Imagine this scene with me, if you will. Jehoshaphat, one of the kings of Judah who did mostly good, was standing before the gathered people of Judah and Jerusalem, in the new temple courtyard. He is no doubt dismayed, in fact, we’re even told that he was afraid…but he turned his attention to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a period of fasting and prayer to help the people in their troubles. They had just learned that a great army was coming against Judah. Jehoshaphat went to go pray with the people, and his prayer ends with this, “Our God, will You not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You.” (2 Chronicles 20:12, NASB)
Have you even felt like Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah? God, I don’t know what to do. God’s people were in the midst of a terrible trial, and we talked about trials last week, and this was definitely a trial, with the fear and anxiety of an army coming to fight them, likely defeat them, and make them suffer. And in the midst of that trial, they just didn’t know what to do. Who hasn’t felt like that at times during trials? Even if you’re looking for those keys, you’re looking for the character God is trying to create in you, you’re looking for the way He is going to grow you and change you, but in the midst of all that, you still don’t know how to move forward so you can actually get through that trial?
What if, in the midst of a trial, I don’t know what to do? It’s a common enough problem, one that I’m sure is familiar to all of us. Thankfully, James had a Spirit-given solution for this.
Let’s look at our passage for today in James 1:5-8. “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. 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. For that person ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
Remember, James had just been speaking about trials and the testing, endurance, and maturity that trials produce in the life of those who follow Christ. We know that this holds true for any trial we can go through, regardless of the circumstances, if we let Him, God will work in that trial to grow us as believers.
But, if in the midst of that trial, we don’t know what to do to press forward and keep working through that trial and persevering, James says we should ask for wisdom from God. If you lack wisdom to go through that trial, just ask God!
James is a little sneaky about the way that he words this, but basically what his point is, is that when we’re going through trials and we don’t know what the outcome is going to be, we don’t have the wisdom to go through the trial. None of us do. We are all lacking wisdom, because none of us can see what God sees. But God sees and knows all, so when we go through trials, we need His wisdom to go through those trials in a way that is good for us and honoring to Him.
Why do we need wisdom in trials?
Have you ever gone through a trial, a really difficult situation, and when you got to the other side of the trial you were burdened by guilt and self-blame about how you handled it? Maybe you asked these questions, “If only I had said this…or done this differently…” Maybe, “I wish I hadn’t said that…” Or even, “Man, I really did not handle this well…”
I personally can think of a few trials I have gone through when I didn’t seek God’s wisdom on how to handle the trial, and when it was done all I could think about was how badly I had messed things up. I’ve found myself full of guilt and self-blame, wishing I had done things differently.
Of course, if I had asked for God’s wisdom and really pressed into Him during those times and listened to what He said, His given wisdom in those trials could have helped me stay away from acting in a way that I would feel bad about later. And that’s one of the amazing, and assuring things about God’s wisdom is that if we ask for it, and we rely on it, His wisdom can keep us from acting in a way that might leave us feeling guilty or blaming ourselves for the way a trial in life turned out.
What about this? You go through a trial in life, something really hard, and at the end you’re full of confusion and self-doubt. You think things like, “What was the point of that, God?” “Why did this happen to me?” “Is God punishing me?” “Where did I go wrong?”
It’s similar to guilt and self-blame, but with confusion and self-doubt the end result is that we’re left wondering what the point of the trial was even. The good thing is that God’s wisdom can counteract guilt and self-blame as well. God given wisdom in trials can help us not be wracked with doubt and confusion, and His wisdom can help us understand what good did come out of that trial and that because we were using the wisdom God gave us we worked through the trial in a productive way.
Or this next reason why we need God’s wisdom. Let’s me describe to you a self-made trial I went through as a child. It was a trial of my own making, one that I could have avoided if I had just done my schoolwork, but I hadn’t. Then report card day came. I gave my abysmal report card to my mom who was rightfully upset and disappointed. I knew there would be consequences for my poor choices. The trial came that night though, because my dad was late in coming home and I had to wait hours with my FEAR and anxiety about what my dad was going to say and what consequences I was going to have to face.
See, when we’re going through a trial, self-made or not, things may at times feel out of control, and may actually be out of our control. We may feel overwhelmed with anxiety that we might lose something precious. You might feel during those times that fear and anxiety come in suffocating waves that make you physically feel sick and threaten to drown your peace. During those times when that is our response to trials, asking for God’s wisdom will restore our peace and help us hold onto the fact that He is in control and is working for our good if we love Him.
