Before moving on, I wanted to add a thought from yesterday’s verses: A related passage is 1 Peter 1:6-7. The trials refine our faith, as gold in fire, releasing our impurities and leaving behind the precious faith that is being strengthened as we draw near to God. Then, through that faith and our love for Him, He will shine out from us so that all will know His power and mercy and grace and will see that we are His.
See also Proverbs 17:3 and Zechariah 13:9.
Continuing on into verses 5-8 of James chapter 1, we learn to ask for wisdom.
God wants us to ask for wisdom! He wants us to be wise in His ways. The problem from our perspective is that sometimes we think we want to be wise, but we don’t want the responsibility that comes with wisdom.
-OR-
We really only want to look wise.
Then our faith isn’t in God.
When we ask for wisdom, we have to ask because we are seeking to do His work and follow His will. We can’t try to sit the fence – trying to look wise but not following through on the actions that come with it. God wants us to USE the wisdom He grants us, not just sit on it.
You can’t have one foot in God’s wisdom and one in the foolish ways of the world. When we ask God for wisdom, we should have full faith that He will not only grant it to us, but through His Spirit, guide us in what to do with it. Having wisdom is scary. You don’t realize that until you pray for it and then realize what comes with it. It will cause you to have to make hard decisions. It will push you out of your comfort zone.
It is precious. When God grants you wisdom, He is entrusting you with the responsibility and the wherewithal to make things happen!
We must also remember that our wisdom is from God, not from ourselves, lest we be prideful. It can cause us to become double-minded and end up seeking to please ourselves and our hearts’ desires and gain the accolades of the world instead of serving Him.
