Asking for Wisdom in Faith

Until recently I had a big problem with this Scripture.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;  he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:5-8)

Here is how the problem went. The passage starts of by saying how willing God is to give wisdom. He doesn’t even expect you to have a good track record with Him when you ask this. So far so good. But then it cautions that if you don’t ask in faith about this, you won’t get anything from God. So it virtually promises that you won’t get the wisdom you ask for, in some cases.

Let’s be real here. Have you ever asked for wisdom, say about a financial decision, and then it spite of asking, the thought you go with, believing to be right, turned out to be wrong? I have. So it really hurts. And how can I now make sense of the above passage?

The Bible also says, “Do not be wise in your own eyes.” (Proverbs 3:7) So how can I be fully assured that I have wisdom (because I asked believing that I have received – Mark 11:24) and yet not somehow be wise in my own eyes?

I didn’t see this until now very clearly, but I believe my wife Marilena has helped me to see it.

The Bible says that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10).

So when we ask for WISDOM in faith, we need to be asking for THE FEAR OF THE LORD. Any wisdom that is not connected to the fear of the Lord is not what we should be believing for. 

Even the verse I quoted earlier, “Do not be wise in your eyes” finishes by saying, “Fear the Lord and depart from evil” (Proverbs 3:7).

So when you and I ask for wisdom, let us ask for the “fear of the LORD”. Let us begin with that.

This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD.” (Jeremiah 17:5).

If we want wisdom, it will not come because we trusted in man. This doesn’t only mean not blindly trusting in the advice of others. It also means not trusting in ourselves. We need the wisdom which doesn’t trust in ourselves. If we trust in ourselves, we will be cursed to some extent. It isn’t fair to blame God for the result – even if we also asked for what we thought might be “wisdom”.

So in conclusion, we need to ask for the fear of the Lord. We need to ask for the fear of the Lord in faith. We must not act in presumption. We must trust in the LORD, and act with knowledge GOD puts in our hearts. And we need to wait until we know that we know we have that knowledge. We need to do this unless it is ABSOLUTELY required that we make an immediate decision. And I mean ABSOLUTELY.

I hope this helps you. I am meditating on this because I wish to reform in this area. Pray for me to have the fear of the Lord and to be a better decision maker. Amen.

Michael