Ask for Wisdom

Maybe you are waiting for someone to make a decision for you. You have written out the pros and cons twice, and both times they came out even.

James was writing to believers he calls "the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad," Jewish Christians living far from their homeland. He was not writing to people planning a career move. Three verses before the promise about wisdom, he says, "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations." In that verse, temptations means trials, the kind that come at you uninvited. That is the setting. The wisdom on offer is for people in the middle of something they did not want. It is offered by a God described in two exact ways: He "giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not." Liberally means freely, without holding back to see what you do with the first part. Upbraideth not means He does not scold you or bring up the last three times you asked and ignored the answer.

Now read the next three verses, 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. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." In Greek, double minded is literally "two-souled." James is not describing a person who has doubts. He is describing a person who wants God's opinion but keeps the right to overrule it, and he says plainly that such a person should not expect to receive anything.

That moves the question to where it belongs, and it may be a different question from the one you have been asking all week.

So ask yourself honestly: are you asking God what to do, or are you asking Him to agree with you? If you are ready to do what He says, you can ask with confidence, because He gives freely and He does not scold.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 65 is Tender Grapes (Song of Solomon 2:15).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna