A Humble Plea for Light

God’s people would take their
Bibles once again and turn to the epistle of James chapter
1. And so we come again to this
great epistle and to again chapter 1 and again we find ourselves
in the same lengthy passage addressing the same matter of our faith
and the outworking of our faith. As we have noted in previous
weeks, this opening section carries all the way down to verse 18
of chapter 1. It’s a protracted discussion
of the proper functioning of faith. Faith is a concern to
James, and specifically the right application, the right conduct
of our faith, especially in the midst of temptations and trials. Verses 5 through 8, where we’ll
find ourselves these next few weeks, build really upon verses
2 through 4. It’s not merely that they are
adjacent to one another, they are directly related. Note that
in verse 5, James begins the sentence with but. He’s forming
a contrast there, drawing a distinction with something that he had said
earlier in the verses. It’s a string of thought that
connects these two sections. Ties, they are tied together By the
word lacking if you look down at verse four glance down at
that verse James in the course of it consider it all joy and
then in verse four he says let endurance have its perfect result
That you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing But if any
of you lacks wisdom And so that is our tie-in between these two
paragraphs James desires that Believers would be lacking in
nothing Particularly he mentions here in verse 5 that they would
be not lacking in wisdom And it isn’t just wisdom in general. I think that’s a misunderstanding
as we approach this passage that we just receive some gift of
wisdom that enables us to do anything and everything better
than anyone else. It isn’t just wisdom in general
that he’s talking about. It’s wisdom that is in direct
connection with trials. It’s not disconnected and disassociated
wisdom, wisdom in general. It’s wisdom that is specifically
concerned with our trials. Wisdom to know how to navigate
them. How to realize God’s sovereignty in them. To understand their
purpose and to grasp their lessons. Wisdom in that connection. is
our concern this morning. And as we have seen, God does
not just allow trials to drift into our lives indiscriminately. He sends them purposefully according
to His sovereign purpose and design in our particular lives. And our need indicates James
here is to glean wisdom from God to see these trials as God
sees them. Events that ultimately will burn
off the dross of sin in our lives and draw us closer to God and
make us more and more dependent upon His grace and ultimately
bring the great blessing of joy to the believer’s life. To do that, is not only difficult,
even for the most faithful believer, that process is not easy. It’s
only possible with divine assistance. We need the grace of God to be
able to see trials the way that God sees them. To see the trial
itself, to see the lessons to be gained, that they’re not just
inconveniences that have burst into our life, but they are full
of instruction to us and for us. And to grasp this, we need
wisdom. We need God’s wisdom. We need
God’s perspective on our trials. James is not alone in this intentional
plea for guidance that enables us to grow in grace. Paul also links the idea, as
we have seen in previous weeks. Paul links the ideas of Christian
maturity, perfection, as we studied last week, perfection linked
with wisdom, divine guidance, the focus of this passage. Paul
said it this way to the Corinthians, you might recall, First Corinthians
2 verses 6 and 7, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, perfect
in character. A wisdom that is divine guidance,
however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age. Paul
likewise said to the Colossians, a verse very important to this
church, Colossians 1.28, we proclaim him admonishing every man and
teaching every man with all wisdom. divine guidance, so that we may
present every man, every person complete, perfect in Christ,
speaking of Christian maturity. This is how James urges this
thought and urges us to consider this thought. James chapter 1,
look if you would at verse 5. James chapter 1, beginning in
verse 5. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who
gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will
be given to him. But let him ask in faith without
any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the
sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man expect
that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded
man, unstable in all his ways. I want to begin by looking this
morning at what I would call a humble plea for light. Remember
that little song, This Little Light of Mine? And it pictures
the child of God navigating through a dark world with just enough
light to be able to take the next step. And here what James
presents before us is the child of God, the Christian, looking
up to God for that very necessary light, that guidance, that wisdom. The child of God is in the midst
of a trial. It’s a difficult trial. It’s
a heart-rending trial. The child of God needs wisdom.
