Faith the Works: Prayer, Wisdom, & Living on the Edge

Living on the Edge

Imagine you are walking in an open field. It’s slightly warm but the breeze from the north makes its comfortable. Looking ahead you notice the land seems to stop at the horizon. There is no terrain, no mountains or hills, nor any trees. As walk, you hear the pant of sand and the grind of pebbles every time you put your foot down. You realize you are no longer walking on top soil, and the grass of the field has turned into the sand of a dessert. It’s getting dark, too dark to see. Your mind can’t help but think back to the horizon, so you look up to see where you are, to get your bearings. There is definitely no land up ahead. It must be a cliff or something, Maybe, you think, you’ve been walking on a plateau of some sort. By now it’s pitch black. You can’t see your fingers fanning left to right twelve inches from your face. You stop. You stop everything. You stand still, too scared to move forward. Your thought is you will turn back, but at the moment the idea enters your mind, you feel the palm of a hand lightly push between your shoulder blades with His fingers resting by the backside of your arm. backwards is not an option. The hand moves you forward.

You stumble. Your feet don’t want to move, but the rest of your body being gently shoved forward. So you step with your big toe, feeling around for soldi ground. Then your other toe slips forward, just as anxiously searching for safety. The wind has picked up. It’s cold. The only warmth you feel is the hand fitted on your back. Tip-toe by tip toe you creep forward until you hear the rocks slip off your shoes and echo into the deep. You’ve reached the edge, your are terrified of the depth of darkness in front of you, and the hand has not let up.

In some ways, I wonder if this is how Jesus felt as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was obviously stressed. He sweated drops of blood. His hour had come and he was about to be delviered into the hands of his enemies. He knew his suffering would be great and that for the first time in eternity, His Father would look away from him. All of God’s wrath for all of humanities sin would be poured out on him for three hours as he hung like a criminal on a cross.

Jesus wanted to know if there was any other way. Three times he asks His Father if it be possible to let this cup pass from him (Matthew 26:39-45). Jesus turned to His Father in prayer seeking wisdom and strength for his trial.

Last week, God showed us that your trials are an effective providence that he uses as a peculiar grace to strengthen your faith to endure and to perfect your maturity as you conform into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Trails are hardships, sufferings, circumstances in life that make us extremely uncomfortable and expose our weaknesses and desperate need for God’s grace in our life. What I described above is a kind of existential way we feel as we walk through a season of trial.

Trails, at least to us, feel unplanned and undesired. They take us by surprise. Fear and anxiety overwhelm our hearts as we, on the one hand, indulge in a dystopian fantasy about what the future holds, and on the other hand, you feel real time pain and anguish. What trials do, for you and I, then is tempt you to doubt the sovereign goodness of God. What are we to do when trials invade our lives and tempt us to doubt God sovereign goodness?

James, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in so many words says,

You must pray with confidence for God to give you wisdom to endure trials that mature your faith.

James says, to get wisdom you must ask for it.

James 1:5 (ESV)

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

Asking for wisdom is praying for wisdom. God wants you to pray to him and ask. Why make us ask for wisdom? Why make us pray for it in our time of need?

Prayer expresses a heart attitude of weakness

Prayer is an expression of your weakness. Prayer reveals you are inadequate and are dependent on God. Think about Hebrews 4:15-16

Hebrews 4:15–16 ESV

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 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.

You are weak. Jesus knows this about you. Jesus is able to sympathize with your weakness because he became like you. He knows you are but dust. He knows your temptations weary you to no end. He knows death is always looming over you. Knowing this about you, he did something to help you. His perfect life, death, resurrection, and ascension opened the way for you to come before the very presence of our Holy Father and receive mercy and grace for your time of need, for your trial, your weakness.

Prayer expresses a teachable spirit.

James describes how you are to pray. He says,

James 1:6 ESV

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.

James 1:7–8 ESV

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.

Faith is essential to pleasing God. For without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). God rewards those who seek him in faith. James reiterates the same idea when he says that the person must not doubt. A doubter is someone who keeps one foot on the dock while trying to balance himself with one foot on the boat. With his foot on the dock, he seeks worldly wisdom or himself for wisdom. Then he turns around and asks God for wisdom with no real intention of receiving it.

I know these people. They come to you with a problem. The scripture is clear with how to fix the problem. They don’t like what they hear, so they ;eave my office looking for someone who will tell them what they want to hear. That kind of person, says James,

James 1:7–8 ESV

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.

You must keep in mind that James is drawing heavily in proverbial wisdom. In many respects, James is likened to a New Testament form of proverbs. The doubter is comparable to the fool in wisdom literature. The fool says in his heart there is no God (Psalm 14:1). The fool despises knowledge and instruction (Proverbs 1:7). The fool wants nothing to do with God’s ways or created order. Daniel Estes says this of the fool, “The fool insists on directing his own life, demanding autonomy at all costs. Even though it means eventual destruction, the fool makes personal freedom the chief value in life.”

