Sometimes when a pastor preaches verse-by-verse through a book of the Bible, he might come to a passage which he’s really not sure will apply to anyone in the congregation that day.  I can assure you that the scripture we are studying this morning is NOT one of those! We are looking at James 1:5, which talks about asking God for wisdom in trials, and I have NO doubt that this will apply to many of us here today! We all need God’s wisdom. As we talked about last week, many of us are in the midst of some trials, and we need the wisdom God has to give us. We need His wisdom for all kinds of things in our lives. The good news is, He promises here to give us the wisdom we need, if we’ll ask for it! Let’s see what verse 5 tells us about finding God’s wisdom in our trials.

I. WISDOM NEEDED

“But if any of you lacks wisdom.” Now, one of the first things we need to understand here is the context of this verse.  Someone may want to claim this as a promise for wisdom in general, and that’s not totally unjustified, the specific context here is the trials that :1-4 just referred to. It specifically refers to the need for wisdom in times of trial and testing.

That’s not hard for us to picture. In the midst of our trials, we wonder, “Why is this happening? What am I supposed to do?” We talked last week about how God has purposes for our trials. If we can see a purpose in what we are going through, it can be encouraging us, so we need God’s wisdom in our trials.

A.T. Robertson, the Southern Baptist Greek scholar of the 1900s, reminds us that in Greek, this phrase “if any of you lacks wisdom” is a first class condition, which means that the “IF” can be translated “since”! In other words, it’s not not saying  really “IF” you lack wisdom, but “SINCE you lack wisdom.” This is not just some abstract theoretical problem. This describes where so many of us actually are, right? We DO lack wisdom!  We don’t have the answers to our questions. We need to understand what is going on with us! We could very well translate this, “SINCE you lack wisdom”!

Robertson also tells us that the word “lack” here is a banking word, meaning a “deficit” or a “shortfall”. We talk about the national “budget deficit”, but the Bible says that each of us has our own personal “wisdom deficit”! We don’t have, on our own, the wisdom that we need.

Which brings us to the word “wisdom” here. The Greek word for wisdom is “sophia.” “Sophia” or “wisdom” in the Bible is not just “knowledge,” but knowledge that is applied in godly, practical ways. Biblical wisdom (“sophia”) is the ability to see things from God’s perspective, and to apply Biblical knowledge in practical ways.  

To use the the context here in James 1, let’s say for example that we don’t know how we should respond in our trials. We ask: what is God doing? Is He trying to tell us something? Is He going to open a door to ministry through this? Is He trying to purify me or grow me through this? These are practical questions – and that’s what wisdom is; it’s the ability to see things from God’s perspective and apply Biblical knowledge in practical ways. This is what we need in our trials.    

Too many Christians in America today have Biblical “knowledge,” but they don’t apply it in practical ways in their lives. James criticizes later here Chapter 1. He says “be DOERS of the word, and not hearers only, who delude themselves.” He could easily have been speaking to American churches in the 21st century! There’s way too much “knowledge” in the American church today, and way too little “wisdom”! I think it was Mark Dever who said we have a “toxic buildup” of knowledge in the American church today that we have never applied. We go to Bible study after Bible study after Bible study, and we “learn” all these truths that we never really apply in our lives. Honestly, most American Christians today don’t need more “knowledge” — we NEED wisdom. We don’t just need another Bible study, we need to be able to apply what we already know in scripture wisely: we need see things in our lives from God’s perspective, and then apply His truths in our real-life situations. 

And of course we especially need wisdom when we are in times of trial and testing. WHY is this happening to us? Our response may depend somewhat on what God’s purpose for our trial is!

When I was serving in another state I once got a note from a man in our church, who was going through a particular trial at work. He was seeking what God’s purpose for his trial might be. In that note he asked: “How will this trial be resolved? Do I just wait until it runs its course? Or if God has put me in this, is there no way that I can end it, and I just have to wait until HE ends it? Or is He driving me to go in a certain direction that I am not seeing, or to learn something that I am not learning?” I thought those were excellent questions! These are the very kinds of questions that many of us today should be asking in OUR trials, because there are different things God may be doing in our trials:

— is this trial showing you that you are not saved, and that you really need to commit your life to Christ?

— Or is the trial testing the faith that you really DO have, so that you need to just persevere in the direction you are going?

— OR is the trial a chastisement for some sin in your life, and you need to repent of that sin? If so, you may never come out of this trial until you do! 

— OR, is there NO sin in your life that caused this, but God is allowing you to go through a painful experience so that you can minister to others, and He is opening up a new ministry for you through this trial?

— Is He using this build perseverance in you, and to mature your character, and make you more like Christ as you endure this?

Which of these things is He doing in YOUR trial? See, we need wisdom to see things from His perspective and apply it to our lives in our trials.    

In many areas of life, realizing your need is the first step towards getting help. It’s that way with wisdom too. The first thing you need to do is to recognize that you don’t have the wisdom you need, which should then drive you to ask God for it – which brings us to our next point:

II. WISDOM ASKED

“Let him ask of God” James goes on to say.  GOD is the One we need to ask for wisdom. He says, “Let him ask of GOD”! 

Proverbs 3:5 says: “do not lean on your own understanding” – instead, ask God!  Don’t just go to your friends; don’t just see what everyone is saying on television or on the internet. They don’t have true wisdom. 

In Job 28, Job asks, “But where can wisdom be found? … Man does not know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living.  The deep says, ‘it is not in me’; and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’ … Pure gold cannot be given in exchange for it, nor can silver be weighed as its price … Where does wisdom come from?  And where is the place of understanding?  Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the sky. Abaddon and Death say, ‘With our ears we have heard a report of it.’  — GOD understands its way, and HE knows its place.”

Job says wisdom is not to be found with anyone or anything here on earth;  real wisdom comes from GOD. 

The Greek here where James says, “Let him ask of God” is “para tou theou” – literally, “from the side of God.” That’s a great picture!  It pictures wisdom as being right there at God’s side, which is just what Proverbs 8:30 says: that when God made the heavens and the earth in the beginning, that Wisdom “was beside Him, as a master workman.” God’s wisdom is right at His side, at His very heart – so we can ask it from Him. Wisdom is with God; it comes from HIM: “Ask of God”! 

A couple of weeks ago in Sunday School we saw a great example of someone in scripture who asked God for wisdom in her trials; that was Rebekah in Genesis 25. At that time Rebekah was pregnant with twins, and :22 says that “the children struggled within her; and she said, ‘If it is so, then why am I this way?’ So she went to inquire of the Lord.”  This is such a great example for us. She could tell that something was going on inside of her – it was a “trial”, as many of you women would understand! – and so in her trial she went to the Lord for wisdom. She asked: “If it is so, then why I am this way?” What was God’s purpose for what she could feel going on inside of her? Rebekah did JUST the right thing with her question: it says “So she went to inquire of the Lord.” And when she did, God told her that the two children inside of her were two nations who would always be struggling together. But the point for us today, is that in her trial, Rebekah took her need for wisdom to the Lord.

Rebekah serves as a model for us all in a couple of ways: 

— FIRST in that she was not content to just “go along” with this trial without knowing WHY these things were happening to her. She wanted to know what God’s purpose in it was. That is what people of faith should do. We believe there is a God; so we believe that there is a purpose for everything. This is one of the things that separates us from unbelievers; indeed, it’s what separates from the animals! Think about it: even animals can endure what happens to them – but they don’t seek any “reason” or purpose behind it. But God has made us higher than that; He made us in His own image. So we should do MORE than just “endure” things; we should seek God’s reason and purpose behind the things He sends our way. To fail to seek God’s wisdom in our trials is not only to disbelieve, but also in a sense, it’s to fail to be human! God made us to seek Him, and His wisdom. So Rebekah was wise first of all, because she sought wisdom for her situation.

— And secondly, Rebekah went to right place with her need for wisdom.  Genesis says: “So she went to inquire of the Lord”. That’s exactly what we need to do too. Take your need for wisdom to the Lord. “Let him ask of God”, as James says. 

So what does it mean to “ask of God”? How do you seek God’s wisdom?  There are several ways:

— First, seek His wisdom in prayer. This passage says, “Let him ASK of God.” Asking is prayer. Seek God in prayer, and ask Him for the wisdom you need. But that doesn’t mean just ask Him once and walk away. In Greek this is a present active imperative verb; it means: “KEEP ON ASKING!” This means that your prayer to God for wisdom is be a constant and continual thing. 

Proverbs 2:2-4 describe how diligently and persistently we are to seek the Lord’s wisdom. It says:

“Make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; for if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures, THEN you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God.  For the Lord gives wisdom …”.

That passage makes it clear that God “gives” His wisdom NOT just to those who sit around waiting for it, but to those who “SEEK” it like they would seek for hidden treasures! So we are to SEEK God’s wisdom continually in prayer. But there’s also some other things we should do:

— Secondly, seek His wisdom in His word. RCH Lenski wrote: “Wisdom does not come down out of the sky.” God’s Spirit makes gives us wisdom in His word! So search His word. Look specifically for what the Bible says about the thing that you are going through.

But let me discourage you from doing the foolish thing which people often do: just flipping open your Bible and asking God to give you His answer wherever you put your finger down? I can’t say that God has never used that to speak to anyone; He can “hit straight licks with crooked sticks” as the expression goes, but that is not the best way to find God’s wisdom. I wouldn’t recommend seeking God that way. God is a God of order, of Providence – so seek Him in a daily, systematic way in His word, asking for wisdom as you go. I have found that if I just go through my normal, daily Bible reading, God as a God of Providence will give me insights that apply to my situation, from the place where I am already reading in His word. So the best thing you can do is to look for what God says to you in your normal daily Bible reading. Now, if you don’t have a “normal daily Bible reading, the first thing you need to do is start one! You have virtually no hope of finding God’s wisdom for your life if you are not reading His word consistently! So seek His wisdom daily in His word.

— Third, you can also seek God’s wisdom through godly counselors.  

Someone once asked me: “Is it wrong to seek counsel for an issue in my life, or should I just try to handle this on my own?” The answer is, it is NOT wrong to seek wise, godly counsel! God made us to need each other. Seeking godly, Christian counsel is one way of seeking God, through the people He gifted with His wisdom and insight. But the key is: make sure that it IS godly, wise, Biblical counsel you’re getting, and not just a well-meaning friend who’s not really walking with God, and who doesn’t have an intimate knowledge of His word. Some of the biggest mistakes are made by people who just go to their friends for advice, who tell them what they want to hear, instead of what God says in His word. Make sure you go to someone who will tell you the truth! If you will, then that godly counsel can be a very important element in seeking God’s wisdom.

Henry Blackaby just passed away a few weeks ago. In His study, “Experiencing God” he recommended a great method for finding God’s will. He said: seek God in prayer, in His word, through circumstances, and through godly counsel. When you need God’s wisdom, seek God, and seek Him in these ways. We need wisdom; so let’s ASK for it from the right place – “Let him ask of GOD”!

III. WISDOM GIVEN

When you ask for wisdom from God, James says He will give it to you: “And it WILL be given to him.” He says that God “gives to all generously and without reproach”, so “ASK”!

James had likely heard Jesus speak those famous words in Matthew 7:7-11 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”

Wisdom is “good”; so we can have confidence that God will give us His wisdom if we ASK Him like James commands here. 

Notice the strength of this promise:

— “If ANY of you lacks wisdom … He gives to ALL”

— And not only does He give, but He gives “generously and without reproach”

— AND it says; “It WILL be given to him”! 

So his is a strong, strong promise. Anyone in this room can claim it: ask God for the wisdom you need, and He will give it to you. God’s wisdom is NOT just something for the minority elite. James tears down a lot of false ideas about God in his book. Last week we saw that he assaulted the idea that “bad things happen to bad people.” No, he told us, trials happen even to God’s people, for His purposes. This week, he attacks the common Greek notion that it is only the “elite” who can have “sophia” or wisdom. James say, NO! “God gives (wisdom) to ALL”!  This should be encouraging to every one of us; YOU can have God’s wisdom:

— you don’t need to be a Greek Bible scholar to get God’s wisdom. You don’t have to have a PhD or a seminary degree. 

— You don’t have be so good that you “deserve” to have God’s wisdom.  It’s not reserved only for people who have never made a mistake.

NO!  James says “He gives to ALL generously and without reproach”!   This should give hope to every one of us here: whoever you are, YOU can ask for God’s wisdom for your situation, and you be confident that He WILL give it to you. 

He gave wisdom to Rebekah in Genesis; when she “inquired of the Lord,” He showed her that there were two “nations” inside her, contending with each other. God gave her the wisdom she needed to understand what she was going through. He did the same thing for Daniel, and Joseph, and others in scripture – and He still does the same thing for us today.  He will give us wisdom in our trials when we ask. So we SHOULD ask in these times in our lives: “What is God trying to teach me in this situation?”