And there’s only one place to look. There’s only one place
to look for the help. And so what I want to present
to you this morning is three examination points in this search
for wisdom, a faithful pursuit of divine guidance. First of
all, I want you to consider this morning the universal need of
wisdom. The universal need, look at verse
5, if any of you lacks wisdom. And I suppose that we might be
tempted to find an escape route out of that discussion. We might
do so with that little word, if. Maybe this verse doesn’t
apply to me, you say, but James isn’t questioning or suggesting
for a moment that this desperate need is not for every child of
God at some point in their life. The hypothetical if is almost
rhetorical. It goes without saying. In other
words, who doesn’t lack wisdom at some point? Who doesn’t need
God’s guidance? Who doesn’t have some circumstance
or in some measure, especially in a season of trial, a need
for God’s wisdom? Everyone needs the wisdom of
God. one Puritan pastor said it well, God’s wisdom allows
the creature to lack. God allows the creature to go
through difficult times, to go through times of need, to endure
trials. God’s wisdom allows the creatures
to lack because dependence begets observance. If we were not forced
to hang upon heaven and live upon the continual supplies of
God, we would not care for Him. The creatures are made up of
desires that their eyes may be upon God. Paul believed the same
exact thing. Paul told us that in Romans 8.
Romans 8, Paul says, I consider the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be
revealed to us. That is the position at which
Paul eventually arrived. But he goes on to explain it.
For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the
revealing of the sons of God, for the creation was subjected
to futility. God subjected them to futility. God subjected them to trials
and difficulties and heartaches. Why? So that they might look
up. The creation was subjected to
futility not of its own will but because of Him who subjected
it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from
its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory and
the children of God. Everyone needs the wisdom of
God in order to navigate trials and challenges of life. James
isn’t doubting our need here with this little word, if. He
has no doubt of everyone’s desperate need. Need of God’s guidance
and trials. We could just as easily speak
of this need, not as if, but as when. He is urging us to an
acknowledgement of our need of wisdom. The worst thing that
a person can do is to foolishly assume, especially if they’re
in the midst of a trial, that they don’t need God’s guidance,
that they can do this on their own. Everyone needs wisdom, the
wisdom of God. Everyone needs divine guidance
in the course of trial. One pastor said, every providence
has a voice. Did you get that? Everything
that comes into your life, especially every difficulty, it has a voice,
it has a lesson to teach you. Every providence has a voice.
Our spirits are most satisfied when we discern God’s aim in
everything. And so we have to look up. We
have to look to God. We have to look to Him for wisdom. And it isn’t as if we take a
little bit of this divine guidance and interpret it for ourselves. Sampling out a portion for our
own personal ends. True wisdom. said one faithful
shepherd, lies in the subjection of all our capacities and energies
and affections to the control of high moral principles and
the consequent faithful application of them to all noble moral uses. In other words, he says, don’t
miss even a single opportunity to look to God for wisdom. And
so James here is urging believers toward not just a general wisdom,
but specifically he’s urging us towards wisdom regarding the
handling of our trial. As one described it, the moral
discernment that enables the believer to meet life and its
trials with decisions and action that is consistent with God’s
will. Haven’t we all responded poorly in the midst of a trial?
even lashing out at God or rolling our eyes or grumbling. We want
to respond as God would have us to. I didn’t plan this, but
Asaph has already been mentioned in this particular service. In
the midst of his own great need, he looked to God, Psalm 73, as
he perceived an imbalance, what he perceived, in God’s justice
system. that the unrighteous heathen
were seemingly blessed with material wealth. He needed God’s mind. He needed God’s wisdom, just
as did Job, right? We fall into many trials, many
trials that would test us, many trials in which we could sin
if we do not seek God’s appropriate wisdom Remember James is urging
us to work out our faith and this isn’t done in a classroom.
