A Humble Plea for Light – Pt. 2

If God’s people would once again
take their Bibles, turn to the book of James, where we have spent several weeks in leading
up to this particular passage, verses 5 through 8 of James chapter
1. We discovered last week that
these are not unrelated passage. One builds upon the next. And
this paragraph, verses five through eight, is clearly built upon
verses two through four. They are directly related. We
shared last Lord’s Day that as James wraps up that initial paragraph,
two through four, he admonishes God’s people that they should
be found lacking in nothing. but if any of you lacks wisdom. Wisdom is one of the many things
that God’s people can lack. And so James not wanting us to
be void of any of God’s graces points us particularly to the
subject of wisdom. James desires that we should
not be lacking particularly here in wisdom. and specifically wisdom
in direct connection with trials. Wisdom to know how to manage,
how to navigate, how to absorb the blow, how to deal with them
profitably, how to glorify God in the midst of trials, to understand
their God-given purpose in our lives, to grasp and to employ
the lessons that God has woven into those trials. We have discovered
over the last many weeks that these trials, while we fall into
them, literally that being the word there in James 2-4, we fall
into these trials, but they don’t come as a surprise to God. They’re
there by His design. We don’t fall into them indiscriminately. God sends these trials. according to His sovereign purpose
and design in our lives. And so we need wisdom to glean
from them, to be able to see in them what God sees in them. And that’s wisdom. And that whole
approach is difficult even for the most godly, the most faithful
believer. And it’s only possible with divine
assistance. And as we saw last week, it only
comes by asking. It only is for the child of God
to look up to God and to plead for wisdom. We need the grace
of God to conduct ourselves in this world. And we need wisdom
to be able to manage and handle trials the way God would have
us. To learn the lessons. to see
that they are not just inconveniences to us but that they are full
of instruction for our own good and growth and
grace. If you would by way of reminder
let’s glance at these verses if you would. beginning in verse
two consider it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials
knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and
let endurance have its perfect result that you may be perfect
and complete lacking in nothing 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. We began looking
last Lord’s Day at a humble plea for light. This is a child of
God, this is no doubt a sinner, no doubt a sinner that needs
to have the dross burned off, even as we sang earlier this
morning. We need to have maturity. James is concerned with the maturity
of the faith of the believers. And so he pictures a humble sinner
looking up to God in need of wisdom and making a plea of the
only one that he can rightly turn to in this faithful pursuit of divine
guidance. There’s several particulars that
we’ve already considered. The first step in a faithful
pursuit of divine guidance as we saw last Lord’s Day is the
universal need of wisdom. The first thing, the most important
thing is for you to recognize that you are in desperate need
of wisdom. We all need wisdom. And perhaps
we saw that there was an escape route in that little word if,
if any of you lacks wisdom, and I’m here to tell you it will
not work. James isn’t questioning or suggesting for a moment there
that this desperate need for wisdom isn’t a need of every
child of God, it is. When he says hypothetically,
if there, he’s using that rhetorically. In other words, who doesn’t need
God’s wisdom at some point in their life or regarding some
circumstance or regarding to some measure, some trial into
which we’ve fallen. Everyone needs God’s wisdom.
Everyone needs the wisdom of God in order to navigate the
trials and the challenges of life. Everyone has that need. Everyone has a desperate need
of guidance. And so it’s not if, but when.
