Thesis 50- We must ask God for wisdom, believing He will give it.
God’s promises are shocking. Our sin, in turn, is shocking. These two intersect when we in our sin refuse to believe the promises of God. He, because He is abounding in grace, makes some kind of stunning promise. We, because we are cynics, skeptics, sophisticates, refuse to believe Him. We may try to masquerade our unbelief as something praise worthy, arguing perhaps that contextual understanding of the Bible diminishes what at first blush looks like an extravagant promise. Truth be told, our faith is just too anemic.
Consider this straightforward promise from God, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:5). Now if we take a too light look at this text it seems to be saying that if anyone will ask God for wisdom that God will give it to him. If, however, we take a more deep look at the text, if we consider the vagueries of the original Greek, if we consider the context of James’ original audience, we find that the text actually says that if anyone will ask God for wisdom that God will give it to him. The scholars who gave us our English Bibles are not stupid men. They did well here. And James himself was no fool. He spoke not just wisdom here, but God’s own wisdom. This is God’s promise.
Our calling isn’t to seek to mitigate its extravagance. Were we to try, we would find only this. “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” (verse 6). It’s true enough that James says that doubt will undo this promise. Which ought not to cause us to doubt the promise, but to believe it. This caveat is designed to encourage us to believe the promise. Indeed, failure to believe the promise makes one like a wave that is driven and tossed by the wind.
So how do we get this wisdom? The answer is still right there in the text- we ask for it. We don’t do anything else. We just ask. And He will give it to us. He will give us wisdom if we will but ask Him for it. Wisdom, you’ll remember, He said, is more to be valued than silver and gold, yes than much fine gold (Psalm 19). How often do we ask Him for a better (higher paying) job, or a raise? How many ways do we find to ask God for silver and gold? But we are told that if we will ask for that which is better than silver and gold, He will give it to us.
Wisdom begins with fearing God. It moves on to fearing God. It ends with fearing God. If we fear Him, we will heed Him. As we heed Him we will value what He values, and we will believe His promises. Ask Him first for the wisdom to ask Him for wisdom. And then do not stop until Wisdom welcomes you into His eternal kingdom.