To Encourage You

James 1:4-5 “And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

Do you like “know-it-alls?”  Have you run across such people in your life?  “Know-it-alls” think they already know it all!  You can’t tell them anything because they think they already have all the answers. The Bible calls this a condition of “being wise in your own eyes,” and it warns us to not be this way (Proverbs 3:7).

Thankfully, one of the things that God does to help us from succumbing to this foolish condition is to bring trials into our lives.  We can think we know so much until something hits us that we just don’t know how to handle. It can come in the form of difficult relationships, a health condition, an unanticipated financial challenge, or a responsibility for which we feel we are in way over our heads.  It can be in the form of an overwhelming workload. It may be in the form of a great loss of some type.  In the verses above from James 1 we see the Holy Spirit teaching us what to do in such cases. These verses come immediately after the statement “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”  It’s telling us that the hardest things in life, the difficult trials, can be some of the best things for us because they test the genuineness and strength of our faith. They expose deep truths about us that would be otherwise hidden from our consciousness.  In all of it, God is working to make us mature in our faith.   It’s one of the many ways that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).  This maturity is called a condition of being “perfect and complete, lacking nothing” in the passage above.

But notice how it immediately turns to talk about something everyone lacks, i.e., wisdom.  Trials are especially good at exposing our lack of it.  It is trials above all else that can put us in the condition of not knowing what to do.  And that’s exactly where we need to be if we ever hope to acquire wisdom.  We must become critically aware of what we don’t have in order to develop a desire for it. And it is a desire for wisdom that is one of God’s greatest desires for us.  It was this one thing that Solomon asked for when God promised to give him anything his heart would want. The account of this conversation is given to us in the following words from 1 Kings 3: “At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, ‘Ask what I shall give you.’ And Solomon said, ‘You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?’  It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, ‘Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.’”

Just like Solomon reached out to God for wisdom as he faced the overwhelming task of ruling the nation of Israel, so God would have us to reach out to Him for wisdom as well.  And the wonderful thing about this is that when we feel overwhelmed, when we are in over our head, when we are perplexed about the circumstances of life and admit we need the help of God, it is then that God is pleased. He isn’t angry at us although He most certainly does know it all and we so often know so little. No, as the passage above tells us, God will generously answer the prayer for wisdom, and He will do so “without reproach.”  This is so comforting in the face of the feelings of despair and self-condemnation that fearful thoughts of not knowing what to do next can bring upon us.   

So, are you in such a place at this moment? Are you facing some difficulty and you don’t know what to do?  If so, know that God is patiently waiting to bless you with His wisdom. It’s something He absolutely and wonderfully promises to give you if you will just humbly turn to Him and ask.