Why else do we need His wisdom to get through life’s trials? Sometimes when we go through trials, the circumstances of those trials make us angry. We’re angered by injustice, we’re angered by the words or actions of others, we’re angered by the situation, we’re angry because we don’t know what to do to keep moving forward. But once anger fades, what we’re left with is feelings of hopelessness or depression. We start to believe that there’s no way out, no way to move forward, nothing we could say or do to make things any better.
But God’s given wisdom in trials can help us keep moving forward, give us hope and a sense of purpose, instead of getting stuck in cycles of anger and then hopelessness and depression because of the trials we find ourselves in.
We very clearly need God’s wisdom in trials. I would even go so far as to say, and I think James implies this as well, that if we don’t have God’s wisdom to guide us through trials, we will most certainly not navigate that trial well. We can’t, because we can’t see all facets of the trial like God can. We need His wisdom, at all times, but especially through trials.
Fortunately, James says that all we have to do is ask, and God will give us His wisdom in trials. In fact, Matthew 7:7 affirms that, when Jesus told His disciples to ask and it will be given. God isn’t looking to make our lives miserable or unlivable. He doesn’t want us to go through life carrying burdens of guilt and self-blame, self-doubt, fear, anxiety, anger, and hopelessness. He desires to give us wisdom so we can navigate life’s difficulties wisely.
James has immense confidence in the grace that God gives to those who call on His name and place their trust in Him. God’s grace is His favor freely given to us that we don’t deserve, and James has such confidence in God’s grace that he wants the readers of his letter to also place their confidence in God’s great grace.
So, James expands on the wisdom God graciously gives to us. James says that God gives His wisdom. The way that James uses the word “gives” is actually in the present active form of the word. The word is didontos, and it implies that God is giving, actively giving wisdom in the present here and now. It implies that this is always happening, God is always giving His wisdom as we ask. This also implies that there is a never a time when God stops giving His wisdom. It is a continuous stream, flowing to those who are in need and asking for it.
God gives His wisdom to all. The word for all is pasin. It’s all-encompassing. There is no one who is left without an invitation to trust in God. He desires that all should trust Him and turn to Him for wisdom. In fact, many times throughout the Bible, particularly in the Psalms and Proverbs, we’re told to ask God for wisdom and that He desires to give wisdom to us. This is an invitation for all. God doesn’t leave out anyone.
God gives His wisdom to all, generously. The word in Greek is haplōs, and it means that He gives freely and without reserve. There is no limit to God’s wisdom, and there is no limit to how much wisdom He will give us. When we face trials in life, as we are guaranteed to do, He will give us the full wisdom needed to deal with those trials if we simply ask. He’s not going to just give us a little wisdom that will help us, but not fully allow us to walk through that trial. He pours out His wisdom generously.
And finally, and perhaps the best news of all, He gives His wisdom to all, generously, and without reproach. The word in the Greek there means that when He gives His wisdom, He doesn’t first remind us of our faults. He doesn’t bring up a long list of sins, or examples of all the times we’ve gone through trials before and didn’t ask for His help or His wisdom. Nope. Remember, He is a loving God, and as 1 Corinthians 13 points out, love keeps no record of wrongs. God freely gives His wisdom to all, generously, and without reproach.
Because God gives His wisdom in this way, ask. Just ask.
Of course, James does have some warnings. James says we must ask in faith, without doubt or double-mindedness. I want us to understand that this isn’t a warning against all doubt or questions. I believe that some doubt and questions are actually a part of the Christian walk, especially in the beginning when you’re still changing your world view to be one that is God-honoring. There’s going to be questions. You’re going to struggle between flesh and the Spirit. Working through that, as we learned last week, leads to a mature Christian life. Bring those doubts and questions to God, and let Him help you work through them.
The doubt that James refers to here, is double-mindedness. This is a person whose loyalties are divided between God and the world, and they have not fully decided to give his or her love and life to God. The doubt that James is addressing is the flip-flopping between relying on yourself, and relying on God. Essentially, James is either talking about those who have not yet come to Christ through grace by faith and received His salvation, or someone who has done so, but refuses to live life by trusting in God fully or relying on Him or bringing their confusion and questions to God.
James warns against such persons asking for wisdom, not because God will not give His wisdom to those persons, but because that person hasn’t fully decided if they really want God’s wisdom or not. We must ask in fully trust, faith, and confidence that when we ask for wisdom, not only will God give it…but we will actually use it.
1. How has God given you wisdom in a recent/current trial?
2. Have you experienced guilt, self-blame, confusion, self-doubt, fear, anger, hopelessness, or depression through a trial because you did not ask for wisdom? Can you see how wisdom might have prevented these experiences?
3. What do you need to ask God for wisdom about right now? Trust that He is giving wisdom to you, generously, and without reminding you of your faults, and find peace that He is working in your trials.