Light Brings Salt
Volume 2, Issue 33
Iron Range Bible
Church
Dedicated to the
Systematic Exposition of the Word of God
by P/T
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. James 1:5
Jeremiah
So James, knowing
this, reminds us of the awesome privilege we have of seeking God’s wisdom. In
essence, James tells us how to commit our trials to the Lord—through praying
for wisdom. Where can we find the understanding to use our trials in the right
way? Through prayer.
The Psalms are
loaded with illustrations of this very truth. In them, we often see the
psalmist in the pit of despair, but through prayer and lifting his burdens to
the Lord (right focus)
he emerges confident and resting in
God’s grace. God has granted us the
privilege of asking Him for wisdom.
We are also told to
keep on asking because God is an abundant and amiable Giver. Of the 150 verses
in Psalm 119, 67 verses are devoted to the subject of wisdom needed in life,
particularly in its trials.
The Prerequisite Needed
Committing our problems to the
Lord involves asking our heavenly Father for wisdom because, naturally, we can’t begin to understand all that is
involved. Daily, we hear or read
accounts of people whose lives are filled with pain and suffering, that make no
sense to us. We wonder, God how can you allow this to happen? Where is the
justice in this? This just isn’t fair!
But life is filled
with injustices and life is not fair. It was not fair for Jesus to suffer for our sin.
While a lot of human suffering is self-inflicted
and the product of our own stupidity, rebellion, and neglect, there is much
that just doesn’t seem to make sense. In view of all of this, it is easy for us
to have doubts and wonder where God is, and for some it may even cause them to
want to shout at God in defiant anger.
So James tells us to “ask in faith without any
doubting.” What does it mean to ask in faith? It means to ask according to the
Word without any doubting.
“Doubting” is from the Greek verb, diakrinw, (1)
“to separate, hence, to distinguish, discriminate, discern,” then (2) “to settle, decide, judge.”
When in the middle voice as here, it means (1) “to
take issue, dispute with someone” or (2) “be at odds with oneself, doubt, waver.” Doubting and wavering in one’s mind is the primary
idea here as the analogy to “waves tossed by the sea” illustrates (vs. 6b).
But I wonder if the idea of “disputing with
someone” may not have also been in the back of James’ mind, at least as it
might pertain to praying for wisdom in the midst of suffering. To doubt and
waver in our prayer is often related to the arguments we are having in our
hearts with God. Why me? Why now? Why
this?
diakrinw describes one who is divided in
his mind and who wavers between two opinions.
One moment he voices the yes of faith; the next moment it is the no of
disbelief. Such an attitude is graphically illustrated by “a wave of the sea.”
Completely lacking in stability, the doubter is “driven and tossed by the wind.”
First there is the crest, then the trough. Prayer
that moves God to respond must be marked by the constancy of unwavering faith.
The prayer of “unwavering faith” is a prayer that
rests in the truth of Scripture regarding God’s person and His promises,
purposes, and principles, rather than on our own understanding of why or of how
things appear to us.
He then exhorts us to deal with any wrong attitudes
and actions and, in a spirit of humility,
to receive God’s truth, the implanted Word which is able to save
(deliver) our souls. [vs:21 - not salvation but
deliverance in time]
It is this, God’s implanted Word, that enables us
to handle our pain and frustration and those wrong reactions in life like being
quick to speak and quick to anger (cf.
In practical terms, then, just how should we
approach our trials in prayer? Our need
is to ask our loving and caring heavenly Father:
(a) to remove the difficulty if it’s His will (Mark 14:35, 36; 1
Cor. 7:20-24; 2 Cor. 12:8);
(b) to use it in our lives and in the lives of others for His
glory (1 Pet. 1:6, 7;
(c) to sustain and
carry us successfully through the pressure so we do not bring dishonor to His
name or foul up His plan and purposes for our lives and others (Ps. 55:22; 1
Pet. 4:15-16); and
(d) to give us the
wisdom, the biblical attitudes, values, responses, steps, and actions needed to
handle the problem so we can act in a way that honors Christ (James 1:5; Ps.
37:5-6; Prov. 3:5-7).
May I also suggest that, as a part of maturing us and
helping us to grow, God uses our suffering to get us to deal with four
areas of danger in the Christian life:
(a)
misplaced confidence (1 Tim. 6:17-19; Luke
12:15-21);
(b)
misused privileges (1 Cor.
10:1-13);
(c)
misguided priorities (Matt.
(d) missed reality (living in a sphere of hypocrisy) (Matt. 23:1f; cf. Isa.
As we face the various trials of life, our prayer
should not be, “Lord, change my wife or husband or children or school or job
situation,” but “Lord, change me,
transform me into what you would have me to be!”
The issue is, what
difference is the Savior making in my life? This is what suffering is all about
and what God is seeking to develop in each of us. Our lives are what the world
sees and we can become living evidence of God’s existence and His love as we
respond to His truth and live it out in the many and varied circumstances of
life.