When we lack wisdom. James here is urging believers
toward not just a general wisdom as if we want to be wise men but wisdom regarding our handling
of trials. These thoughts are directly related. James gave us some good guidance
in the managing of trials, but ultimately we need God’s mind
on trials. These trials will require us
to look to God and to plead to God for wisdom, and when God
gives that wisdom, that wisdom ultimately ends up enabling us
to meet and capably handle these trials. We need God’s mind. We need God’s wisdom. We fall into many trials, as
we’ve seen over the last several weeks, discussing the nature
of those trials, difficulties that come into our life, And
in those trials, we can and often do sin. And if we don’t seek
appropriate wisdom from God, we will sin. We will mismanage,
we will mishandle, we will respond in all kinds of inappropriate
ways. And James, in the course of urging
us to work out our faith, not just in a classroom, Not in theory,
but in practical day-to-day godliness. He says we need wisdom. We discovered last week, we were
reminded that wisdom is first and foremost an attribute of
God. It is the knowledge of God and
the wisdom of God in ordering everything according to His sovereign
will. And so, essentially, when we
are in a trial, when we look to God for wisdom, we are trying
to understand, we are trying to ascertain God’s mind on that
particular trial. We are reminded that, as with
so many of God’s attributes, God has attributes that are exclusive
to Him, but He also has many attributes that are communicable. He gives them to us. By His grace,
He imparts them to us, not in full measure. Only God owns these
attributes, attributes of love and mercy and kindness. Only
God owns those in perfection, but God is able to communicate
a measure of those to us. What James is asking for here
is that we would have God’s mind on these particular trials, that
we would embrace them as gifts of God, understanding them for
the purpose for which he has given them. It’s a communicable
attribute. It’s a character quality that
God can build into us. And we saw that what an incredible
blessing that is. that we can understand our life
situation, our trial, our difficulty into which we’ve fallen, we can
have God’s mind on it. Robert Johnstone, my Scottish
preacher friend that I will seek out in glory. I don’t know if
they serve coffee, but what a great time to sit down next to this
brother. He called wisdom the grandest and rarest of the acquisitions
possible to man. God provides this wisdom through
his word. He lets us come to his word and
feast upon it, and then he shines a divine light on it, illuminating
it to us so that we can grasp it. That’s only for the Christian. We can become wise only as God
enables us. We saw that wisdom doesn’t come
from experience necessarily. It doesn’t come with age merely.
It doesn’t come with a degree. It doesn’t come by chance. It’s given by God through his
word, developed over time through patience and diligence in what
one Puritan referred to as the council chamber of heaven. God
lets us in. He opens the door to us and imparts
this wisdom. We all need this wisdom. Secondly, In our faithful pursuit of divine
guidance, we saw that it was not only necessary that we understand
the universal need for wisdom, but the divine availability of
wisdom. It’s there for the asking. Look
at the passage. If any of you lacks wisdom, let
him ask of God. This is one of the most basic
words for prayer, ask, pray. James says all you have to do
is ask and first you have to recognize that you need wisdom
secondly you need to remember that your wisdom is Like what
one referred to as weeds nothing more than weeds you need God’s
mind on the situation AW pink speaking of this This request
this looking up to God and asking for one of our most treasured
but most needed graces Pink said how is the conscientious Christian
to act when some emergency confronts him? Humbly and sincerely Acknowledged
to God our ignorance and request of him not to leave us to ourselves
You see many people are content in their own ignorance They’re
content to stay there. They’re content to plod along
on their own course and their own strength. He continues and
says, tell him frankly, you are perplexed. I don’t get it. I don’t understand this, what
I’m going through. I don’t understand what has fallen
to me. Tell Him you are perplexed and
do not know what to do. Ask Him to grant the wisdom you
need so much that you may judge rightly and you may discern clearly
what will promote your spiritual welfare and therefore be most
for His glory. That’s what the child of God
desires, isn’t it? That we glorify God? We want to glorify God in all
circumstances, not just when things are going well, but especially
when they get difficult. And in order to do that, we need
wisdom. And Pink says, ask. Go to God. James says, ask, pray. There is no wisdom, there is
no worthwhile perspective outside of going
to God, the only source for real, true wisdom, and simply asking. It is, as one shepherd urged,
the duty of every believer, a standing duty, to be performed whenever
there is a conscious need. So if you are in the midst of
a trial and you do not understand it, you do not have God’s mind,
your solemn duty before God is to look to Him and ask. It’s a simple equation that James
lays before us. We’re in a trial. We’re in a
great challenge. Who else could we look to? Look
at what James says about him. If any of you lacks wisdom, let
him ask of God who gives to all men. We looked and saw how benevolent
our heavenly Father is. He is a giving God, literally
this says. He gave us creation. He gave
us our food. He gave us family and friends
and brothers in Christ. He gave us, what James says later,
every good and perfect gift comes from God. Ultimately, He gave
us our Savior. Will He not give us wisdom to
prosecute this life? It is first, it’s a characteristic
of a Christian to see God with an open hand, said one. We need
to remember that God is a giving God. God is a generous God. God
is a God that wants to bless us. He wants to give. He wants
to give this wisdom. He gives to all men generously. We took a moment to look at this
word. It just means abundantly, liberally. He lavishes. He doesn’t have any ulterior
motives when he gives. He doesn’t hold back. He lavishes
this goodness upon us. James goes on to say, not only
does he give generally, but without reproach. He’s not stingy. He’s not rude. He’s not unkind. God doesn’t give like we give. He doesn’t put us into an account.