The fool and the doubter are one in the same. The doubter says in his heart, Sure God might be there, but he’s not really able or willing to help me, despite what scripture has revealed about God’s sovereign goodness. That is the point James is making when he describes God as generous and giving without reproach.

James 1:5, is echoing Jesus’s teaching on prayer. Jesus taught his disciples,

Matthew 7:7 ESV

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes how his Father will respond to your prayers by comparing God the Father to you earthly fathers.

Matthew 7:9–11 ESV

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!

James followed the same pattern as Jesus. Jesus described our Father as a good father who is eager to bless you with an abundance of wisdom. God is not only eager, but he is single-minded, motivated, with an undivided intent to give you mercy and grace in your time of need in the form of wisdom. There lies the root of your confidence. Your confidence to ask come from the fact that God eagerly and singleminded looks forward to giving you the wisdom you ask for.

You can ask for wisdom without hesitation because God gives wisdom without hesitation. John Calvin says,

“Since we see that the Lord does not so require from us what is above our strength, but that he is ready to help us, provided we ask, let us, therefore, learn whenever he commands anything, to ask of him the power to perform it.” John Calvin

The doubter will give God some props but refuses to surrender to His will and authority, making him no different than the fool. Both the fool and the doubter are unteachable. Therefore, they should expect to receive nothing of god’s mercy and grace in their time of need because they do not believe God is sovereign and he is good. But the faithful, those who love Jesus, will pray as an expression of their weakness. They will seek God knowing He is sovereign and he is good. And being a good father, he will bless you will mercy and grace in your hour of need. He is eager to give you wisdom.

Why wisdom and not deliverance?

Biblical wisdom is about walking the paths that lead to life, shalom (peace) and flourishing. The common word for wisdom in the Old Testament is ḥokmâ. It carries a range of ideas from knowledge and discernment, to justice and social order. There is also a moral sense of wisdom that helps you live rightly in God’s created order.

When James speaks of wisdom, he uses the greek compliment to hokma, which is sophia. Being that James is Jewish, he is likely speaking from the Hebraic sense of wisdom.

Jews look at wisdom differently than the Greeks. The Greeks are more about rationality and reason. The Jews look at wisdom holistically. There are four categories that play into hebraic/biblical wisdom.

Biblical wisdom is grounded in the Fear of the Lord

First and foremost, biblical wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 1:7). The Fear of the Lord says Yahweh is the sovereign creator God who created the world and his image bearers to live under his sovereign rule in a way that pleases Him.

Biblical Wisdom is concerned with Creational Order

Secondly, biblical wisdom is concerned with God’s created order. The hokma is intertwined in the patterns and general order of creation. Old Testament theologian, Craig Bartholomew explains,

“Wisdom is concerned with the general order and patterns of living in God’s creation…the patterns of the planets, animals and seasons are all used as teaching examples for the grooves God has built into the world order. Life has places for us to walk and ways for us to live, just as much as there are places and ways that must be avoided.” Craig Bartholomew

Biblical Wisdom provides moral discernment for our circumstances

Thirdly, wisdom provides moral discernment for the circumstances of our lives. We live in a fallen world under God’s providence. He has given us wisdom to discern how to navigate our broken world in a way that pleases him, everything from Presidents making treaties to parents discerning where to send the kids to school next year.

Biblical wisdom is grounded in tradition

Finally, biblical wisdom is grounded in tradition. Wisdom does not care for selfish autonomy. Wisdom builds upon the past. Stores, customs, laws, and values that are proven, are passed down from generation to generation as tools for teaching how to flourish.

When Jame’s readers heard the word “wisdom” they would’ve understood wisdom to be the prime value of ones life. They might have thought of Solomon’s words in,

Proverbs 4:5–7 ESV

Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.

When James says “if you lack wisdom,” which all of us do, especially during trials, they might’ve heard him say, “get wisdom that is rooted in the Fear of the Lord. Get wisdom that is concerned with the beautiful yet broken world we live. Get Wisdom that will help you navigate these trying circumstances you are facing. Get wisdom from those who have gone before you, who have endured suffering and come out victorious on the other side. What would’ve informed their biblical wisdom, or hebraic wisdom? It would’ve been the Old Testament; like the Pentateuch, Wisdom Literature like Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, even the law. For us, what informs our understanding of God’s wisdom, nature, and purpose for trials in our life is His holy, inerrant, fully sufficient and authoritative word found in both testaments.

God’s Word is our primary source of wisdom

God’s word becomes a “wisdom framework” for how to identify the nature and purpose of trials and how to overcome them, because it is in God’s word he reveals himself as God. God’s word becomes wisdom glasses, if you will, to help you see trials the way he sees them in your life. Church, if you are not in God’s word, you will not see things rightly. You will be the fool or the doubter.

