Articles
Pray for Wisdom
James’s opening declaration is that trials are a blessing. They produce endurance, making us complete, lacking in nothing. But what if we lack sufficient perspective to see a trial as a blessing? Ask for it! “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God” (1:5a).
Isn’t that asking a lot? Perhaps . . . but not enough to be a problem. “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” (v. 5).
Parents sometimes respond to a child’s request with a rebuke: “You are always asking for something,” “What makes you think you need that?,” “When are you going to start standing on your own two feet?,” etc. That is not God’s disposition. He is anxious to give.
The variable is not God’s disposition; it is ours. Do we fully trust our heavenly Father? "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 man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways" (vv. 6-8).
The Bible teaches us to pray according to God’s will (1 John 5:14). We do not always know His will in the sense of the best way for a troublesome situation to resolve. Our view of that may be much different than His! We can, however, be confident about how He wants us to view such circumstances and how He wants us to conduct ourselves in them; and we can pray with complete confidence for His wisdom to help us do both those things.
James does not instruct us to pray for the removal of our trials but for the wisdom to make them all they can be. That takes faith. It also increases faith.