He doesn’t take the opportunity to remind us all the other things
I’ve done for you in the past. He doesn’t measure out our Worthlessness
he doesn’t chide us. He doesn’t recount all the past
kindnesses all the ways that we’ve squandered his grace God
doesn’t do that He doesn’t give that way And so James says all you have
to do is ask and it’s there Look at the passage if any of you
lacks wisdom let him ask of God who gives to all men generously
without reproach and it will be given. There’s no caveat there. When we look to God and we humbly
ask, as the all good and loving God,
he gives abundantly and graciously, overwhelming our need with his
provision. That’s our God. God will respond. God will mercifully open his
benevolent hands and give. It’s a humble plea for light. Humble plea to understand God’s
mind. A humble plea to have God’s wisdom
on a matter. And in the faithful pursuit of
this divine guidance, he says first and foremost that we need
There is a universal need for wisdom that we need to understand.
There is a divine availability to that wisdom. But thirdly,
this morning, he wants to remind us of the proper request of wisdom. The proper request of wisdom.
For this, if God’s people would just glance down at the passage. Verse six. James has told them, if you need
wisdom, ask. But let him ask in faith without
doubting. Let him ask in faith without
doubting. Now this is interesting. Because
here, Luther, who at least initially did not care for this epistle,
because he believed that it promoted salvation by works. But he did
like this little verse. And he appropriately called this
sentence one of the best verses in the epistle. James urges as
he would, just as he would regarding our approach to salvation that
faith must be the foundation faith is presented throughout
the scriptures but even in the epistle of James faith is presented
as absolutely necessary faith is at the core of our relationship
with Almighty God faith has to be at the foundation the very
core of our prayer Hebrews Throughout the Bible this is found Hebrews
11 6, you know the passage, you know the section without faith
it is Impossible to please him that is God for he who comes
to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of
those who seek him that’s exactly what James says and We need to take God as a giving
God, a benevolent God to whom we can and ought to come and
all we have to do is ask, but we ask in faith. Jesus said the
same thing. And it is arguable that that
is exactly where James got this idea. if not directly from the
Holy Spirit himself he saw his own brother the Lord Jesus model
this principle throughout his life but it was recorded in Matthew
chapter 21 all things you ask in prayer believing you will
receive faith is a necessary element of our prayer and likewise
faith here is the very nature of the spiritual life of the
Christian, there is to be a confident trust in the heart of the believer,
not only at the moment of salvation, but throughout the believer’s
life. The Christian, even in the midst
of trial, even serious trial, difficult trial, painful trial,
vexing trial, perplexing trial, knows the nature of his God. That he’s a giving God. That
he’s a good God. He’s a benevolent God. He’s a man of faith. If he looks
up to God in that faith, he knows of his God’s ability. He knows
of his God’s willingness to meet him in his hour of need. Believing
prayer, said one seasoned saint takes its stand upon the character
of God. And may I just suggest to you
for a moment that if your prayer life is weak, if you don’t ask
big requests, if you don’t think God can handle them, your prayer
life isn’t just your only problem. Your real problem at the core
of it is your understanding of God. It’s your view, your perspective
of God. It’s your theology that informs
your prayer life. It’s your theology that informs
your worship. One faithful man of God said
it this way, there can be no real approach in the soul to
God, no asking of God by the heart for any blessing unless
we have faith. unless we have faith in His existence
and pardoning mercy and willingness to hear our prayer, that’s how
you came to Him in the first place, isn’t you? Isn’t that
true of you? If you’re a child of God, you
looked up to Him, you believed that Jesus Christ had paid your
penalty, you believed the testimony of God’s Word, that simply by
placing your faith in Him, you were justified. You were forgiven
your sins. you believed, you took in faith, that heaven was real. You didn’t need to see it to
know that it was real because you knew the God of that heaven. He goes on and he says, Unless
we have faith in His existence and pardoning mercy, a willingness
to hear our prayer, conjoined with a deep conviction of our
need of His help, all faith in breadth of apprehension be proportioned
to the fullness of revelation given. In other words, we start
our Christian life as so many babies. We’re young. Our faith is untested, it’s untried. but it’s developed over time.
And he rounds up, for gospel hearers, therefore, the only
acceptable prayer is that offered in simple dependence on the mediation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that we can come to Him.
We know that He’s trustworthy. We know that we can ask. We’ve
placed our faith in Him alone. That’s why James adds, All you
have to do is ask. Let him ask. Let him ask in faith
without any doubting. James, not desiring to allow
anything to be unclear, drives his point home, gently urging
believers to eliminate any uncertainty, any doubt in this idea as well. likely from the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Matthew chapter 21, we doubt that James was there, but just
by virtue of the fact that he lived with Christ and walked
with Christ, he knew Christ as his earthly brother. And when
these Gospels came out, he took Christ as his word. Jesus answered
and said to them, Matthew 21, 21, truly I say to you, if you
have faith and do not doubt, You will not only do what was
done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain,
be taken up and cast into the sea, it will happen. It’s not
just faith, but it’s faith without doubt. James got that from his
brother, Jesus. The word here rendered doubting
is capable of several nuances, especially in translation. The
basic meaning is to decide. And we come to a fork in the
road and we have a decision to make, to decide for ourselves. There are a multiplicity of options
before us and it is to decide. It’s a judicial exercise. But there is a nuance here to
this particular word It’s diakrino, to think it through. It’s to
be in the process of deciding. But he’s stuck there. This man
is stuck there in a position of being in the midst of making
a decision. And in that sense, it’s indecision. This is what we would typically
call overthinking it. The time to decide is long since
past. The options are very clear. There
is a need. Soon the decision will make itself
if we don’t decide. It’s a critical state of mind
that locks up the believer where they can’t move. James says we need to ask in
faith without doubting. Because here, the phrase into
which the word is embedded refers to indecision. It’s what one
called judicial hesitation. Just a prolonged pause that just
perpetuates and lasts far too long. Paul used this same word
in Romans chapter four. In Romans chapter four, he’s
telling us of the faith of Abraham. He’s one of our heroes of the
faith, right? When you look to Abraham, you’re
looking to Abraham as a man of faith. He was a man of faith
and we look to him as an example. So Abraham’s trust there in Romans
chapter four, even in the face of impossible odds, He did not waver. That’s our
word. He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t
overthink it. He didn’t get caught in judicial
indecision. He did not waver in his unbelief.