It’s not done in theory But it’s done in practical godliness in
the day-to-day activities of life All believers need this
wisdom every last one of us in the common experience of trials
is Absolutely sure to bring us to that realization One writer said, we are all apt
to think ourselves wise. Did you get that? We all have
the tendency to suggest that we have plateaued or maybe even
we have reached the pinnacle of Christian life. Until. You want to hear the rest? We
are all apt to think ourselves wise until circumstances arise
that test the wisdom. Many Christians believe that
they are able to endure affliction well until they fall into it.
Those of us who have personally undergone sore trials or have,
with attention and thoughtfulness, witnessed the trials of others
know well What an overwhelming sense of weakness and ignorance
comes over the heart at first. But what a deep impression is
made of the needfulness of special wisdom to guide and sustain. But we’re led onward in this
verse. Even in the opening sentence, we’re led onward. What exactly
is wisdom? If any of you lacks Wisdom and
so the first thing that we have to note is we begin to answer
the question. What is wisdom? It’s that it
is first and foremost a divine attribute. It isn’t ours by nature
In the grandest language known to man Paul speaks of this wisdom
of the outworkings of the mind of God I Want you to turn if
you would to Romans chapter 11? one of the greatest descriptions
of God’s wisdom in all of scripture. Romans chapter 11, find yourself
down to verse 33. where Paul says, Oh, the depth
of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable
are His judgments and unfathomable His ways. For who has known the
mind of the Lord or became His counselor? Who has first given
to Him that it might be paid back to Him again? For from Him
and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory
forever. Paul speaks of this subject in
human words, but in doing so he acknowledges that the subject
is far beyond our comprehension. The knowledge and the wisdom
of God is the ordering of all things according to His sovereign
will, according to His purposes. Everything in life is ordered
according to the wisdom of God. God intends to do a thing, and
His wisdom guides the process from beginning to end. As soon
as God purposes it, it is born out of wisdom, it is conducted
in wisdom, it is completed in wisdom, as one scholar described
God’s wisdom in simpler terms. He says it is God’s ability to
select the best means for the attainment of the highest goal.
That’s God working out his wisdom. But wisdom is first and foremost,
as I suggested, an attribute of God. It’s first and foremost
an attribute of God, and we know that many of God’s attributes
are what we call communicable, just like sickness. But in God’s
case, He is able by His grace to impart to the child of God
some of His character qualities. These will be familiar to you.
Spirituality. We have a spiritual element to
ourselves that is very similar to God. God is a spiritual being.
We have a spiritual element to our being. Goodness. God is ultimately good. We are
enabled by His grace to do and to be good on occasion. God is
love, perfectly loving. We as His children are enabled
and capable of love, mercy, holiness, righteousness. Those are God’s
attributes and in God He possesses any of His attributes in perfection. But He is able to communicate
by His grace, school us, prepare us, train us in those attributes
that we too might be merciful and holy and righteous. The list
goes on. wrath, jealousy, knowledge. Those things are good gifts. God is jealous for His own worship,
and we can be jealous for the righteousness of God. We can
be jealous for the glory of God. We can desire that deeply in
our beings. But there’s another character
quality. Obviously, I’m heading in a particular direction here.
God is able, by His grace, to impart to us wisdom. God is wise
in perfection, but He is able to impart to us, in slender measure, some of that
wisdom. It is God’s ability to determine
what is best and what is the best course to arrive at that
particular goal. Burkhoff, in his systematic theology,
described wisdom, God’s wisdom, in these terms. He said, knowledge
and wisdom are not the same, though they are closely related.
Knowledge is acquired by study, but wisdom results from an intuitive
insight into things. Both of these character qualities
are imperfect in man, but in God they are characterized by
absolute perfection. They do not always accompany
each other. This is something that we have a tendency to forget.