But God’s word is more than just a lens, it is a power that abides in you to help sustain you and produce fruit that glorifies the Father.

Jesus says to us,

John 15:5 ESV

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

and then in,

John 15:7 ESV

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

When God’s Word abides in you, He empowers you to bear faith-filled fruit (without faith it is impossible to please God). One of the fruits that Jesus speaks of is endurance (John 16:1). Jesus spoke his word to his disciples in order to keep them from falling away. One of the ways Jesus keeps you from falling away is having his word abide in you (John 15:7). God’s word has an enduring power to it when it is believed and accepted.

With this backdrop of biblical wisdom set in place and your need to have God’s word abide in us, let’s look at the wisdom needed in James 1:5.

A question we could ask is,

“In what respect would James readers need wisdom?

The short answer is discernment. The word of God already gives them the basis for understanding God and his ways. What is needed now is discerning how to move forward in the midst of the trial.

Wisdom would enable you to continue the process of maturity by discerning that the trial is a test.

That is the point of knowing in verse 3. You can count it all joy because you know this trial is a test. Wisdom reveals that to your heart.

Wisdom helps you to discern decisions that need to be made that are in line with God’s will, like practicing righteousness and faithfulness.

Trails do not give you the right or freedom to sin against God or your neighbor.

Wisdom helps you discern how endurance brings clear judgement.

John of the Cross wisely notes,

“ To endure all things with an equable and peaceful mind, not only brings with it many blessings to the soul, but it also enables us, in the midst of our difficulties, to have a clear judgment about them, and to minister the fitting remedy for them.” John of the Cross

Jesus Prayed with Confidence for wisdom to endure the cross.

In Luke account of Jesus’s prayer, he adds one other piece of information.

Luke 22:42–43 ESV

saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.

Jesus sought his Father in prayer during a trial. The Father put the cross before him. Jesus asked if there was any other way. The Father’s silence confirmed the answer is no. At this point you might be like, “Wait. Why would the dying on a cross be wise?” What was the goal of Jesus life? Jesus was the Messiah, the Savior of the world. The goal of his life was to glorify his father by saving sinners. The Son of man came to ransom sinners (Mark 10:45). Jesus’s joy, his true joy, was completing what he came to do. So, the Father, instead, sent angels to minister to Jesus to strengthen him for the testing of his faith. Jesus received mercy and grace in his hour of need. It was not deliverance from the cross. It was strength to endure the cross.

Wisdom, prayer, and living on the edge

Your feet may be on that edge right now. The wind is swirling, howling even, and the hand is steady on your back. You cry out, “What do I do? I need your wisdom God.” At that point you feel a sense of heat on your exposed skin. Your eye-lids brighten. God whispers, “open your eyes.” You squint at the light on the horizon. The sun is rising and before you is a massive canyon, ten times greater than the Grand Canyon. Your toes are dangling off the edge and you realize at any moment you will fall into the dark abyss. You want fall backwards, but the hand steadies you forward, and his voice whispers, step out. In mind, you think, stepping out is instant death. But your heart is reminded of Jesus.

What did Jesus do with his feet on the edge of the grandest canyon in his darkest hour?

Hebrews 12:2 (ESV)

...who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross...

He saw the joy on the other side of the cross. He trusted his Father. The Father’s wisdom was go forward in faith. Trust me, the Father says. I will raise you to glory, and to all those we set out to save, they will rise in glory as well.” And Jesus stepped out in faith.

Now, you say, but God, I’m scared. I know. Remember my word to you in Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. Acknowledge him in all your ways and he will make you path strait. But Lord, my heart feels despair. What do I do? God says, “Remember my words from David:

Psalm 23:1–4 ESV

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Now step out and I will show you my glory. You obey in faith. You don’t fall. God has provided an invisible bridge. Your terrified and yet excited. You see God in a way you have never seen or felt him before. Your eyes behold the vastness and beauty of the canyon, while you heart is captivated by is sustaining power. And you soon realize that God’s hand was not pushing you forward, but actually embracing you like a hug to draw you closer to himself. You count it all joy.

Do you see the connection to James? God brings you into a place of testing. It is dark, cold, and scary. Your confused and do not know what to do. But because you have God’s word hidden in your heart (abiding in you), and you have come to know that God is a sovereign good God, you live in a broken world where trials are used to strengthen your faith, and you know that God has provided you wisdom to discern your circumstances both through those who have gone before you, and through prayer., because of this You have better eyes to see that this trial is God’s grace in your life. And he invites you to pray, to ask him for wisdom, being confident that he is eager and excited to to grant you wisdom that will help you endure whatever is necessary to mature your faith. Count it all joy.