He took God at his word. And even though it seemed absolutely
impossible on a human scale, when Abraham heard God’s command,
he did not waver. That’s it. And the child of God
must not waver when he asks God for wisdom in the midst of a
trial. You cannot be locked in this
inability or, and I would even suggest to you, an unwillingness
to step in faith and to choose one way over the other. The facts
are in, the case is clear, the direction is abundantly supplied
by God Himself And such a person still hesitates. Such a person
even wants to challenge or dispute or doubt the counsel received. And so he vacillates. One careful
scholar described this process in very uncomfortable terms. He said, doubting conveys the
picture of a divided mind being torn in two. Oscillation between
the competing desires within him. Did you catch that? It really
begins in the heart. And the individual isn’t getting
what the individual wants, and so he pauses, much like Balaam. Halting between two opinions
has become habitual. This is the way he operates.
He says that he wants wisdom, he goes to God, but he doesn’t
get from God what he really wanted to begin with. And so he holds
out. He wants the things he asked
for, and then again he desires something else. Not merely a
state of mental indecision, he says, but a state of inner moral
conflict. If you look to the first century
of the Jewish Christians, the context into which James was
writing, the trials of the Jewish converts of that day were monumental. Persecution such as the world
had never seen. There was a desperate need for
wisdom, true, divine, clarifying, directional wisdom. And all they had to do was ask. Bible tells us to ask, seek,
and knock. The need of wisdom is one of
those things that a child of God is going to need frequently
as our daily bread. More important, as I’ll show
in a moment, another faithful friend tells
us why these words are so uncomfortable. Unbelief denotes more than just
the absence of faith. It denotes the active rejection
of faith. The positive refusal to give
credence to God’s offered promise. No wonder Manton said that carnal
reason is faith’s worst enemy. An unsettled mind is not a mind
of faith. Look at the passage again if
you would, verse 6. Go to the beginning of verse five if any
of you lacks wisdom. Let him ask of God who gives
to all men generously without reproach and it will be given
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. This is a sad picture. This word translated wave or
surf in most of our translations, it’s a rare word that’s only
used twice in the New Testament. It doesn’t refer to an individual
wave. You know, you go out, you watch
them come in, and they break, and then they go away, and then
another one comes in later. It’s not talking about that at
all. It’s the succession of waves. It’s the churning of the sea. It’s a strong, powerful word. It isn’t just a ripple in the
ocean. This is a powerful wave. It’s the swells of the sea and
the overwhelming sea breaking, as it were, in all directions.
No wonder James says here, and he’s trying to be very graphic,
to people who well knew the lake and the sea and the breakers
and the billows. They knew this not just as a
biblical illustration. They knew, they saw graphic examples
of this. But James says, the one who doubts
is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. It’s interesting that neither
of these words, driven and tossed, are found, not only are they
not found in the New Testament, they’re not found in the Septuagint.
We know that James was a creative writer. And here, as he does
in numerous places in his epistle, he almost manufactures words. It’s a really cool process. I used to have a buddy. I still
have the buddy, but I just don’t see him that much anymore. But
he used to manufacture words. And one of the coolest words
that he ever created, not on the spot, but he used it frequently,
frustrated. Isn’t that a good one? Flustered
and frustrated all blended together as one is frustrated. And that’s
how James rolls. He’s writing. I don’t doubt that
he took some time, put some effort into this. No doubt he is guided
by the Holy Spirit himself who gave him this message. But there’s
plenty of James here. And James invents a couple of
words almost on the spot here. This word, the first word, a
form of it was used to fan the flame, almost like the billows.
It’s a rapid movement of wind or waves or even fire sometimes. And what he points to is the
tide, how it’s coming and going, sometimes all at the same time,
and it’s even crossing. I don’t want to make anybody
seasick, but I mean, listen to this. This word driven, likely
a word that was coined by James himself, speaks of a vigorous
wind. lively wind and then he looks
not only at the vigorous wind, but what it’s doing to the water.
Driven and tossed by the wind and he just speaks of an instability
of this billow where it’s rising and falling and it’s blowing
left and right and in and out all at the same time. It’s unsettled
completely. Paul uses the same illustration.
