The Sweet Reward of Trials

Would God’s people take their
Bibles in turn, please, to James chapter one. By way of an update, I’ll get
back to Corinthians eventually. I don’t want to do a stop and
start, and I’ve got a couple of pressing passages to get to
in the next couple of weeks, as well as, Lord willing, a guest
in the pulpit here soon. James chapter 1, and as we turn
to this epistle, and specifically to this chapter, you immediately
recognize, no doubt, a familiar passage of Scripture, because
it is such to every child of God. It’s known to all of us
because James here, and especially in verses two through five, is
addressing the matter of faith and the outworking of that faith.
We all need that. James, the brother of the Lord,
was the human author of this epistle. And this book does belong
in the New Testament canon. Some of you know that it was
bandied about for years as to whether that was the case. It
is divine revelation. It is a book for us as Gentile
believers, not just for the Jews who were the primary initial
recipients. The overall theme of the Epistle
of James, as I mentioned, is faith. It is a book about faith
and the exercise of that faith. Faith is the one overarching
theme of this epistle, and that’s clear from the fact that the
word faith occurs 16 times in this short letter. And so, James
is discussing the believer’s faith. He discusses not only
the believer’s faith, he discusses feeble faith, and he even addresses
the potential of false faith. encouraging the same kind of
faith self-examination as does Jesus and even Paul. Paul, you know, in 2 Corinthians
13 5 says, test yourselves to see if you are in the faith.
And James likewise issues that same admonition. As a shepherd
of this great flock, a flock of maturing believers, James’s
foremost desire was for their growth in grace so that they
might become a beacon of God’s light to their countrymen, the
Jews, and also to the Gentiles. But as James observed these plentiful
and immature lambs He quite obviously began to observe sinful tendencies,
thoughts, and actions that displeased God. James, in the course of this
letter, is not arguing salvation by works. He’s arguing that if
faith is genuine, if a person is truly saved, works will be
evident. Their presence will be a fruit
of faith, not the cause of faith. Faith without the evidence of
good works, James will argue, is a dead faith. And he wants
not merely to challenge the genuineness of their faith, but he desires
that these believers would end up being assured in their own
faith by the presence of fruit in their lives. That’s kind of
an overview of the epistle of James. Well, as believers in
Christ, we know that nothing tests our faith more than trials. And it turns out that that is
their God-ordained design. to test our faith, as we will
see in the course of this passage. God tests or proves our faith
by trials. And even as we acknowledged last
week in our church meeting, not only do we see trials coming,
in a very real sense, we’re already in the midst of trial. Whether
personally or as a church, The opening section of this epistle,
it carries all the way down to verse 18. It’s a protracted discussion
of the proper function of faith in the midst of temptation and
trials. See, that’s when things tend
to go haywire, right? This morning, I’d like to zero
in specifically on verses five and six, but it’s important to
note that James’s thoughts there in verses five and six rest on
a foundation that he establishes in verses two through four. So
let’s start at the beginning of his argument, this initial
discussion. James chapter one, verse two. James chapter one, verse two
will course down through verse eight. 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. I think the first thing you should
notice is that, as I said, it’s not merely that verses five and
six are adjacent, butted up against verses two and four. They are
directly related. Note first, look at verse five. James begins the sentence with
the word but. He’s drawing a contrast. He’s
establishing a distinction with something that he says in those
earlier verses, two through four. It’s a string of thought that
connects these two sections. They’re tied together by the
word lacking. Just glance down at chapter one,
verse four again, if you would. In verse one, four, He admonishes them to let endurance
have its perfect result, that you may be perfect, that is mature
and complete, lacking in nothing. But, verse five, if any of you
lacks wisdom, and so the verses are deeply related one to another,
Let’s go back to verse two, if we could, for a moment. We’ll
lay a little bit of a foundation by way of refresh, and then we’ll
end up in verses five and six this morning. Verse two, consider it all joy,
my brethren, when you encounter various trials. And so James
immediately launches into what is arguably the thesis of his
entire epistle. Trials will come. And when they
come, they come as a test of our faith. And so James says,
consider it all joy. I know that it is a trial, he
would say, but consider it elsewise. Consider it not to be a trial,
not as we deem trials to be. This is the conviction at which
a person arrives after serious deliberation, this considering. And what he says is that we are
to esteem these trials. We are to consider, to think
upon these trials, not as evil, not designed for ill, not designed
to harm us, not an occasion for gloom, not an occasion for despair. We are to think differently about
the trials that are coming our way. Consider it, James says. Evaluate it differently. Judge
it differently. Make a conscious mental effort
to think of these trials differently than you may be inclined to think
of them. If you want to honor God in your
trials, Those multitudinous, variegated trials. Essentially,
James says, use your head. Think of these trials differently.