And he goes on to say that an uneducated man may be superior
to a scholar in wisdom, just in his application of right knowledge. He may not have a degree, but
he excels even a scholar in his wisdom. He goes on and says he
always strives for the best possible ends and chooses the best means
for the realization of his purposes. The best possible results with
the best possible means. That’s God exercising his wisdom. And it has been so from eternity
past. This has always been a character
quality of God which God possesses in perfection. Listen briefly. to this description
of wisdom written by Solomon in the book of Proverbs. And
it speaks of wisdom as a familiar friend of God. Proverbs 8 verse 22, the Lord
possessed me that is wisdom. at the beginning of His way,
before His works of old, from everlasting, I, wisdom was established,
from the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth,
when there were no depths, I, wisdom was brought forth. When
there were no springs abounding with water, before the mountains
were settled, before the hills, I, wisdom was brought forth.
While He had not yet made the earth and the fields, nor the
dust of the world, when He established the heavens, I, wisdom, was there. When He inscribed a circle on
the face of the deep, when He made firm the skies above, when
the springs of the deep became fixed, when He set for the sea
its boundary, so that the water would not transgress His command,
when He marked out the foundations of the earth, then I, wisdom,
was beside Him. as a master workman, and I, wisdom,
was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.” So wisdom
is first and foremost a character quality of God, but He can impart
it to us. What an incredible blessing that
is. Do you understand that? That we can know the mind of
God in our God-given trials. Robert Johnstone, my Scottish
pastor hero in the faith, said, it is the grandest and rarest
of the acquisitions possible to man. Did you get that? This
is the greatest thing that a Christian can come to possess. To know
and understand and apply that knowledge through the exercise
of wisdom, what a glorious promise it is to the child of God. provides it through His Word,
doesn’t He? He provides it through His Word, illuminated by His
own Holy Spirit. We are desperate for it. We desperately
need it if we are going to live God-honoring lives. It is absolutely
indispensable. And in and of ourselves, we can
never be wise. Not independently. But we can
acquire wisdom as God enables us. Wisdom does not come from
experience necessarily. I know many people that go through
the same trial over and over again, refusing almost to learn
their lesson. Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come
from experience. Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come
with age. I know many old fools. Wisdom does not come with a degree
granted from a degree-granting institution. One commentator said, Christian
wisdom is essentially practical. It is such knowledge turned into
action in all the decisions and the personal relationships of
everyday life. Wisdom doesn’t fall to us by
chance. It is given by God Himself. It is learned through His Word.
It is developed over time through patience and diligence. It is
what one Puritan called the council chamber of heaven. Did you know
you had a key to that room? The council chamber of heaven
that you can go in and dialogue with God and get his mind on
your situation. God lets us in. God invites us
in. He wants us in there. Just as with all of God’s graces,
wisdom does not come without seeking and asking, without relentless
and faithful pursuit. And when we receive such wisdom
from God, it is the same nature as God’s wisdom. It’s God’s mind
on a subject. Stephen Sharnock, in his excellent
book, Existence and Attributes of God, Some of you have that
book. He details the tendency that
we have to misunderstand and misidentify wisdom. He says this,
ordinarily we count a wise man when he conducts his affairs
with discretion, governs his passions with moderation, and
carries himself with a due proportion and harmony in all his concerns.
We look, there goes a wise man. But true wisdom, he counters,
consists in acting for a right end, fixed on a right end, choosing
a fit means, directing them to that scope. To shoot at random
is a mark of folly, observing all circumstances for action,
the fittest opportunities to bring designs about, and willing
and acting according to the right reason, according to the right
judgment of things. Essentially what he says is this.