Remember Ephesians 4? As a result, we are no longer
to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about
by every wind of doctrine. Saints, that’s how the majority
of the church in America is right now. Just sitting on their seat
waiting for the latest fad. Paul here says don’t let it be
that way don’t be driven about by every wind of doctrine But
the illustration is actually found in Isaiah much earlier
700 years earlier Isaiah said the wicked are like the tossing
sea same illustration And what they picture James Paul and Isaiah
all by the influence of the Holy Spirit It’s a it’s like a boat
or a cork, or a piece of driftwood floating on the ocean, nudging
towards shore and then being jerked a different direction,
up and down on the swells it goes. What one called four-dimensional
instability. Tossed here and there every which
way. Man of God, faithful commentator
said it this way, like storm beaten sailors, the doubtful
are carried up to heaven and down again into the deep. Their
soul melteth away because of the trouble, and who can describe
the terror of the faithless? And the only other place that
this word wave is used, it provides us with a very remarkable illustration
of this passage. would God’s people turn to the
gospel of Luke? Luke chapter 8. And we see here
the Christian’s faith in crisis. And I want you to know that as
you’re turning, James would not have been on this little boat
ride. And if any of you get seasick, hang on to the pew. James wouldn’t
have been on this boat ride, but he very likely would have
heard about it eventually and The account provides this really
graphic illustration of James’s point tossed to and fro like
a sea wave If you’re in Luke chapter 8 look down at verse
22 Now on one of those days Jesus
and his disciples got into a boat and he said to them let us go
over to the other side of the lake. Pretty simple instructions
so they launched out. But as they were sailing along
he fell asleep and a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake
and they began to be swamped and to be in danger. Now We’re not going to minimize
the calamity that these men are facing. These are, in many cases,
seasoned seamen. They have been in these waters
throughout their entire lives. They’re used to these storms.
But this storm was different, and it’s significant. It was
out of the ordinary. For these men, they’d never seen
anything like it. Frightened and you know, let’s
remind ourselves that these trials these difficulties into which
we fall They are significant. They are legitimate This was
a real storm and from an earthly human perspective. They were
in real peril It’s difficult when people tend
to minimize or downplay or even ridicule another person’s calamity
or trial. It’s funny how they tend to overplay
their own. But our faith, when it’s challenged,
it’s gonna be challenged by very legitimate calamities, much like
what the apostles faced here. Look at verse 24. This faith, this faith that is
suddenly challenged is preoccupied with the outward circumstances. They came to Jesus and woke him
up, forgetting all entirely who this Jesus is, who called them
into ministry, the very son of God himself, the creator of heaven
and earth and the seas. They woke him up saying, Master,
Master, we are perishing. And he got up and rebuked the
wind and the surging waves, there’s our word, the only other place
that’s used in the New Testament, and it stopped and became calm.
Their sin was in their lack of trust in the Messiah. Do they really believe that God
is going to send this Christ, the Savior of the world, and
let him drown in the midst of a lake? He said, let us go to
the other side. And all they needed to recall
was the command. And if not the command, the nature
of the man asleep in the boat, he had picked them, hand-picked
them as disciples. And we see how quickly their
faith fleeted. But look at verse 25, where we
see their faith suddenly strengthened. He said to them, where is your
faith? And you almost can imagine these
guys looking around for it. Ah, right? Where is your faith? They were fearful and amazed,
saying to one another, who then is this that he commands even
the winds and the water to obey him? Back, if you would, to James. The point that I would make there
is that the waves, the waves of trial are incidental. And that’s only for us to decide
as God gives us the wisdom in that trial. It’s for us to come
to that wisdom. It’s not easy advice or counsel
to give another brother. The waves of trial are incidental
if the Lord is in it. We can’t focus on the waves themselves. They’re there. No doubt seasoned
fishermen had been on this lake many times and probably seen
many storms. But if the Lord is aboard the
ship, if the Lord is in it, if the Lord gives us wisdom, the
trials, the difficulty, the waves are incidental, aren’t they? One brother said that a man who
prays or thinks he prays yet in heart doubts through all his
devotion has still a proud self-asserting spirit. His hesitation springs
from an unwillingness to believe and to confess that he is strong
only when he receives God’s strength and wise only as he draws from
the fountain of God’s wisdom. He will not cast himself wholly
on the divine help, but God will have no half honor. Therefore, let not that man think
that he shall receive anything from the Lord. The doubter is
like the turbulent sea tossed about. Look at verse 7. Let not that man expect that
he will receive anything from the Lord. being a double-minded
man, unstable in all his ways. Here James begins, he continues
to apply this illustration, very capable illustration, that the
doubter is like a storm-tossed sea. Specifically, he says that
such a person is double-minded. This is another Jamesism, another
word that he created that literally means two souls. What one referred
to as a man who is a walking civil war. He believes in God,
and now he doesn’t believe in God. He wants to believe, and
he doesn’t want to believe. Double-minded. He asks God for
help. God provides. You remember when,
well, when I was little, really little, Dr. Dolittle, do we still
hear that movie? There was a creature in there
basically two llamas glued together at the midsection, two heads.