Consider it all joy. Think of them in a radically
different way. So James basically says, esteem
them and welcome them as occasions for rejoicing. That’s a bitter
pill to swallow, isn’t it? And it’s an especially bitter
pill when somebody else brings you the pill. Right? Isn’t this what Job’s friends
always want to admonish us? Consider it all joy when we are
processing the trial in which we find ourselves. But that’s
what James says, rejoicing. And believe me, this is as hard
for me to swallow and process as it is for you. and maybe harder. Consider it all joy. It’s tough to swallow at first,
isn’t it? We’re human. And in a very real sense, that
response, consider it all joy, is a paradox. It’s exactly the
opposite of how we’re inclined to respond in the midst of a
trial. The trials themselves don’t seem
to be an occasion of joy. If it’s difficult to make that
transition, it doesn’t mean you’re unsaved. It doesn’t mean that
you’re unspiritual. Remember, James is writing to
Christians. He’s writing to believers and
he’s writing to instruct and shepherd these Christians. And
so he tells them there is another way to think about trials. There’s
another way to look at the difficulties that come into our lives. There’s
another way to esteem them. You have to look at them from
a spiritual perspective, James says. You have to consider them
as ultimately being a source of joy. Ultimately, they serve
a divine purpose. That alone should make us happy. This means that ultimately this
trial, whatever it is, has been sifted through God’s loving fingers
for me, for you, for us, according to His purpose in our lives.
That echoes of Romans 8.28, doesn’t it? We know that God causes all
things to work together for good to those who love God, to those
who are called according to His purpose. Once we consider our
trial, whatever it is, from that perspective, joy must follow. But here, James, quite curiously,
qualifies the crossing of these trials as an encounter. It’s
a fascinating word. The word, like so many in James’
vocabulary, is a fascinating word. We tend to regard trials
as coming. It just came. It arrived, it
showed up. We tend to say that things happen.
The word that he uses here means to fall into, or to fall around,
or even to fall upon. And this word in all three places
that it’s used, only three in the New Testament, It’s used
every time in the context of difficulty or trial. In fact,
one of the other two times that this word is used in the New
Testament is of that poor Samaritan in Luke’s gospel. Remember chapter
10, where it says that this Samaritan coming down fell among robbers. The other occasion of the use
of this word is of the scene of the shipwreck In Acts 27,
Paul’s transport to Rome. The word is completely obscured
in most of our translations, but some translations interpretively
mention a reef or a sandbar. Maybe that’s what happened, but
it doesn’t say that, not in the Greek. The truth is no reef or
sandbar is even mentioned in the original. It’s a reasonable
conjecture that that’s what transpired, but it’s interpretational. Literally,
it just says, having fallen around the meeting of two seas. It’s
like they got caught in a vortex and the ship started to come
apart. The King James captures that here, falling into a place
where two seas met. They ran the ship aground. All
this to say we fall into trials. We have a tendency to fall into
trials. And these are those troubles
that seem to burst onto the scene. We didn’t see it coming. They
come upon us suddenly. We fall into them without warning.
And they are as so many pitfalls in our lives. We consider them
to be setbacks. inconveniences, even vexing and
unwelcome. Often this word trials is used
to speak of things that are evil, difficulties, challenges, hardships,
life’s great and manifold difficulties. A believer falls into these,
James says. They are substantial difficulties
that actually occur, not just a figment of the person’s imagination,
when we have a tendency to think it’s much worse. But James doesn’t say if, he
says when. Trials are coming. If you’re
not already in a trial, it’s one of the things I used to hear
so frequently about baseball. Baseball is a game where you’ve
either just had your heart broken or you’re just about to be. Same with trials. Trials are
coming. If you’re one of those happy people skipping about as
if you don’t have a care in the world, buckle up. Trials are
coming, and one of the first things that we observe is that
we, when he says, this isn’t just a one-size-fits-all proposition. The adjectives translated here
as various actually falls at the end of the sentence in Greek. We fall into all kinds of trials,
various trials. what one called multi-colored
trials. Poikilas is our word here. It
speaks of just a great variety. Believe me, God has the resources. Poikilas, Pirosmos, various trials. Peter uses the same exact description
in his opening chapter. In this you greatly rejoice,
he says in verse six, even though now for a little while you have
been distressed by various trials. These trials, our trials, says
James, says Peter, come in all shapes and sizes according to
their divine purpose, whatever God is doing in our lives as
individuals. So the only question is not whether
you’re going to have a trial, but what kind of a trial are
you having? Health related, family related,
money related, trials related to unbelievers, neighbors, coworkers,
even persecution, work related, and on and on and on the list
goes. They are various trials. And
so it is, this word used for a serious trial, one that can
have serious ramifications, serious consequences. James isn’t referring
to some bothersome, insignificant, little annoyance of life, mosquitoes. I’m not talking about mosquitoes
as a trial. Unless perhaps you get West Nile
with it. He’s not talking about traffic.
