The book of James is such a practical book for the New Testament church to study. If I were teaching through this book, I’d call the series something like, “The Gospel As It Ought To Be Lived” and for this blog post, I would (and did) title it, ‘Acquiring Wisdom for Life’…it is a very practical and usable passage for day-to-day life! I remember being asked as a teenager if I liked hot coffee. I said that I did not. The reply came, ‘well, it is an acquired taste’. What does that mean? An acquired taste often refers to an appreciation for a food or beverage that is unlikely to be enjoyed by a person who has not had substantial exposure to it, usually because of some unfamiliar aspect of the food or beverage. One dictionary said an acquired taste is one that is unpleasant on immediate experience or is likeable only after being experienced repeatedly. After several cups of coffee I developed an ‘acquired’ taste for coffee! Did you know that wisdom could be acquired? That’s what Proverbs tells us, “The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your acquiring, get understanding.” in Proverbs 4:7 (NAS). So, let’s take a look at our passage in the book of James chapter 1 and verses 5-8, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (NAS) So, let’s look at the verse and see what it means and then make some application.
The Wisdom We Need
Vs1, “But if any of you lacks wisdom” (NAS) If we want to know the meaning of this passage, we must know what is meant by the term ‘wisdom’ as used here. Proverbs tells us much of wisdom and you may recall that the ‘fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom’. As it is used here in James, it clearly means more than knowledge, intellectual ability, cleverness or education. Lets face it, we all know people that have all that and still are totally inadequate to deal with life’s deepest problems. They are powerless to deal with spiritual issues. The word here for wisdom refers to a biblical wisdom that aligns biblical knowledge with spiritual faith, this wisdom is the essence of a readiness to submit to God and His ways in each of life’s events or circumstances. Truly, the ability to see life from God’s perspective and then to respond in accordance with His word! Verse 4 ends with ‘lacking in nothing’ and now we start verse 5 with the words ‘if anyone lacks wisdom’! Here James is saying “when you find yourself needing wisdom…” You will find yourself in a trial…when trouble comes you may find you need wisdom. Most of the time when a trial hits us, what do we do? Well, if it’s a trial that we’ve gone through before, we may recall what God taught us before and act on that wisdom. However, if it is a new trial, we may well find ourselves sliding into a state of confusion, we may even become bitter over the circumstances we find ourselves messed up in. To be sure, we have tried to get ourselves out of the pit…but we have failed to free ourselves from the real problem(s) and we forgot to call on the only Source we will ever need! The solution, the remedy, for some reason has escaped us. But, like the prodigal son, we ‘come to ourselves’ and remember the One who loves us and we will then turn to God and pray, “HELP!” So, we see the wisdom we need, but the verse continues and we see our Resource for wisdom!
Our Resource For Wisdom
Vs 5, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” (NAS) The answer to the deepest cries of the heart is to be found with the Lord! God alone is the source of true wisdom. In fact, God has wisdom to give! Daniel 2:20, “Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to Him.” (NAS) Wisdom in its most perfect sense is one of God’s attributes. He is wisdom! While this is true, James is really trying to emphasize not so much the character of God here as much as getting across the fact that this divine wisdom is available to the Christian as he faces trials in life! Stop! Wait just a minute. This is tremendously encouraging so don’t miss this. One more time, let’s take this slowly. God is wisdom, it’s part of Who He is…He willingly makes that divine wisdom available to the Christian for any and all issues of life that he will ask God to supply wisdom for! AMEN! Our God is a giving God. Psalm 145:16, “You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.” (NAS) James adds a second phrase here, ‘Who gives to all generously’ and the meaning here is that God not only gives genuinely from an open hand but also generously in an abundant way to fully meet the Christian’s need(s). And furthermore, the next phrase states ‘without reproach’ which means that He does not give according to our worthiness or even our gratitude. His giving is governed by His nature not ours! That again is marvelous news for us! God will see to it that the wisdom He knows we need, will be granted!
The Prayer God Desires
Vs 6-8, “But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (NAS) James provides a very practical guide for us in the matter and manner of petitioning God for wisdom.
