Wisdom Ground in Faith

Last wee, we started in the book of James and learned the importance of accepting trials when they come our way because we know that they are testing us for triumph.

The church of Jerusalem was facing various trials in the form of persecution, disease, and poverty.

James taught that our hearts are not to treat these unexpected trials as if we simply want them to go away. God can use trials to teach us how to become victorious in our everyday lives.

No one really wants difficult days to come, but they are what often define our faith in God and help us deepen our relationship with Him.

Hauling Hay is tough work. When you do it for the first time, you will quickly feel weak. The only way to become strong enough to handle it is to haul more hay. Over time, your endurance will grow and you will be able to handle it.

It’s very normal to live the Christian life and become tired in it.

We’ve all been there before. We come to a certain cross road in life where we are tempted to ask “Why am I doing this?”

When we keep moving forward and allow God to strengthen us through the days we are living in, James wrote, “And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”

In pursuing this perfection, one may find themselves saying, “I do not know how to become perfect.

James has a simple answer. “Ask for wisdom from God and don’t doubt Him when you do ask.”

Let’s break down the next four verses and learn how to have wisdom grounded in faith.

Read James 1:5-8

1. Wisdom is Given by God Simply and Without Reservation.

What is wisdom? Wisdom is the ability to apply spiritual truths to life’s circumstances.

Solomon wrote the entire book of Proverbs so that believers would know that there is nothing more important than being able to discern the things of God in our world.

When God told Solomon that He would give him anything he asked, Solomon answered in 1 Kings 3:7-8 by saying, “Lord my God, you have now made your servant king in my father David’s place. Yet I am just a youth with no experience in leadership. Your servant is among your people you have chosen, a people too many to be numbered or counted. So give your servant a receptive heart to judge your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?”

We are given an important nugget of truth in this passage because the next verse said that Solomons request “pleased the Lord”.

In other words, Solomon got the situation right and asked for the best gift possible from God.

James was aware of this passage as well and wanted the Jersualem church to realize how they too can receive wisdom from God.

“He should ask God” - This message aligns perfectly with Proverbs 2:6 when it said, “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understand.”

God is the giver of wisdom to believers who ask him.

In the Greek, James is literally calling God “The Giving God”

He wrote that God gives “simply” and doesn’t hold the past against His people who ask.

He doesn’t reprimand His people for their past failures or remind them endlessly of the value of the gifts He gives.

In other words, James encouraged the church to come to God boldly with their request for wisdom.

When I have a lot of vegetables to give away, you are doing me a favor in taking them. I’m going to give them to you as long as you ask.

God is happy to supply His church with the ability to think and act as He does on this earth.

According to scripture, having wisdom is more precious than fame, talent, intelligence, or anything.

Wisdom is the most important gift God can give you once you become a Christian.

Wisdom is not for the elite. Wisdom is for the earnest believers who want to live a righteous life.

We gain wisdom by asking God to supply it to us and He is happy to give it to you.

Even if you haven’t been wise in the past. He keeps no records of wrongs. He wants to show you His goodness every day. Don’t focus on your yesterdays but allow today to be the day you come before God in power.

You are free to ask God to supply you with His riches from on high. He wants to tell you and I how to think and act in this life He has given us.

2. Ask for Wisdom in Faith.

James begins and ends with faith.

“Ask in faith” - The church was to ask and believe that God can and will give. The type of faith that manifests itself in action. God hears the prayers of those whose lives demonstrate that they have faith in him.

The wording here does not imply that people must have a certain degree or standard of faith for God to hear their prayers.

God gives wisdom in His way but He also expects the asker to ask for wisdom in His way as well.

Asking with doubt in the heart goes against His standard.

Faith means more than a belief that God will give what is asked. It includes confident, unwavering trust in god. Doubting means “to differentiate.”

The root idea of the word doubt includes “judging”, “disputing”, “to dispute with oneself”, or “to waver”.

When man doubts, instead of siding with God and His ideas, they are siding with themselves.

James is clear that being unstable with faith in God causes great problems in receiving wisdom.

Like the tosses of the waves. Never just one thing but constantly changing their mind.

It’s silly not to pay attention to our world and the matters that face our citizens. But just because we read an article doesn’t mean that we are supposed to think the sky is falling either.

Faith in God realizes that there will always be other opinions or physical reasons to doubt but chooses to walk with God anyway.

Doubt is the greatest tool the enemy is using to send people to Hell.

Doubt stands between people having full joy and people living in constant fear.

instead of thinking that our doubts are what help us make decisions, we need to realize that doubt is an enemy that must be crushed.

Our doubts hold us back.

What are you doubts right that are keeping you from receiving wisdom from God?

Ourselves

Our limits

Lack of biblical understanding

Anger towards people

Do you blame God for something another person has done to you.

Something else that is specific.

Our doubts are killing us and keeping the body of Christ from expanding.

Faith is the avenue towards living in victory. Are you willing to believe God above all voices? Even your own?

3. A Doubled-minded Person is Left Empty-handed.

James has an “in your face” message for us today.

Double-minded - Undecided

Unstable - confusion

A person with an insincere and inconsistent relationship with God.

A person of this type should not expect to receive anything at all from God.

Remember that wisdom is not the only thing that Solomon recieved from God.

God was so pleased with his request that he gave Solomon worldly riches and fame.

Is this true for every person? No, but the lesson is the same.

God is wanting our focus to be on Him and what is offered in relationship with Him before we worry about anything else.

We can overcome tests and trials whenever we have the wisdom that He so richly adorns believers with.

Many people live in unbridled fear because they lack the full wisdom that God provides.

Matthew 6:25-34

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 6

25 “Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? 27 Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. 30 If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith? 31 So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God,o and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. 34 Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

What’s the point here. God knows our needs. He is going to take care of us. What He is calling for man is to seek Him above all and trust Him to worry about the rest.

Are you feeling empty of wisdom right now? Ask God and trust Him to supply it.

What is the Lord teaching you right now?