He’s not talking about long lines at the bank or at the grocery
store. What he’s talking about is the
great trials, the major difficulties of life, the overwhelming calamities
that inevitably come. And these are occasions that
come to us, not from us necessarily, We didn’t necessarily bring this
on ourselves through foolish or sinful behavior. We fall into
it. God put it there. And He put
it there for a purpose. Would you look at verse 3, just
briefly? Knowing that the testing of your
faith produces endurance. We need to embrace the sovereignty
of God in our trials. if we’re going to glorify God
in them. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance,
we didn’t see this trial coming. God did. If we could, we would
avoid it. We didn’t go looking for this
difficulty, this trial, nor should we. But God allowed it. Not only did God allow it, He
designed it just for you, for me. It could even be said that
He sent it, but not in order to harm us, in order to prove
us. Well, in this list, if we’re
gonna glorify God in trial, not only do we need to embrace God’s
sovereignty in trials, consider it all joy, knowing that the
testing of your faith produces endurance, Secondly though, we
need to develop spiritual maturity in those trials. They’re for
that purpose. Look at verse four. Let endurance
have its perfect result. Let God do what God wants to
do in your life through this particular trial. Why? That you may be perfect, that
is mature. It doesn’t mean Ladies, that
your husband will ever achieve perfection, nor will you. It means maturity, spiritual
maturity, that you may be perfect and complete, that God is going
to continue to work on you, work on your sanctification to the
point where it can be said you are a complete, mature Christian,
lacking in nothing. Suddenly there’s a play on words
here, though, at the end of verse four, lacking in nothing. As
I pointed out, because verse five says, but if any of you
lack, specifically wisdom, this is an intentional play on words
by James. God’s whole purpose is that we
should lack nothing, but if we do, we know where to turn because
God has that covered too. And so I want to, having laid
that foundation, where if we are going to glorify God in trials,
we have to embrace God’s sovereignty in them. We have to embrace God’s
sovereignty in our trials. We have to develop spiritual
maturity in those trials. But thirdly is where I want to
spend some time this morning. Thirdly, I want to look at pursuing
divine guidance in trials. That’s what we prayed for last
week, right? We prayed that God would give us wisdom. We prayed
for it again on Wednesday night, that God would give us wisdom
for this specific trial that he’s designed for our church,
for which he has a purpose, for which he will provide wisdom. As we begin to course through
this section in verses five through six, we want to look at pursuing
divine guidance and trial. And the first thing that Paul
says is that this need of wisdom, universal. That doesn’t mean
we’re all just fools. But it does mean we all have
a long way to go in our understanding of how to glorify God in the
midst of our trial. Look at verse five. But if any
of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. James desires, indeed
God desires, that believers would be lacking in nothing. He’s already
said it. But he mentions in verse five
that they should not be lacking in wisdom. And it isn’t just wisdom in general. Wisdom disconnected and disassociated
with the rest of life. In fact, it’s wisdom in direct
connection with trials. He wants us to know how to manage
trials, how to glorify God in those trials. It’s a specific
kind of wisdom. In fact, Wisdom, it’s a wisdom
to know how to navigate and to realize God’s sovereignty in
them, to understand their purpose, to grasp the lessons to be learned
through those trials. Wisdom in that connection, as
we’ve seen, God does not just allow trials to drift across
our paths indiscriminately. If you believe that, take up
your Bible and read again. That’s not the way it works.
He sends them purposely. He sends them specifically according
to His sovereign purpose and design for our lives. And our need indicates, James,
is to glean wisdom from God. to see them as God sees them,
events that ultimately burn off the dross of sin in our lives
and draw us closer to God and make us more dependent upon His
grace and ultimately bring the blessing of divine joy. That’s the purpose of trials.
