James 1:5
Many of us are right in the midst
of trials, and we need the wisdom that God has to give us. The good news of scripture is, He promised
that He will! Let’s read the James1:5
and see what the Bible tells us about finding God’s wisdom in our trials. The principle
are divided into three, wisdom need, wisdom asked and wisdom given.
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 might not be totally unjustified, but its specific context here is the
trials that verses 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?” If we can see a purpose in what we are going
through, it can be encouraging to us, so we need God’s wisdom in our trials.
That brings us to this word, “wisdom.” The Greek word for wisdom is “sophia.” It doesn’t mean just “knowledge” but
knowledge that is applied in practical, godly ways. Biblical wisdom is the ability to see things
from God’s perspective, and to apply knowledge in practical ways. These are practical questions – and that is
what wisdom is; it is the ability to see things from God’s perspective and
apply it in practical ways. This is what
we need in our trials.
Too many people have “knowledge”
– but they don’t apply it to their lives.
In fact, this is what James criticizes later in this chapter: “be DOERS
of the word, and not hearers only, who delude themselves.” There is way too much “knowledge” in the churches
today, and way too little “wisdom”! We
go to Bible study after Bible study after Bible study, and “learn” all these
truths that we never apply to our lives.
We don’t need more “knowledge” in the church; we NEED wisdom. We need to be able to see things from God’s
perspective, and apply His truths to our real-life situations.
We especially need wisdom when we are in times
of trial and testing. WHY is this
happening to us? Our response is going
to depend somewhat on what the purpose for the trial is! I got a note from one of my friends this
week, who is going through a particular trial at work. He is seeking what God’s purpose for this
trial might be. 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?”
These are excellent questions, and the very
questions that many of us should be asking in our trials, because there are
different things God may be doing:
In many areas of life, realizing
your need is the first step towards getting help. So it is with wisdom. The first thing you need to do is recognize
that you do not have the wisdom you need, which should then drive you to ask
God for it – which bring us to our next point tomorrow.
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