The Promise of Wisdom

The Promise of Wisdom

Daily Reading: (James 1:5-7):

“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. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”

Only a foolish person would say I don’t need anymore wisdom in my life. In today’s world our brains are wired that when we don’t know the answer to something what do we generally do? We google it. But there are some answers we seek that Google can’t help us with.

“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… Alexa. You should ask Siri, or Google, or just ask Jeeves. No!“If any of you lacks wisdom…” that is all of us and it is all the time. I want us to get out of the mindset that it is only life changing decisions where we need wisdom. We always need it and God is ready to give it.

So what exactly is wisdom?Wisdom in the Greek is the word sophia. There are generally two kinds of wisdom. The first is the wisdom of man. It simply means wisdom, broad and full of intelligence. We all know wise people. But even the wisest people you meet will have limitations in their wisdom.

This takes us to second definition of wisdom: supreme intelligence, such as belongs to God. If you try to discover wisdom apart from God you are seeking it from a limited intelligence source but if you want supreme intelligence, just ask God (James 1:5). This actually means something very specific and it is found in the last half of the verse which we will get to in a minute.

So we know the text says and life tells us if or even when we lack wisdom we should ask God for it and now the promise comes. “who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” What does finding fault have to do with asking for wisdom? How are we able to stand before God where He does not find any fault in us? How have we gained access to come boldly before the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need? It has to do with Jesus. Because of Jesus who is our wisdom, we are able to come before God for whatever it is that we need and we will find or be given grace (in this instance wisdom) to help us in our time of need.

God desires that we pursue wisdom as we are told in the Old Testament (Proverbs 4:7). However, we learn in the New Testament that Jesus is our wisdom.

“God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Whatever your situation, make it your ambition to know the Lord. Know Jesus, and you will know wisdom. Pursue Jesus and you will experience wisdom in every area of your life. Because in Christ, God does not find fault and gives you generously what you need.

“But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:6-7).

If we lack wisdom ask God and ask Him in faith so that you might receive and you will receive wisdom generously. God who gives“generously” is the Greek adverb haplos and it reveals that God gives you wisdom led solely by His desire to bless you. Our part is simply to ask and believe God for it (James 1:6).

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