To do this is not only difficult, even for the most faithful believer,
it’s only possible with divine assistance. You can only do this
with God’s help. You can only glorify God in the
midst of your trial by pursuing divine guidance with God’s help. We need the grace of God to see
trials as God sees them. And to see to it, the trial itself,
the lessons that are gained are not just inconveniences, but
They are opportunities for instruction to us and for us. And to grasp
this, we need wisdom. God’s wisdom. We need God’s perspective
on trials. James is not alone in this intentional
plea for divine guidance. This plea that enables us to
grow in grace according to God’s plan, Paul also links the idea
of Christian maturity, that is perfection, as we saw, with wisdom,
that is divine guidance, the very focus of this passage. Paul says, Paul says as well
that we need wisdom for these trials. James here in verse five
is telling us of the universal need of wisdom. And I suppose
that we may be tempted to find an escape route out of this discussion. We might do so with the little
word if. Maybe this doesn’t apply to me.
But James isn’t questioning or suggesting for a moment that
this desperate need is not for every child of God. The hypothetical if is nearly
rhetorical. In other words, who doesn’t lack
wisdom at some point in time? Who doesn’t need perspective
in the midst of a trial, in regard to some circumstance or to some
measure, even especially in a season of trial. Everyone needs the
wisdom of God. And that’s because God wants
us to look to Him. How else would God draw us into
a vibrant, loving relationship with Him He wants to supply our needs
and he wants us to know that he supplied it. Everyone needs
the wisdom of God in order to navigate trials, the challenges
of life. James isn’t doubting our need
here, that everyone has this need. He has no doubt of everyone’s
desperate need of God’s grace and guidance and trials. We could
just as easily speak of this need, not as if, but when, as
I said. He’s urging us to an acknowledgement
of our need of wisdom. The worst thing that a person
can do in trial is to foolishly assume that they don’t need God’s
guidance. Everyone needs wisdom. The wisdom
of God. Everyone needs divine guidance
in the course of trials. So James here isn’t urging believers
toward just a general wisdom, but specifically wisdom regarding
the handling of our trials. We all fall into many trials
that test us in which we could sin if we do not appropriate
God’s wisdom in them. Remember, James is urging us
to work out our faith, not in a classroom, not in theory, but
in practical godliness in the day-to-day activities of life.
And all believers need this wisdom, every last one of us, and the
common experience of trials is a surefire method of bringing
us to that realization. Because it brings us to the end
of ourselves. We don’t have it figured out. Have you ever noticed
this about human nature? How wise we seem to be and how
apt and able we are to counsel others in the midst of their
own trial. But when it’s us, we hit the
wall, don’t we? We hit the wall. We’re lost. We’re bewildered. How could God
do this to me? So James says, if any of you
lacks wisdom, then I guess one of the things we have to consider
this morning is what is wisdom? As we begin to answer what is
wisdom, first and foremost, it is a divine attribute. It is
a divine attribute in the grandest language known to man. Paul speaks
of this. Turn, if you would, for a minute
to Romans 11. I love this description of God. Romans 11 at the very end. Romans 11, glide down into verse
33. All 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 who became His counselor? Or 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 the glory
of God forever. Amen. Back, if you would, to
James. Paul speaks of this subject in
human words. That’s all he’s got. But in doing
so, he acknowledges that the subject is far beyond our comprehension. The knowledge and wisdom of God
is the ordering of all things according to His sovereign will,
according to His purposes. God intends to do a thing, and
His wisdom guides the process from beginning to end. One scholar
described God’s wisdom in much simpler terms. For our edification
wisdom, he says, is His ability to select the best means for
the attainment of the highest goal. This is God being God. His ability to select the best
means for the attainment of the highest goal. God wants what
is best and God is going to get it. Wisdom is first and foremost
an attribute of God. But it is one of his communicable
attributes. A character quality that he seeks
to develop in every believer. And as we begin to examine wisdom,
we discover soon that wisdom is not knowledge. Knowledge is
not the same thing as wisdom. We gain knowledge by reading
and studying, but wisdom is gained by practically observing and
pondering and evaluating. Wisdom does not come with experience
necessarily. Wisdom does not come with age
merely. Wisdom does not come with a degree
granted by a degree-granting institution of learning. But wisdom can be, may be imparted
to us by God. What an incredible blessing that
is. Puritan pastor Robert Johnstone called it the grandest and rarest
acquisition possible to man. Isn’t that amazing? Wisdom. To know and understand and apply
that knowledge through the exercise of wisdom, what a glorious promise. God provides this through his
word, illuminated by his spirit. We desperately need this wisdom,
every last one of us, if we are to live God-honoring lives, if
we are to honor God in the midst of our trials, we desperately
need God’s wisdom. It’s indispensable. In and of ourselves, we can never
be wise, not independently, but we can become wise as God enables
us. Wisdom does not fall to us by
chance. It’s given by God, learned through
His Word, developed over time and patience and diligence. It
is what one Puritan called the council chamber of heaven. Isn’t
that amazing? imagery, you’ve been called into
a meeting with God Himself, and He wants to impart some information
to you. God lets us in, God invites us,
He wants us to be there. Just as will all of God’s graces,
wisdom does not come without seeking and asking. and without
a relentless and faithful pursuit. And when we receive wisdom from
God, it is of the same nature as God’s
wisdom. There’s only one kind of wisdom.
