“One-A-Week Challenge” – Week 12

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

James 1:5 ESV

Jas1Most of us do not want to viewed as “needy” and therefore we are afraid to ask for help.  Often we mistakenly think that asking is a sign of weakness.  In reality the willingness to ask is a sign of strength. The proud believe in self-sufficiency but this is the highest pinnacle of foolish vanity.

Life is a series of tests and at time these can some times be frustrating.  My friend Jimmy Draper is known for saying, “Christianity is not a way of doing certain things, it is a certain way of doing everything.”  How do we know how to live in this certain way?

James points out in this verse three things the believer must understand.

1.     We all need wisdom.  When the challenges of life come upon us we must understand that we lack of knowing what to do.  Wisdom is more than knowledge or information.  Wisdom is applying faith to the circumstances of life.  It is living like Jesus lived – in step with God’s will.

2.     We should ask for wisdom.  The very nature of God is generosity and as this verse states, He generously gives without reproach.  The word for “ask” means to ask for something.  It is not asking God to do something but to give something.   We have the unique opportunity to ask our Heavenly Father for something that only He can give.

3.     We can receive wisdom. James writes here, “it will be given to him.” Our Father does not rebuke us for not having wisdom.  Without a hint of scolding He offers us a full supply of wisdom.  John Phillips wrote,

“Much of the wisdom that we need, and for which we pray, is to be found in His Word. It is already ours, available to us in hundreds of precepts, proverbs, parables, and principles. Solomon wrote a whole book of proverbs, pithy sayings full of the distilled wisdom of heaven for life on earth. The parables of the Lord Jesus are gems of wisdom. The great principles unfolded in both the Sermon on the Mount and the Epistles are sublime. The Bible is full of wise counsel. It speaks authoritatively to all aspects of human life. It speaks clearly. It makes no mistakes. It is infallible and unerring in its judgments. All we have to do is read it, study it, meditate upon it, memorize it, and obey it.”[1]