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James 1:5-8 (HCSB)
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. An indecisive man is unstable in all his ways.
Listen with Me
James takes it as a given that those who are undergoing persecution, those who are developing persistence through adversity (versus 2-4), need abundant wisdom. Man’s wisdom, damaged by the Fall, tends to think in terms of self. It can either run to the extreme of self-preservation at all costs, keep silent when God says to speak, and hiding when God says to go forward. Or it can run to the extreme of self-aggrandizement through unnecessary martyrdom, moving forward when God says to wait.
God’s wisdom, which seeks to fulfill His agenda and to glorify His name, is available to everyone who will ask. This is the same wisdom that Jesus sought each day as He met with His Father each morning in prayer (Mark 1:35-38, 6:46; Luke 5:15-16, 6:12, 9: 8).
This God-given wisdom enabled Jesus to always know where the Father wanted Him to go, and what He wanted Him to do there. It set Him up to continue hearing His voice all through the day, so that He always knew where to push forward, and where to withdraw. He never hid Himself away when God said to go, and He never recklessly pushed Himself forward into a conflict that would have needlessly moved God’s timeline forward.
James also understood that if a person asked God for wisdom, they had to ask in faith that He could truly give what they were asking for, and that they would be able to receive it. This meshes firmly with Jesus own instructions about asking and receiving (Matthew 8:13, 9:29, 17:20, 21:21-22; Mark 9:22b-23).
This faith is not something to be “worked up” but is simply a settled belief in one’s heart that God truly can give all that He has promised, that He can do whatever we ask, and that nothing is too difficult for Him. That is one of the key reasons that He has given his people the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments. These are not cleverly invented stories but are a careful historical record of God’s dealings with mankind over the millennia. What God has done for his people in the past, both individually and as a whole people, He can still do for us today. Those historical events are valuable in informing and even developing faith in God’s people, so that when we ask, even for seemingly impossible things, we can ask without doubting, and we can receive all we ask for.
Pray with Me
Father, this is Your consistent word throughout history as faithfully recorded in the Scriptures: that nothing is too difficult for You, and that we really can receive from Your hand all we ask for, not only wisdom, but so much more. How sad that so many Christians today ignore the Old Testament and forsake the knowledge and understanding of all You have done throughout history, either believing those historical accounts to be myths, or claiming to be “New Testament Christians” who see the Old Testament as irrelevant to our modern faith. Unfortunately, many of those people are living powerless lives, and when they pray, they find it easiest to pray for those things that they can see a way to achieve in their own strength or in man’s wisdom. Lord, what we need today are those who receive divine wisdom and power from Your hand because they asked, understanding that everything You have done in the past You are still capable of doing today. And so they ask without doubting because they have Your own promises and the solid illustration of Your ability to fulfill them, because they know and trust in Your word, from start to finish. Lord, help me to be such a man today. I ask it in faith. Amen.