One of the most powerful, yet practical verses in all of the Bible is found in James 1:5 - “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.”
I think of James as he shares God’s promise for wisdom. James knew that it’s relatively easy to live as a Christian when things are calm. But it’s much more difficult when the storms of life hit with full force. During these times, it’s easy to get off course or even to make shipwreck of your faith. His readers were facing extremely difficult trials. They were scattered abroad, mostly due to persecution. In a sense, they were refugees. They had suffered the loss of their homes and possessions. Many were not able to escape persecution even in the places to which they had fled. James wanted them to know how to navigate through these trials with the wisdom of God.
When James says, “If any of you lacks wisdom,” he is not suggesting that some have it together so well that they have no need of wisdom. In the Greek this is a conditional sentence, which implies that we all lack wisdom when we face difficult trials. But, we don’t always see our need for God’s wisdom.
In the Old Testament, God came to Solomon and said, ‘You’re the king of Israel. I’m going to grant you one wish. What do you want more than anything else in life?’ Solomon thought it over and said, ‘I’m so inadequate as a leader. I don’t know what to do with these people. More than anything else I want wisdom. I want to be able to think the way You think, to see things from Your point of view, be able to make decisions the way You would make them. I don’t want to make mistakes.
I don’t want to look back on my life later and have regrets. I want wisdom.’ The Bible says that God was pleased with that request. He granted it to him, just like God always gives wisdom to those that ask for it. He said, ‘Solomon, because you asked for wisdom, I’m going to give you the other things too: wealth, fame, and long life.
Later Solomon would write in Proverbs 8:11 – “for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.”
Like Solomon and James we must realize that to obtain wisdom we first have to recognize that we need it.
The context of James is the wisdom that we need to endure trials with God’s joy, so that we will be “mature and complete, not lacking anything.” How many times have we been in the midst of the storm and we desperately needed God’s wisdom?
I love the words of Abraham Lincoln who said, “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.
We can ask God for wisdom in any matter in life that we face, but in the context here, it is focused on asking God for the wisdom that we need to endure trials joyfully.
Enduring trials with joy goes against our natural inclination. When trouble hit, we’re all prone to ask, “Why is this happening to me?” But usually this is the wrong question. Sometimes, God reveals the reason for our suffering, but sometimes he doesn’t.
The important questions to ask when a trial hits are, “How can I understand this trial from God’s perspective? How can I navigate through this storm in such a way as to bring glory to God? How can this trial help me grow in maturity?”
Today’s Challenge: If you are facing a difficulty, a storm, or one of the trials of life, you can reach out to God for his wisdom. He has promised to give it to you. We must recognize that we need his wisdom, and then we ask him for it. God wants to give you His wisdom. He’s got a rich storehouse of wisdom from which you and I can draw for the rest of our lives.