We have God’s mind on a subject. We tend to think of a wise person
as someone who is moderate in the exercise of his freedoms
or someone who’s careful with his money. Someone who keeps
his mood and temperate at an even measure. Those things can
be indicators of God’s wisdom, possessing some of that wisdom,
but the wisdom of God stirs and urges us to set right, to set
and establish God-honoring goals together with taking the appropriate
steps to achieve those goals. And managing trials is just one
of those many. opportunities. So when it comes
to trials, the desire and goal of coming to a right understanding
of the nature and purpose of the trial is the right application
of wisdom. This was Job’s endeavor, right?
Gaining wisdom so as to comprehend the ways and purposes of God
gives us a completeness. It gives us a maturity We need
to be growing to the point where we can navigate through a world
of trial without having the joy drained out of us. And that takes
wisdom. If the trial is new or if it’s
a trial we haven’t handled correctly in the past, we will need wisdom. So as we look at this third feature,
of these verses two through eight, glorifying God in our trial,
not only embracing God’s sovereignty in trials and developing a spiritual
maturity, but pursuing divine guidance in these trials. We
see not only the universal need of wisdom, but secondly, the
divine availability of wisdom. It’s there. Look at, look at
verse five. If any of you lacks wisdom, And
we all will let him ask of God. It’s so simple. There’s no doubt
that everyone needs wisdom. We’ve already established that
the divine perspective in the midst of a trial, our own wisdom,
one godly man equated with nothing more than weeds. Boy, do I know
weeds. Weeds as opposed to the wholesome
and beneficial fruit that a garden could produce. Such wisdom, if it can even be
called such, man-made wisdom, is tainted. It’s nothing more
than a weed in the garden. Stephen Charnock characterized
it and says it, it flows from self-love and runs to self-interest. It’s all about me. That’s not
wisdom. It’s not to be trusted. What
we really need as believers are not the weeds of our own human
wisdom, but the sweet, beneficial wisdom of God. And if human homespun wisdom
is not adequate, out of order, what is the Christian to do?
Ask. We are to pray, we are to ask,
we are to seek God’s wisdom. Asking is one of the basic words
for prayer, isn’t it? If you lack wisdom, if any of
you lacks wisdom, James says, all you have to do is ask. We are to turn to God and humbly
ask. God won’t be surprised to learn
that we are bewildered, that we don’t know which way to turn.
He knows our frame. He designed the trial for this
very purpose, to get you to look up. Of all that our omniscient God
knows, believe me, He knows that we need wisdom in order to discern
our paths and judge our circumstances. God is that resource. God is
the resource for that wisdom, not ourselves. Job 32.8 says
it this way, the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding. God gives it. God provides it. Our all-knowing God is the inexhaustible
fountain of wisdom. If we know God, we know that
He can meet our need. The word translated here, ask,
as I said a moment ago, in particular is used of someone in a very
inferior position. They’re coming and they’re making
request of someone in a superior position. to implore, that’s
the word that kind of comes to my mind. It’s the word that Jesus
used of the son asking of his father, what man among you, when his
son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? And so by using
this word, James points out those desperate for God’s wisdom to make sure use of the means
of tapping into that supply. Just ask. All you have to do
is ask. When we’re in a trial, when we’re
in need of God’s guidance in the midst of that trial, we are
commanded to pray. And for the well-trained child
of God, this practice becomes all the more natural, doesn’t
it? That’s what makes a wise man wise. That’s what makes a
wise woman wise. It’s not merely years. It’s just
time after time realizing that when I’m in the midst of a trial
and I have nowhere to turn, I need to turn to God. When the spiritually
impoverished Christian draws near to his God, he acknowledges
God not himself, is the source of all spiritual riches. We know
that the prime biblical example of that is Solomon, right? When
he could have asked any gift he wanted, he asked for wisdom. Look at verse five again. If
any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all
men. God is a giving God. And this
is a beautiful image in the Greek. It presents wisdom as a dear
friend of God, nestled close to Him. This phrase proclaims
the benevolent nature of our God. He’s a giving God. He’s always giving. No wonder
we’re urged to come to Him. He’s eager to meet our need.
