If any of you
lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach,
and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the
one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
How many of you are going through trials of
one kind or another? What would you say you need most at this time? Is it not wisdom?
But how do you obtain wisdom? We shall find out wisdom comes through prayer.
But what is most needful in prayer? Is not faith? Do you have faith in God? Then
you will be well prepared to handle trials. For this life is like driving in
the rough road – you find all sorts of things – potholes, trenches, stones,
trees and bumps across the road and all without any warning. Sometimes there
are sharp bends and corners. Then you encounter animals and people who may not
be so accustomed to cars. You have to make judgments in split seconds and most
often you have to heavily depend on reflex actions! This is the way Christian
living is like here on earth! Are you prepared to take off?
1)
Trials demand
divine wisdom (v.5)
When you are faced with trials, you find
yourself deficient in wisdom. Wisdom is the God-given and God-centered, and
God-glorifying insight and discernment regarding the practical issues in life so
that one is able to exercise ‘regulative discretion which sees and selects
worthy ends, and the best means of attaining them’.
Wisdom is more than knowledge, intellectual capacity and education – wisdom is
the ability to apply all of these in order to bring glory to God and find
eternal pleasure in God.
Unbelievers lack this wisdom. No unbeliever has wisdom. Therefore, the
Bible is consistent that fools say in their hearts that there is no God (Psalm
14.1; 53:1). They embody the converse of wisdom and so Paul describes the
natural person as one who does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for
they are folly to him, and he is not
able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14)! When
they come across the trials of life, more often than not, they end with
self-destructive methods like, depression, alcoholism, and sometimes suicide.
This is because they lack wisdom and hope that come from God.
Christian should have this wisdom. When faced with trials do you find yourself
both lacking in strength to be steadfast and patience, but also fail to know
what to do? Helplessness is so obvious when under the weight of trials. But wisdom is better than strength (Ecc.
9:16). This is so true and so James addresses the lack of wisdom, because where
there is wisdom, then strength will come along.
One of the things to show that trials of
various kinds is what James has in mind (vv.2-4) is the use of the phrase ‘lacking in nothing’ in verse 4. One area
that one under trial could be lacking is in wisdom. This is why he picks up the
area of lack in verse 5, and the
connecting conjunction is ‘But if…’
The point of this passage is very well supplied by John Blanchard;
“…man is deficient in wisdom; he
simply does not have the necessary resources to cope with life’s problems and
pressures. But God does and he is willing to give them continuously,
generously, and graciously. Then what should man do in such a situation? The answer
to that question is obvious and James supplies it: ‘he should ask.’”
Clearly James is saying here that whoever
lacks wisdom should ask for it, and God will generously give it – it is as simple
as that! If you find yourself unable to proceed for lack of wisdom in a
difficult situation, all you need to do is ask. If your phone runs out of
airtime credit, you simply reload and you are able to proceed with the
conversation. When trials come your way, more often than not you will be faced
with challenges, then please pray.
Many would think that they are well equipped
to handle difficult and challenging circumstances until they actually get into
those circumstances. Then one would know how difficult, overwhelming and
overpowering some circumstances are. Sometimes you may even be tempted to sneer
at the foolishness of those under trials. But remember that while under the
weight of trials, wisdom is not automatically supplied – you have to ask for
it.
It is now about two months since I lost my
mother. Then I found myself swept off and out of my depths. I thank God for the
prayers and support of the saints on our behalf. Thankfully, I had our Father
in heaven who supplies both wisdom and grace. Trials are unbearable when one is
subjected to them for a prolonged period of time demanding a good supply of
heavenly wisdom. Growth in wisdom to deal with the challenges of this fallen
world can only be obtained from the Sovereign God, who knows all things at all
times in all places and circumstances.
2)
Divine
wisdom is available to you in trials when you pray (v.5)
One of the uses of trials then is to develop
us to be more prayerful. James simply says, “If any of you
lacks wisdom, let him ask God…” Prayer substitutes man’s weakness with God’s
strength, man’s emptiness with God’s fullness, man’s poverty with God’s wealth,
man’s impotence with God’s omnipotence.
Are you under the trials of life? Then you should and ought to pray. Never be
too tired to pray for then you’d be overwhelmed!
Instead of being anxious pray. When you fix
your eyes on the problem, you will fret, worry and be anxious. Instead the
Biblical pattern is given in Philippians 4:5b-7
The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything
by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in
Christ Jesus (emphasis mine).
Undoubtedly, prayer is God-appointed means
and it is effective. Even when you pray in anxiety the Lord will listen and
answer your prayers and give you peace that is beyond human comprehension to
guard both your heart and mind.
