Day 9: WISDOM— Are You up to Asking God for ...

'If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.’—James 1:5

('If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God—James 1:5): Wisdom—Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash

Blog #011

When I was a younger man

I remember distinctly listening and looking-up to other men in the church and thinking, ‘Wow! I wish I could be that wise and know what to do in that situation. To have the right answer for that difficult question. Then people will see how strong in God and faithful I am! People will come to me for answers and I will be able to help them. I could be a leader, I can do that!’

I, I, I! Me, Me, Me!

Ask God

There it was, James 1:5 ESV; ‘If any one of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him’

Well hello! that is exactly what I am looking for. If I ask God for Wisdom I will get it, bring it on!

Trials, testing, steadfastness

It makes me laugh now but many a night my prayer would include that request. What I failed to recognise at the time, or chose to ignore more to the point, was the 3 verses leading up to verse 5 which talk about trials, testing and steadfastness. Back then, not exactly 3 of my favourite words.

A few things worth noting was;

I wanted wisdom for my benefit.
I wanted it as quickly as possible.
I wanted it with minimal effort.

Can you relate to that! We certainly live in a generation of a want; now; easy mentality.

When James wrote verse 5 of his first chapter, I wonder if he/God knew that for us to simply ‘survive’ life here on earth we would need a coping mechanism called wisdom that can only come from God. Not so we could beat our chest in pride or be the ‘go-to person to solve everyone’s problems.

Rather we could fight the good fight, finish the race and keep the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).

How are you coping?

Do you have any circumstance going on now in your life that requires God’s wisdom for you to cope? There is no other wisdom that will do the job.

God promises to give ‘without reproach’ which means without judgement, or blame.

Bring it to God

That situation you just thought of, bring it to God right now and seek His wisdom in how to manage it.

Seek God’s wisdom & rest in His peace

if you don’t feel ‘worthy’ of his wisdom, He gives without judgement!
The next thing to do is give God all the credit, ‘look away from me and look toward God’.
Once that process has taken place, it is up to God alone how He wants you to use that experience. That is not our concern, which is actually quite liberating.
Face the trial, seek Gods wisdom, rest in His peace.

Today's call to action