James Chapter 1:5

5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

Wholeness requires wisdom.  You will recall in James 1:3-4 “For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete [whole], needing nothing.”

Let us first define wisdom: “Wisdom is not just knowledge, because one can have that without wisdom. As one commentator noted, “Man, through his vast accumulation of knowledge, has learned to travel faster than sound, but displays his need of wisdom by going faster and faster in the wrong direction!” Knowledge can teach you how to make a living, but wisdom teaches you how to live. In other words, wisdom shows us how to face our trials.”(Dr. William Varner, professor at The Master’s College in Santa Clarita, CA)

Spiritual wholeness (the goal of trials) is only achieved when divine wisdom is present.  In verse 5, James encourages his readers to ask for wisdom.  This reflects the widespread Old Testament and Jewish teaching.  Proverbs 2:6 states, “For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” The importance of wisdom is the theme of the entire book of Proverbs.  Wisdom is the way in which godly people can discern and fulfill the will of God.   Proverbs tells us that finding wisdom, means finding and receiving favor with the Lord (Proverbs 8:35).

When we are faced with trials isn’t the first thing we usually pray, “God I don’t know what to do here.”? We are not alone in our plea.  The children of Israel have asked this same question throughout their entire history.  2 Chronicles 20:12 “O our God, won’t you stop them? We are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us. We do not know what to do, but we are looking to you for help.”

James is addressing the issue where the rubber meets the road.  He tells us to ask for wisdom. James identifies with not understanding the things he saw or experienced.  He was the half-brother of Jesus.  He watched as Jesus left home and family to wander around with a group of 12 men. Some of them had questionable backgrounds and the rest were just common men.  James, like his siblings, did not believe for a moment that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah.  On one occasion he even said that Jesus must be out of his mind (Mark 3:21 when his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him away. “He’s out of his mind,” they said.)

James also realized that when we go through trials we might face a variety of feelings. 

1. Guilt: Often when we go through a struggle we feel guilty about things we might have done differently.  The enemy capitalizes on that feeling and turns up the heat on the guilt.  He points out our every error and tries to persuade us that our trial is our fault.  Sometimes we do contribute to our trials, but if we embrace them and learn from them, even our mistakes can become victories in God’s hands. 

2. Confusion:  Trials often make us feel the confusion of self-doubt.  We begin to question our actions and motives.  We second guess everything we say and do.  We may even begin questioning God’s love and good intentions toward us.  We may ask questions like, “Where is God when I need him?” or “What did I do to cause this?” “Why is this happening to me?”

3. Fear: Suffering often triggers fear.  Fear that things are out of our control.  Fear that someone or something that we love will be taken from us.  Fear that the pain will never go away. 

4. Anger: Struggles often lead to feelings of intense anger.  We may be angry with ourselves, others, and sometimes maybe even angry with God.  When we face hard times it is easy to point fingers at others and blame our problems on them.  When we blame others we tend to become angry with them for what we are facing.  Often people feel angry with God because we feel he could have prevented us from the suffering we are facing. 

The struggle we have with these feelings is the very reason James admonishes us to ask for wisdom.  

When we are facing trials we need wisdom to see the situation as it is and not as we perceive it to be.  

When we are faced with adversity it is hard to see the lessons we are supposed to learn or the reason for the trial. 

Asking God for wisdom to see the trials as he sees them will allow us to get to the root of the trail.  

By admonishing us to ask for wisdom, James is pointing us to God’s grace.  He wants us to place our reliance on God’s amazing grace. 

Four facets of God’s grace are evident in James 1:5.

1. It is God’s nature to be giving.

2. God gives to all.

3. God gives generously.

4. God gives without finding fault.

When we ask God for wisdom we can do so without fear.  God is not a harsh father who points out our faults, but a loving Father who desires to give good things to his children.  He doesn’t hold our lack of wisdom against us but provides it for us from his stores when we humble ourselves and ask for it.