And again James nails it in James 5:13
Is anyone among you
suffering? Let him pray.
The point is that suffering is one of the
ways trials of many colours manifest themselves to us. They come to force us to
go to God in prayer. To make us more prayerful.
What are the encouragements to pray when
under trials? James writes, … let him ask
God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
Therefore:
v Let Him ask God… and it will be given him
This is an echo of Christ’s words when He
taught His disciples on prayer – Ask, and it
will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to
you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the
one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for
bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?
If you then, who are evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father
who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Mat 7:7-11).
The Sovereign God is the prayer-requiring,
prayer-listening and prayer-answering God. James calls God here, literally, the giving-God! God being the very
wellspring and fountain of true and genuine wisdom, when asked, He shall give
this treasure. This is the way in which your accounts of wisdom will overflow
with these great riches. Clearly if true wisdom comes from God through prayer,
then the more one grows in prayerfulness the more he will be endowed with
heavenly wisdom.
v
God gives
wisdom generously to those who ask
God does not only give wisdom in answer to
prayer, but He gives generously or liberally or bountifully or with simplicity.
This means that God gives with singleness of spirit, with no selfishness on His
part. In this manner of giving, we are encouraged to pray for we know that when
we pray we shall receive far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the
power at work within us (Eph. 3:20).
Therefore, true and heavenly wisdom is easy
to acquire because it comes from the most generous God! An example here would do. When Solomon asked God for wisdom, God gave him. This is part of
what happened,
At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by
night, and God said, "Ask what(ever) I shall give you."
“…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. I give you also what you have not
asked, both riches and honour, so that no other king shall compare with you,
all your days. And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my
commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your
days." 1Ki 3:5, 9-14.
The Lord is seen here to not only give the
wisdom as asked by Solomon, but more than what he asked; far over and above.
God gave him what he had not asked, both
riches and honour. This is the giving-God, giving generously.
v
God gives
wisdom to all who ask
The other encouragement for prayer is that
God gives without discrimination. He is a universal giver and so He gives to
all! Remember that God gives to all life, and breath, and all things. He gives
all food in due season (Ps. 145:15). He makes sun to rise on the evil and on
the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. His generosity is seen
every day in providence. For God executes His decrees not only in creation, but
also in providence.
But His generosity is also seen in grace in
that He loved the wicked world so much that He sent His Son so that through Him
those who believe will not perish but have eternal life. And so we can say,
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him
graciously give us all things? (Rom 8:32).
All things include the heavenly wisdom, which is ours for the asking.
v
God gives
wisdom without reproach
This negatively encourages us further to
prayer. Those who are beneficiaries of kindness can sometimes feel like they
have become a burden to their benefactor by their frequency. God is giving a
generous ruling to encourage us to keep on asking even when we ourselves are
wearied by asking. Life in the rural areas is very simple. So a lady runs out
of salt and without a second thought sends the son to the neighbours to borrow
a bit since shops are far away. But then the second, she has forgotten again
and now on the third day, it is past the market day. When the son goes the
third time, the neighbour is already tired of this ‘thoughtless, careless, and
poor neighbour. But even the boy himself would feel tired of his mother’s habit
of borrowing. God is not like that, He gives generously to all without
reproach.
God in His kindness and generosity gives
without reproach of the past requests or misgivings or failures in the
application of the wisdom given. Just as you cannot abuse the grace of God so
you cannot abuse the kindness and generosity of God. His grace, kindness, and
generosity will not run out or be depleted!
Remember the prodigal son? Look him up in
Luke 15:11-32. When he came back, the father lavished on him wonderful
reception, running towards him, embracing and kissing him with a thousand
kisses, and slaughtering a fattened calf for him. It is remarkable that there
was no rebuke from the father! The only thing the father did was to acknowledge
that the son was dead and lost and now he is found alive. This demanded a
celebration!
Therefore, let us then with confidence draw
near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help
in time of need (Hebrews
4:16).
3)
Prayer
requires faith without doubting (v. 6-8)
When the bible speaks of praying in faith, it
does not mean having faith in prayer.
Rather it is having solid faith in God who is the Giver. For faith is not some salt
added to give more flavor to prayer, faith is the essence of prayer. Furthermore
faith means knowing the promises of God as revealed in His Word and trusting
the Lord to be able and willing to deliver on every promise so that you pray
accordingly. How are we to show our faith in prayer?
v
To ask in
faith is to pray without doubting
To pray without faith is to waste one’s
breath and time. We know that without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw
near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Heb. 11:6).