We tend to think of a wise person as someone who is moderate in
the exercise of his freedoms, in his passion, someone who’s
very careful with money, someone who keeps his mood and his temper
at an even keel. Those things can be indications
of God’s wisdom, but the wisdom of God stirs and urges us to
set right God-honoring goals together with taking the appropriate
steps to achieve those goals. And so when it comes to trials,
our desire and goal is to come to a right understanding of the
trial, the nature of the trial, the purpose of the trial, and
that all requires the application of wisdom. That was Job’s endeavor,
right? Through all that lengthy book, Job was trying to discover
the mind of God. He heard from his friends, he
knew what his own heart said, but he wanted to know God’s mind. One pastor said, the great need
of the believer is wisdom to understand all God’s purposes. And that’s what we want is completeness,
right? We want to be mature. We want to be perfect as James
describes it in verse 4. We need to be growing to the
point that we can navigate through the world of trials without having
our joy drained out of us. That takes wisdom. If the trial
is new or if it’s a trial that we haven’t handled correctly
in the past, we need wisdom. Secondly, As we’re trying to
conduct a faithful pursuit of divine guidance, we need not
only, first of all, we need to acknowledge a universal need
of wisdom, that everyone in this room needs wisdom. We all will
face times in our life where we must look up to God and plead
with Him for divine guidance. But secondly, we need We need
to acknowledge the divine availability of wisdom. The divine availability
of wisdom. Look again at verse 5. If any
of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. Doesn’t he make it
sound simple? What were you thinking? Let him
ask of God who gives to all men generously and without reproach
and it will be given him. Let him ask of God. So there’s
no doubt that everyone needs wisdom, the divine perspective
in a trial. Sharnock again warns that of
many people who tend to lean on their own so-called wisdom. Sharnock says it this way, the
wisdom we have by nature is like the weeds of the earth which
the earth brings forth without tillage. I’ve shared this in
the past that if I let that plot of ground in the back of my house. If I let it go untouched for
even a few months, it is a weed bed. Our wisdom, since the fall,
is the wisdom of the serpent. It flows from self-love, runs
into self-interest. It is the wisdom of the flesh
and of a prudence to manage means for the contending of our lusts.
In other words, everything goes towards sin with our own wisdom. And so if human Homespun wisdom
is not adequate. It’s out of order. What is the
Christian to do? Ask. Pray. This is one of the basic words
for prayer. If any of you lacks wisdom, all
you have to do is ask. All you have to do is pray. How are we to conduct ourselves?
How are we to carry ourselves when trials and difficulties
come into our lives? We need to humble ourselves before
God, and we need to look up. We need to yield ourselves to
Him. And we need to plead our hearts
before Him and tell Him what we’re enduring, tell Him what
we’re going through. We need to plead with God to give us
His wisdom. God is the resource, not us. Job 32.8 tells us that the breath
of the Almighty gives them understanding. The mere breath of God is enough
to impart understanding. All our knowing is worthless
without God. But knowing God Knowing that
God is the inexhaustible fountain of wisdom, if we know God, we
know that He can meet our need. One Puritan pastor said, men
may never obtain wisdom, but in the way of humble trust. Did you get that? You’re bankrupt.
You’re hopeless if you don’t look to God for wisdom. When
we see our insufficiency in God’s all-sufficiency, then the Lord
undertakes for us to direct and guide us. When men are conceited
and think to relieve their souls by their own thoughts and care,
they do but perplex themselves all the more. God will be acknowledged,
consulted with, or else we fail. It’s that simple. The word translated
here, ask, in particular, is very often used of someone in
an inferior position making a request of someone in a superior position. It’s the word that Jesus used
of a son asking for his father. Remember, he’s telling this to
encourage his disciples to pray. What man is there among you who,
when his son asks for a loaf, his little son asks for some
bread? He looks up to his father and
he asks for bread. So by using this word, James,
James points to those who are desperate for God’s wisdom, to
the sure means of tapping into that very supply. Prayer. Making requests. Asking all you
have to do is ask is one Shepherd urged the duty of each believer
a standing duty to be performed whenever there is a conscious
need So if you are in the midst of trial your job as a Christian
is to ask to look up to God in faith and ask When we were in
our trial And where you need God’s guidance in the midst of
that trial, we’re commanded to pray. And for the well-trained
child of God, this practice becomes more natural. As he goes on to
say, prayer brings the child of God his full resources. When we see ourselves as needy,
We see ourselves as desperate. We see ourselves as in way over
our heads, that our wisdom, our understanding is far spent. It’s just then that we are in
a hopeful position because now we can look to God. We can look
to God to meet that need. Now we know where to go. We know just what Solomon knew,
don’t we? King Solomon was given an opportunity. The
Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and said, ask whatever you wish
me to give to you, and you know the story. Solomon pondered it,
and he said, give thy servant an understanding heart to judge
thy people. Give me wisdom. And it was so
pleasing to the Lord that the Lord not only gave him wisdom,
but He gave him riches beside, didn’t He? God puts a premium
on wisdom. Look again at verse 5 if you
would. This will make us almost feel silly that we didn’t think
of this first. If any of you lacks wisdom, let
him ask of God who gives to all men. Right? This is a beautiful image
in the biblical Greek. It presents wisdom as a dear
friend of God, nestled close to Him. And the phrase proclaims
the benevolent nature of our God. He’s a giving God. Always
giving. No wonder we’re urged to come
to Him. He’s eager to meet our need.
