James 1:4-6, If You Lack Wisdom, Just Ask of God
James 1:4-6, “But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed..”
“If any of you lack wisdom.”
Lacking wisdom is trending, wouldn’t you say? If you aren’t sure, just start watching some Facebook reels or random YouTube videos or the news for that matter. But are they the only ones lacking wisdom? Do we have the Biblical, Godly wisdom that is necessary for a close walk with God? Do you think as a Christian that you have all the wisdom that you need? Do any of you lack wisdom? I hope that we can be humble enough to know that we can grow in this area, yet sometimes we actively avoid that which would teach us wisdom.
Something we often try to avoid that would teach us wisdom is the trying of our faith. We tend to have the mindset that because trials are difficult that we should try to avoid them. But “when we fall into divers temptations,” and our faith is tried, it works patience. Patience then performs its completing work on us, making us entire and wanting (or lacking) nothing. This means that the perfecting work of patience leaves nothing behind or forsaken of which we need. The part of that refining work that is emphasized here is God’s gift of wisdom.
Proverbs 4:7a asserts that “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom.” James 1 comes behind that saying, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” Wisdom is principal, and God gives it liberally if we will ask Him. We might be embarrassed or feel guilty about having to ask for wisdom, but James shows us that God “upbraideth not” the request, or, in other words, He does not revile or reproach you for asking. The fact that He gives liberally when asked just shows how much He wants you to request wisdom from Him.
“Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.”
But sometimes our faith wavers. Have you ever been asked to teach something only for your student to question your lesson? As a former teacher English teacher, I could tell you of all sorts of times I taught varying grammar lessons and was questioned on every level, but let me share something far more shameful on my part. I have been that student. My wife is a wonderful piano player and teacher. I have heard from a side room as she has taken students from mashing the piano keys to playing music! While listening, I thought it would be great to just sit down to the piano and just play a song that was on my heart, so I asked her to teach me. I’ve heard her teach children and adults of all ages, so certainly I could learn with my “musical background.” Well, we tried. She began teaching me the basics, and I said, “I know this stuff; this is too easy. Try teaching me something harder.” So, she jumped ahead a few lessons. “Hold on, now you’ve gone too far. What are you talking about?” Needless to say, after yo-yoing her around for a while, she informed me that this wasn’t going to work. I have to admit, she was (and still is) right.
Here's what happens: we ask God for wisdom, and it is wise to do so, but when the lesson comes, we waver. Perhaps the problem is that we want God to give wisdom in the same way we wanted to learn in school, by osmosis. (Osmosis is one-way diffusion through a semipermeable membrane—the one thing I remember from biology. Thank you, Mrs. Crawford, and sorry I don’t remember more!) We want God to just stick wisdom in our minds in the same way we wanted the information in our Biology text books to just sink in as we slept with it under our head, but God gives wisdom the same way our teachers taught us, through lessons, testings, and trials. So the trial comes, we don’t like the trial, and our faith wavers. “I want wisdom, but I don’t want it the way you want to give it to me.” But it doesn’t work that way. We don’t get to set the terms of our own growth; we just need to trust God to see Him grow us. Growth is a painful process. Muscle growth relies on the micro-tearing of muscle tissue which heals to be stronger than it was. (Maybe I remember two things from biology.) We are sore but stronger.
If we are going to let patience have her perfect work, we need to have faith in God’s work through the trials and that without wavering. “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:24) “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13b) If you are saved, you have already trusted God for that. If we can trust God for salvation, and certainly we can, then we need to trust Him as He gives us wisdom as He sees fit.