–Ask. God has promised the result but only if the one in need makes the request. I’ve heard it said, “The secret of prayer is secret prayer.” Not like the Pharisees who prayed in public, but Jesus taught us to pray in our closets, alone with God! Jesus often went away from the disciples to be alone with God. We all know that prayer is important, we all acknowledge that, but the question remains, ‘Do we pray?’ Are you so caught up in your other Christian activities that you are making the miserable mistake of confusing activity with intimacy?
–In Faith. Hebrews 11:6, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” (NAS) Jesus gave even more specific emphasis regarding faith and prayer in Matthew 21:22, “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” (NAS) This faith that James speaks of is the essential attitude of heart of the person who is praying…is his heart full of sincerity to view life from God’s perspective or is there a selfish motivation at work in that heart? This is not a hope so, shot in the dark, wish for an answer. No! Our faith is not in the prayer itself, but in the Person we are praying to. We are not hoping that we pray well enough or have lived good enough to be heard. Believing prayer is the prayer of a man who is convinced of the power, love, grace, mercy and faithfulness of God to whom he is praying. Your prayer is impacted by how well you know and are convinced of the character of God! Did you know that? Let that sink in!
–No Doubts. The remainder of the passage addresses the one who prays with a debilitating doubt. James is not talking about unbelievers, but those who believe but their doubts are a constant contradiction to their faith. Their prayers – if indeed they can ever decide on anything to pray for – go nowhere, only back and forth in the indecision of their doubts. Such indecisiveness is like a weed blowing in the wind or a boat driven by the waves on the water. James uses good illustrations here to bring the readers to the point of double-mindedness and instability.
> Double-minded: True prayer cannot flow from a divided heart. It is not that the Lord is withholding His blessings, it is simply that there is nothing to answer with blessing. The double-minded need to repent, get with God, agree with His word and become single-minded in Christ!
> Unstable in all their ways can only be remedied by learning to walk in stability on God’s word! 2 Peter 3:17-18, “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” (NAS)
To walk in a stable way we must be on the level path that God has set for His children. Are you and God on the same page or different pages? How would you know? Hey, all this sounds great, but how can this be applied practically?
So how does all this come together? There’s not a one-size-fits-all on this. There are many ways to put these principles into practice. A dear brother shared with me one such way to discern God’s direction in life. Several times in our lives my wife and I have needed to know God’s will or wisdom for direction in our lives and we used the advice he gave. So, following his instructions, this is what we did. We would meet together, come up with the question for which we needed God’s direction. The question should not be too specific, nor should it be too general, but it had to be one that we both agreed upon. Each of us would keep a journal with that question at the top of the page. Then, through quiet times, Bible studies, sermons, SS lessons, Christian songs, encouragement from friends, or email devotions, etc., we would be sensitive to any input that might address our question. She would write these down and what she sensed God was saying. I would do the same. After some time, one of us may feel we have received enough wisdom to know the decision we should make. We would let the other know we’ve reached a decision without telling them the decision. Once we both sensed we had a direction or answer, we would schedule a meeting; just the two of us to go over all the scripture, the sermons, the input and how we sensed God was leading. We shared with each other from our journals, our walk through the decision. Then we shared with each other the decision we came to. We agreed on the front end, that we would only proceed if we both sensed God’s leading to do so. So, if we both got a ‘no’, then the answer was of course ‘no’. If one got a ‘yes’ and the other ‘no’, then the answer was ‘no’. Only if we both knew for sure that God was indeed leading us to say ‘yes’ would our answer be ‘yes’. By this point in the process, we both had extensive journals of how He had been leading us to His answer, His wisdom for our lives. Much scripture, much prayer, and much seeking! All the things we’ve been discussing…but here’s one of many practical ways to express it. There are many other ways you may avail yourself of God’s wisdom…again, it’s not a one-size-fits-all deal. But, when it comes to God’s wisdom, He wants to provide all you need! He desires for us to be on the same page with Him, walking in intimacy with God!
William Cowper wrote, “Oh, for a closer walk with God, A calm and heavenly frame, A light to shine upon the road That leads me to the Lamb.”
Well, that’s all for now. While I don’t blog often, please feel free to check back soon for another installment of REDD-INK!
RReddInk 