Wisdom

James 1:5

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

We are told that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed we can tell a mountain to move and it will move. Its common among Christians to act as if God doesn’t really have enough wisdom to know how to run their lives, so we take control and try to do it our own way. I am so guilty of doing this! I am way too quick to run to the world’s wisdom or even my own “Christian wisdom” when I have a problem. And yet God assures us in James 1:5 that He will give us His wisdom “liberally and without reproach” if we just ask it of Him. I say this all the time, but, I’ll say it again. When we ask God for something He has promised to us He won’t just shrug His shoulders and say good luck. Again and again in my own life I have experienced the truth of this. Often with one of my siblings and friends I am completely lost as to how to react to certain actions. But, the times where I’ve stopped and asked God for wisdom before I do anything, He has shown me ways to de-escalate the situation instead of making it worse like my flesh wants to. Going to God for wisdom is humbling, it forces you to admit that you can’t figure something out on your own. Saying that asking God for wisdom is one thing, but doing it is another. The application for James 1:5 is found in the very next verse. In all decisions, I need to ask God for wisdom in faith, not doubting that he will be faithful to give it liberally. The next time I have a decision to make and the time after that and, by God’s grace, for the rest of my life I will not lean on my own understanding but I will trust in God’s wisdom above my own.