Daily Manna · Day 65 · March 6
Ask for Wisdom
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
You are waiting for somebody to make the decision for you. The list came out even both times.
James is writing to Jewish believers scattered outside Palestine, in the earliest days of the church, and the letter is not addressed to people planning a career move. Three verses before the wisdom promise he says count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations, which means trials, the kind that arrive rather than the kind you choose. That is the setting. The wisdom on offer is wisdom for people in the middle of something they did not want, and it is offered by a God described in two specific ways: who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not. Liberally means without calculation, without holding back to see what you do with the first instalment. Upbraideth not means He does not bring up the last three times you asked and ignored the answer.
Read the next three lines, which are almost always left off. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Double-minded is literally two-souled. James is not describing a person with doubts; he is describing a person who wants a second opinion from God while reserving the right to overrule it, and he says plainly that such a person should not expect to receive anything.
Which puts the question where it belongs, somewhere other than where you have been asking it all week.
Are you asking God what to do, or are you asking Him to agree?
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 65 is Tender Grapes (Song of Solomon 2:15).