Some of us will find in your trial that what you really need is to be saved. This happened to my wife Cheryl in high school. She was dating a young man, and when they broke off their relationship, she was heartbroken. In fact, she looked for comfort, and she found there was nothing there to help her in her time of need. She realized that even though she had “gone down to the front” of the church when she was a child, she’d never really trusted Christ as her Savior, and His Spirit was not in her heart – because there was nothing there when she needed it. So in the middle of her crisis, she bowed her head in her bedroom and asked Jesus to save her, and though she was still hurting, there was now now a peace in her heart as the Holy Spirit truly came into her life as she was saved.  Right afterwards, God gave her Psalm 147:3, that He would heal up the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds. God used Cheryl’s crisis to show her that what she really needed more than anything else was to be truly saved. It may be that way with some of us here today. Maybe God has allowed something very difficult and painful to come into your life, to reveal to you that your most important need is to give Him control of your life, and be saved. 

Or He may show you some other specific purpose for the trial you are in.  He did for me when I had graduated from seminary in Ft.Worth, but a year later I still had not found a church to serve. Here I had sacrificed to go through school, had made it through, graduated, now we had our first child, but after months and months, nothing had opened up. One day, I was just desperate, and I asked God to show me what was going on. After all my preparation, WHY hadn’t any church called me yet? In His word, God reminded me of Romans 8:28, that He was causing everything to work together for His purposes. I also saw in His word that His purpose for my life is to make me like Christ. I had just done a study of the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:3-12, which are a portrait of the character qualities of Jesus which God wants to build into our lives. One day during this trial, the Lord took me through each one of those 8 qualities, and showed me how He had, or was in the process of, building every one of those qualities into my life through that year I had been waiting to serve. So I came out of that year a different person, a better person, a more Christ-like person, than I had been. He showed me that He had been using that trial to make me more like Christ. And it was not long after that, that He placed me in my first church as pastor. God answered my prayer, and He gave me the wisdom I needed to understand what He was doing in my life through my trial. James 1:5 says that He will do the same thing for you. Ask God for wisdom, and He will give it to you. 

Now, does this mean that God will always show you every specific reason He has, for everything you are going through? No, He does not. Sometimes the “wisdom” God gives you is that you just can’t know the answer right now. For example, I Peter says that the Old Testament prophets sought to know what person or time the prophecies they were making applied to. Verse 12 says: “It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you …” through the revelation they had received. In other words, God told them they would not get the answer in their lifetime. The “wisdom” they had to accept was that they would not know that answer until eternity.

Same thing for Job. As far as we know, Job NEVER knew in his lifetime, the “why” of all the things he went through. 

And it may be that way with some of the things in our lives too. Some of our difficulties and trials may serve a purpose for a future generation in some way that is unknown to us – and will REMAIN unknown to us as long as we live. So God’s answer for us may be that we just need to accept that by faith. But if that is His answer, I believe He’ll show us that too. He’ll give you a peace to accept what you can’t yet understand fully. But YOUR responsibility is to seek His wisdom in your trial. If you will seek it, God promises here, He WILL give you the wisdom you need. He says, “If anyone (that means anyone right here in this room today!) lacks wisdom, let him ask of God … and He says “it WILL be given to him”! Don’t let what you’ve heard today just be some more “toxic knowledge” that you just add to the “pile” but really don’t do anything about. APPLY what you’ve heard today. DO it. Seek God for the wisdom you need. James says, that is  “What Real Faith Looks Like”!    

INVITATION:

— If you are going through a trial right now, are you asking God WHY?  Don’t just “endure” what you are going through, like an animal would; look for something more. Seek God’s wisdom for your trial. Use this invitation time to pray and seek Him.

— Some of you might have asked God for answers, but you are not really “seeking Him as for hidden treasures” like Proverbs talks about. You aren’t getting up each morning to seek Him in His word & prayer. You aren’t giving time to Bible study and prayer. Ask God to help you really commit yourself to SEEK His wisdom in His word & prayer.

— Others of us may be asking for wisdom, but you are asking the wrong people. You are talking to your friends and others – but not really to people who know God’s word intimately. Ask God to help you talk to some godly counselors, not just your friends who tell you what you want to hear.

— Then finally, you may be just like Cheryl was a few years ago – God has allowed this trial to come into your life to show you that you really need to ask Jesus to be your Savior. If so, then ask Him to save you right now!