Psalm 23, our Good Shepherd will always “guide us along the right paths for His Name’s sake.” As we come to know our Shepherd in the midst of our troubles, we will learn to live with less fear and regret and more faith and confidence in our God who directs all of the details of our lives with faithful love and tender care.
So, my sisters and brothers, let us humbly ask and wholeheartedly believe that God will give us all of the wisdom that we need and that he will tenderly guide us into the right paths, even when we lack wisdom.
All praise be to you, God our Father, for you are “the only wise God” (Romans 16:27), and to our brother Jesus, who is the wisdom of God “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3), and to the Spirit of God who dwells in us and is the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation” (Ephesians 1:17).
Rob Peck serves as an Elder at GRC.