WISDOM AND TRIALS
James 1:1-18
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”
We should note that James does not say that the trials he speaks of are only the ones that originate from God. In fact he goes out of his way to say that he is talking about “trials of many kinds.” He is not calling us to welcome them or seek them out. He is not telling us to enjoy the experience but to see in these trials the opportunity to mature as we persevere. When we go through adversity our faith is tested and this testing will teach us things we cannot learn when the going is easy.
In any situation where we are tested however, we can go wrong. But James tells us that God wants us to succeed. And so, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” He will generously teach us and help us to know the right and the wrong, the good and the bad, and the loyal goodness of God that we can rely on.
However—and this is lesson number one—we must believe and not doubt. Not so much believe whether God will answer our prayer for wisdom, but about the character and nature of God. If the moment things go wrong we start questioning God’s love and God’s commitment to us, how is he going to teach us anything? James says, “That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”
There are other pitfalls. The Christian needs to realise that the values in the kingdom of God may be very different from those of the world. Poor and rich for example may be very different once you step into God’s kingdom. You need God’s wisdom to be able to see things in clearer light.
As we go through adversity, the temptation to resort to sinful means may be a reflexive response. The Christian may deceive themselves, saying these ideas are from God. Once again, wisdom is needed to know who God is and to recognise his hand, and by contrast, the hand of our sinful desires.
Life throws many things at us and we need wisdom to navigate our way. James tells us that as we are able to navigate the challenges and pitfalls of life with the wisdom that God gives generously, we are blessed and in due course we will receive the crown of life, being among those we read of in Revelations, “To the one who overcomes” (NASB). This is what God chooses for all of us.
“He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.”