Faith comprehends the sovereignty and
omnipresence of God. Faith clings to the lovingkindness of God, His pardoning
mercy, His willingness to listen to prayer, and His ability to answer prayers.
True faith has to be directed on Christ, for He is the one by His eternal
sacrifice who provided the unlimited access to the throne of God’s mercy. The
tearing of the curtain into two from top to bottom is the remarkable reminder
that we have confidence that our prayers are heard and will be answered if
asked according to the will of God.
Our asking must coincide with the way in
which God gives: He gives with singleness of intent; we must ask with
singleness of intent.
This is what the Lord taught – “If you
believe, you will receive whatever you ask in prayer.” (Matt. 21:22)
On the other hand to fail at the point of
faith is to show oneself to be wavering as the waves of the sea. To be in doubt
is to be double minded. We can present it this way, faith is our absolute
confidence that He will give what we ask; doubting is our own inner uncertainty
about whether we want him to give or not.
v
To doubt is
to be double-minded
A double-minded (or more literally a
two-souled) person is one who while resolved to trust in God and depend on Him,
based on His promises (this is the first mind as it were) but soon after the
other mind tells him that the problems are too big for God and that the cables
of promises are not dependable enough. Here is not a duplicitous person (with
two faces) but a double-faced man who is facing both sides. He is a double
agent serving two parallel or opposing camps and in doing so he is loyal to
neither but himself. He is serving himself. Doubting here is the opposite of
faith. But God clearly and categorically states, “For that person must not
suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.”
Do you have real faith that God will answer
your prayers when you pray? By ‘faith’, I do not mean that you psych or
convince yourself enough, against all odds and believe that God might do it and
so do all you can to arm-twist Him to do it; nor do I mean positive confession
where one overwhelms the Lord with the request and insists on it. I am not
talking about what is called in our day the ‘power of the rhema word’. With this notion are too many people who are so
disappointed with God because they wanted or ‘direly needed something’ and were
so convinced that God would do it because they used all the necessary buzz words
and did all that was there for them to do including giving as much money to the
causes of God, but it did not happen.
Many are devastated because God has not
answered many of their prayers although they do not know a single thing that
they did not do. They bought the man of God the car he ‘needed’ and a big house
he ‘needed’. They have enough faith to buy all the anointing oil he had for
sale in order to receive the ‘double anointing’ and they even bought ‘spiritual
brooms to sweep away curses’! Word of Faith teachers commonly called prosperity
‘gospel’ has left a good number of people tired with religion. They are left
thinking that prayer does not work. Faith is no faith at all. Yet the problem
is that they have contented themselves with something different from the
biblical faith or prayer.
Rather I mean that true faith that is
unwavering under trial. The example of the constituent faith of Abraham could
be helpful here –
In hope he believed against hope, that he should
become the father of many nations, as he had been told, "So shall your
offspring be." He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body,
which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he
considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver
concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory
to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is
why his faith was "counted to him as righteousness." Rom 4:18-22.
v
To lack
faith in prayer is to prove to be unstable and lacking in maturity
A wavering or doubting prayer shows
instability of character and displays spiritual immaturity. God relates to us
in answer to our prayer when our lives reflect a basic spiritual integrity. One
who will not satisfy himself with divine provision understands nothing of the
character of God and the weakness of man to judge God. Such immaturity must not
expect anything from God. We read, that … such
a person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.
Being a man divided at heart and in mind with one of his foot on the faith and
the other on doubt is a denial of the very essence of salvation. I close by
quoting John Chrysostom, the 4th century bishop of Constantinople
about prayer,
The potency of prayer has subdued the
strength of fire, it has bridled the rage of lions, hushed anarchy to rest,
extinguished wars, appeased the elements, expelled demons, burst the chains of
death, expanded the gates of heaven, assuaged diseases, dispelled frauds,
rescued cities from destruction, stayed the sun in its course, and arrested the
progress of thunderbolt. There is an all-sufficient panoply, a treasure
undiminished, a mine which is never exhausted, a sky unobscured by clouds, a
heaven unruffled by the storm. It is the root, the fountain, the mother of a
thousand blessings!
Lord, we do
not just need great wisdom for various trials we face; we need divine wisdom.
We have just learnt that this demands that we ask and you will display your
generosity to us – thank you. Give us the same singleness of mind in prayer as
you have in giving. Yes Lord, along with the wisdom we need a great measure of
faith – so please increase our faith as well. Keep us from doubts. Please grant
us to pray than ever before. In Christ’s Name we pray. Amen!
