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, doubting nothing, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
James 1:5-8 (LSB)
Last week, we analyzed James 1:2-4 to determine the cause of suffering and found that God allows suffering and trials because He matures the Christian into a person with completeness in God-honoring character. Therefore, one’s response to suffering should not be that of grumbling and complaining; rather, his mind should be preoccupied with joy, knowing that God’s favor is in his life, resulting in sanctification. Once a person has the right attitude toward suffering, he needs to know how to deal with his circumstances; he needs wisdom. Therefore, to receive the wisdom necessary to endure any situation, Christians must put their unwavering faith in Christ and ask of God for wisdom.
Christians need to inquire of the Lord for His wisdom and then open their hearts to listen His response because they lack in themselves the wisdom that they need to live glorifying to Him. The natural response to any difficulty is to solve it according to either logic or emotions. While it makes sense to solve the situation according to the vast knowledge that the world has to offer, we must understand that neither we nor the world have wisdom, which is the insight and skill to respond to any given situation in a way that pleases and honors God. For example, the natural response to offense is for the offended party to cut all ties with the offender and then spread gossip. All this does is bring hurt to both the offended and the offender; no peace comes from this. When turning to the Word of God, Jesus says in Matthew 18, regarding sinning brothers, to “go and show him his fault, between you and him alone; if he listens to you, you have won your brother” (Legacy Standard Bible[1], Matthew 18.15). Later in the chapter, Jesus commands His disciples to forgive “up to seventy times seven” (21). In other words, the Lord calls us to work out problems we have with each other alone and without gossip and to be generous in forgiving just as God forgave us our unpayable debt of sin. This way of life causes us to be at peace with others as much as depends on us (Romans 12.18). As seen in the matter of conflict resolution, the wisdom of God is different than the knowledge of the world, and God’s wisdom can only come from Himself. In Job’s final speech to his friends, he notes that man is smart; he can build mines deep into the earth and process sand and stone into precious metals. However, man doesn’t have wisdom, and it cannot be found anywhere in the earth. Job’s conclusion about wisdom is this: “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; / And to turn away from evil is understanding” (Job 28.28). The only way to find out wisdom is to turn to the source of wisdom, who is God. Solomon, after making multiple politically smart yet unwise decisions, turns to God, asking for “a listening heart to judge … to discern between good and evil” (I Kings 3.9). Solomon recognizes that he must quiet his heart and listen to the Lord if He is to be a wise king, and he states this idea in Proverbs when he quotes Job, saying, “The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9.10a). To be wise, one must quiet himself and listen to what God says. James, speaking to people under persecution who aren’t going to always know how to deal with their sufferings, is repeating the same idea as the rest of the Bible. You don’t have wisdom; therefore, ask God for wisdom because only He can give it to you. When you do, you acknowledge God’s lordship and sovereignty over your life[2], and you submit to His will. Asking God for wisdom is humbling yourself so that you act according to what God says is right instead of your perverted instinct of what you think is right. God is in control of all as the creator and sustainer of the universe; instead of trying to navigate trials without God, trust in His ability to work everything out for your good in His time.
Once you understand that wisdom comes from God alone, you must understand how God gives that wisdom. James urges his audience to ask for wisdom because he knows that God not only has wisdom but will give it “generously and without reproach” (James 1.5). God will not hold back His wisdom but will give you the wisdom you need to handle whatever situation you are in. James is alluding to the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus says in Matthew 7:7-11 that what you ask will be given to you because God the Father gives good gifts to His children who ask of Him just as earthly fathers will do the same. Therefore, all you need to do is ask in faith for wisdom, and God will graciously give you what you ask. This does not mean that He will give you the answers to all your questions, but He will answer your prayer for guidance so that your response to suffering is glorifying to Him. Job didn’t know why God allowed his suffering; he didn’t know about Yahweh’s conversation with Satan. What Job learned from God is that while Job didn’t understand everything happening to him, God, being above Job in every way, was righteous in allowing Job to suffer. Job needed to trust that God was doing what was best. In the same way, we may not understand why we are going through what we are, but we can understand that God is just and that He is using our sufferings to build our character. Therefore, we can trust that God will give us what we need to endure through the suffering and that He won’t mock or ridicule us for asking for wisdom. We have no reason to doubt God. If we do, we are unstable because we are not trusting in Yahweh’s sovereignty and the constant that He is. By doubting, we can expect no wisdom from God because we must totally surrender our lives to Him. We must have no compromise between the world and God because then our divided selves will have no foundation of truth and hope. We will be, as James says, like the waves or “surf of the sea” that go back and forth with no steadiness or stability because they are “driven and tossed by the wind” (James 1.7). When we put our full confidence in God, we have total assurance that He will give us wisdom because we know that He is doing in righteousness what will maximize our good and His glory.
Considering all of this, what is the practicality of this passage? First, we must stop trying to solve our problems with our own knowledge because we are not wise. Rather, we must turn to the wisdom of God found in His Word. By reading the Word of God, we will become wiser because we are learning from what God has revealed to us. Second, we must seek godly counselors who will point us to the wisdom of God’s Word. Third, we must pray that the Holy Spirit would remind us of what we have learned so that we may obey God’s Word in the heat of trials. By applying these steps, we will become wiser people because our foundation will not be in ourselves or in other people but in the all-sufficient Word of God. We will be people who are stable emotionally and in purity, meaning that we will be able to encourage others and help them also respond to tricky situations by seeking God’s Word.
Wisdom is the ability to act godly and God-glorifying in all situations, but we don’t inherently know how to please God. The only way to know in both the best and worst of circumstances is to ask God in prayer and in His Word. When we do so in faith, we recognize Yahweh’s sovereignty and that His way is better than ours. This week, I encourage you to take life more purposefully by spending time with God, knowing that whatever you are going through, His Word will comfort and strengthen you to live wisely as you are guided by His Spirit. If you are unsure of how to address a situation, ask God in faith for help; He’ll give you the wisdom you need.
COMMITTING TO GOD’S GRACE AND LOVE,
Jeremiah Yonemura
[1] Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com
[2] MacArthur, John. The MacArthur Study Bible. 1997. 2nd ed., Nashville, Thomas Nelson, 2019.