Push me, pull you. That’s what I think of when I
think of this passage. There’s a car in Western Wyoming,
same kind of deal. Two front ends welded together, forming one car. But how would
it function? And how does a double-minded
man function? No wonder he’s, what James says,
unstable in all his ways. The way James talks about it,
it’s as if he has somebody or somebody’s very specific in mind. Vacillating, troubled, here and
there, all the time, just completely unstable. Well, for the sake
of time, look at the passage one last time. where James says,
if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, but let him ask
in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like the
surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. Let not that man
expect that he will receive anything from the Lord. He’s not a man
of faith. To have your prayer answered,
you must be a person of faith. This word so often used in scripture
to speak of riots or disturbances, tumults, this tumult, this riot
is in the soul. James would have known well of
the riots that frequently attended Paul’s ministry as we read about
this past week. James would have been very familiar
with those tumults because they were literally taking place right
under his nose as the leader there of the Jerusalem church. This riot in the soul, this lack
of foundation, this instability was palpable to James. A wavering or doubtful prayer
exhibits a worthless, aimless instability of character, said
one. If we’re gonna get through these
trials, and not just get through. If we’re going to glorify God
in the midst of our trials, we have to look up. We have to look
to God. We have to ask. And if we ask, we know, because
we know the nature of the God that we look to. We know that He will answer.
When God answers, when God gives wisdom, move. Don’t hesitate in unfaith. Believe me, if God wants to correct
your direction, He will. He will. James urges these upon us, as
children of God, that we have the privilege to look up and
ask, to walk into the very council
chamber of God Himself, and to get His mind on our situation. What a rich privilege is the
child of God’s. Let’s pray. Our merciful King, we humble
ourselves at your feet. And Lord, you know, as you know
all of your people, that we have been troubled by difficulties
and trials Lord, they didn’t make sense. In many ways, they still don’t.
Yet we looked to you. We pleaded for understanding,
for wisdom. You were so good. You gave just like you always
do so generously. So abundantly. So clearly. that we don’t need to stammer
or hesitate. You called us into Your service. You want us to glorify You. You
pour into us everything that we need in order to be faithful. Lord God, we pray. We pray for
Your grace to persevere to the end. To truly glorify You, even in
the midst of horrific trials. Lord God, we thank you. We know
that this effort cannot be prosecuted, cannot be done without the grace
of God. And so if there are any who find
themselves in life’s trials, we were reminded several weeks
ago, Romans 8, it’s the very purpose of trials is to get people
to look up, to look to God. We pray for those of us who know
the Lord Jesus that there is but one way of salvation and
that is through faith in Jesus Christ and in Him alone. And
so if there are any in our midst who do not know the Lord Jesus
we pray that your spirit would begin to pour out and would prevail
upon every heart even today. That this might be the day of
salvation for some Lord, we thank You and praise
You for the wisdom that You pour out on us as believers. It’s
in Jesus’ name that we pray, Amen.