He’s eager to supply our lack. He’s eager to cover our want. It’s nothing short of heart-rending
that the unbeliever has such a low view of God, isn’t it?
So often we function, we live our lives like unbelievers in
that we do not ask. John Blanchard, the writer of
Write With God and Our Little Ultimate Questions booklets,
He said this, it is characteristic of the unbeliever to see God
with a clenched fist. He’s a mean bully to the unbeliever,
isn’t he? It is characteristic of the believer
to see Him with an open hand. He’s a benevolent God. He’s a
giving God. Only the Christian sees God as
He is, a generous, loving, benevolent Father, eager to meet our needs. He not only gives, And think of all that God has
given. He gave us the earth. He gave
us creation. He made the seas and the mountains and the land,
the sun, the moon, the stars, all the creatures and trees.
He gave us food. Do you know that God created
food before He even created man? He gives us family and friends
and children. Every good and perfect gift as
we will see and hear James detail he gives us Life and breath and
all things as Paul says and he gave us a Savior. We have no
other needs But he not only gives look at the verse again he gives
generously He lavishes upon us And this almost goes without
saying, but James is going to tell us plainly that the giving
God gives generously. He tells us not only that God
by nature is a God who gives, but that when He gives, He gives
in great abundance. Paul is discussing the great
variety of gifts within our church. He says in Romans 12, 8 that
He gives, that we are to give like God gives, with liberality.
Same words. Paul used that same word to express
to the Corinthian church the great example of the Macedonian
churches. He said that their deep poverty
overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. They were giving
like God gives. And as we saw, Jesus asked so
bluntly, what man is there among you who gives? When his son asks
for a loaf, we’ll give him a stone. His implication there is That
is not the way that God gives. God gives liberally. God gives abundantly. With God
there is no quid pro quo. The word basically means simply
or singleness of mind. There is no ulterior motive with
God when He gives. Even if we were inclined to respond
to God in kind, how could we ever out give Him? God gives
and He gives graciously. He exercises His benevolent goodness
freely. He wasn’t constrained at all
to give. You didn’t put Him in obligation.