He’s eager to provide what we lack. He’s eager to cover our
want. It’s nothing short of heart-rending
that the believer has such a low view of God, isn’t it? The ungodly
man sees God as stingy, miserly. Not the Christian. The Christian
knows God to be a benevolent and generous God beyond measure. He’s our Heavenly Father, eager
to meet our needs. He not only gives, look at James
says, he gives generously. He lavishes it upon us. This
almost goes without saying, but James tells us plainly that the
giving God gives generously. He tells us that not only is
God by nature a God who gives, but that when he gives, he gives
in abundance. When Paul discussing the great
variety of gifts in the church, He says in Romans 12, eight,
he gives with liberality. His implication is that God gives
generously when God gives. Nor likewise is there any reproach. He gives generously and without
reproach, James says. God does not give like we give. Uh-oh. God does not put us in debt.
God doesn’t take this opportunity to bring up the veritable grocery
list of sins of which He’s forgiven us. God does not measure our
unworthiness when He gives. He doesn’t chide us for past
thankfulness. 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. All of that describes
the way we give. God’s not like that. God doesn’t
chide us about the frequency of our coming or about the amount
of wisdom that we seek. He just tells us to ask. Acting on this principle, we
can come as we’re invited to do. Hebrews 4.16, to draw near
with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive
mercy to help in the time of need. He just says, come, ask,
and he gives generously and without reproach. And I love the way
verse five ends. Ask and it will be given to him. So 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
to our need in overwhelming supply. God will mercifully open His
benevolent heart and hands, He will give. How can we not ask? Both Jesus and James knew the
Old Testament scriptures, which also articulated this thought.
I love the Lord, Psalm 116.1. 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. There’s one last feature of this
pursuit of divine guidance, not only the universal need and the
divine availability, but the proper request. It’s there in
verse six. Let him ask in faith without
any doubting. Here Luther, at least initially,
Luther didn’t care for this epistle. He believed that it promoted
salvation by works. But he did like this little verse.
He appropriately called this sentence one of the best verses
in the epistle. James urges just as he would
regarding our approach to salvation, that faith must be at the foundation. Faith is presented throughout
the Bible as necessary to our prayer. Without faith, it is
impossible to please him, as the author of Hebrews says. When
a child of God goes to God to ask, one must believe that he
not only is willing and has the resources to provide. Jesus said, all things you ask
in prayer, believing you will receive. The Christian, even
in the midst of the trial, knows the nature of his God. He knows
his ability. He knows his willingness to meet
him in his hour of need. When we go to God in prayer,
we are acknowledging, even invoking His character in our appeal. And so James says, without doubting, James is not desiring or allowing
any lack of clarity here. He drives his point home, gently
urging believers to eliminate any uncertainty, any doubt, Build
your confidence in the God to whom you look. The word rendered
doubting here, the basic meaning is to decide. And here, the phrase
into which the word is embedded refers to indecision, what one
describes as just judicial hesitation. You gotta know who you’re looking
to. You gotta know of his infinite
ability and his infinite willingness to meet your need. The child
of God must not waver when he or she asks for wisdom in the
midst of a trial. It is the inability or unwillingness
to choose one way over the other. You’re just stuck. The facts
are in. The case is clear. The direction
is abundantly supplied. Unbelief. or a lack of faith
in God is actually born of doubt. Either a doubt of God’s ability,
or a doubt of His omnipotence, or a doubt of His inexhaustible
resources. Simply put, doubt is not faith. James calls us to come to God
in faith, knowing who He is, and knowing of His eagerness
to meet our need. Let’s look to Him for wisdom.