He didn’t owe you His blessings. You’ll remember that when the
prodigal son, remember him? When he finally returned, when
he finally came to his senses, he returned to his father only
looking for a job. But the man would have none of
it. and as the representation of God in that passage, in that
parable, He lavished the repentant Son with all the bounties and
privileges of His family name. A robe, a ring, shoes, such is
our God. Nor likewise is there any reproach. Isn’t that an unfamiliar thought
to us, that He gives without reproach? It will be familiar
when I get done with it. Because that’s usually how we
give. It’s usually a quid pro quo with us. It’s usually, well,
you have already borrowed $60. God gives generously without
reproach. God does not give as we give. God does not put us
into account. God does not take the opportunity
to bring up the veritable grocery list of sins that He’s forgiven
us. He does not measure our unworthiness. He does not chide us for past
thanklessness. Thankfully, man’s ingratitude,
one said, is no barrier to divine love. That’s good news, isn’t
it? He doesn’t rudely recount all the past favors and blessings
that he’s granted us, or that we’ve misused or squandered what
he’s already given. He doesn’t rebuke us for not
returning to him in kind. See, all of that describes the
way that people give. Right? We keep accounts. We hold accounts. One writer said that we may weary
human benefactors. We make them tired. We make them
fearful to bump into us on the city streets. We may easily weary
human benefactors. Those who have often shown us
kindness are apt to feel continuing it a burden. And even if they
do continue it, there is much chance of our hearing painful
references to the frequency and largeness of our applications. In other words, weren’t you here
just last week? Didn’t I already do thus and
such? Are you here again? God isn’t like that. God isn’t
like that at all, is He? You know that. He goes on to
say, but God in His giving makes no mention of our past folly,
abuse of His kindness. He never tells us that we’ve
come to Him too often or we’ve asked too much. He always employs
His past kindness as an argument to induce us. It’s His kindness
that leads us to repentance, remember? And so acting on this principle,
we can come as we’re invited and do as we’re asked in Hebrews
4.16, right? That we are to draw near with
confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and
find grace, favor to help in time of need. Look at verse 5 and we’ll wrap
up here. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. who gives to all men generously
and without reproach, and it will be given him.” What an incredible
promise this is. The equation is worked out in
full. We lack, we look to God, we humbly ask, and as the all-good,
loving and giving God, He gives abundantly and graciously, overwhelming
our need with provision, God will respond, God will mercifully
open His benevolent heart and His hands, He will give. How can we not ask? How can we
not ask? Remember I told you you’d feel
silly by the time you got to the end of verse 5. It makes
us feel silly that with God, infinite resources, a giving
and loving God who never is going to tear us to pieces when we
come to Him and ask, tells us to ask. How can we not ask? And even
though James was not an overt believer in Christ during our
Savior’s earthly ministry, he was a listener. And he did recall
here, and he echoes here in this very thought, the thought of
Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 7, verse 7. Ask, and it will be given to
you. Seek, and you will find. Knock,
and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives,
and seeks, finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened.
Both Jesus and James knew the Old Testament Scriptures which
articulated this thought. Psalm 116, I love the Lord because
He hears my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear
to me, therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live. Ask. God knows. God hears. God gives, how could he not? Reasons one child of God. As certainly as he himself is
the only wise God, as certainly as he gave us our souls with
all their faculties and capacities of wisdom, so certainly In answer
to prayer, He will guide to the apprehension of our souls of
all needed truth and to realize sense of its power to sustain
and comfort under every form of trial. Prayer obtains this
true wisdom. He says that all we have to do
is ask. And God is going to give us an abundant supply, an overwhelming
supply, enough to meet the souls that He made, that He manufactured. He knows exactly what you need
to comfort you in the midst of your trial. Let’s go to Him. Let’s pray. Our merciful King, We humble
ourselves before the good and giving God. We humble ourselves
before our Savior who knew of us long before we ever knew you. Lord, you know exactly what our
need is. You know exactly what your end
goal is with us. And you know exactly the means
to bring us to that end. And You tell us that all we have
to do in the midst of our trial is to look to You, to ask of
You, and that You will impart Your mind to us. You will tell
us why we’re going through these trials. You’ll show us why. You’ll give us the purpose. You’ll grant us the grace to
endure through these trials to glorify You in them. Father,
thank You for that. Each one of us is a child of
God if we placed our faith in You. We have already experienced
this, even if just in small measure. But Lord, may this encourage
us. May we be led to seek You out for greater things, for greater
trials, for greater measures of wisdom. And Lord, for any
who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, There is no help. The scripture says that if they’re
outside of Christ, they are hopeless and helpless. It need not be. Just as wisdom is there and available
for the child of God, salvation is there and available for the
sinner. Lord God, we pray that you would prevail upon everyone
who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ, that you would bring
them to repentance, bring them to salvation, bring them to an
awareness of those sins about which we read this morning. Have
your way with them, Lord, we pray. We pray that you would
have your way with all of us. Grant us your wisdom, Father,
in the course of our trials. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray.
Amen.