Persevering Faith Sees the Need for Wisdom
And Believes God Will Give It
James 1:5-8
Preached by L Going at WACC – November 5, 2000
Testing of our faith produces perseverance. The ability to carry on in the midst of opposition or difficulty comes from God because as you respond to the test by fleeing to God, he gives you the grace and strength to endure. The result of endurance is growth and maturity. Such maturity is really from seasoned experience in spiritual matters. Maturity gives you insight into realty, into the things of God. Maybe the first indication of budding spiritual maturity is the honest recognition of how little you know; or how uncertain you are about how to deal with people, or circumstances. Remember the old proverb: fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
A paradox of sorts is presented to us in verses four and five. Perseverance has a work to do. That work is to bring you to spiritual maturity. Such maturity means that you are complete, not lacking anything. So now you are all set. Yet James in verse five adds a but...but if any one of you lacks wisdom. It is as though James is saying the evidence that you are mature and lack nothing is seen in the fact that you recognize that you lack wisdom. This is where lack is the evidence of fullness. The Scripture does this a lot. He who seeks to save his life will lose it.
If you lose your life for the sake of the Gospel you will save it. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Blessed are the poor...etc.
The recognition that you lack wisdom is a sign or indicator of budding maturity. It is a proof, if you will, of the grace of persevering faith. So do you see your need for wisdom? James will define what wisdom is in chapter three of this letter. Suffice it to say that wisdom is much more than knowledge.
Wisdom is the correct use of knowledge but not just any knowledge rather it is the knowledge of God through the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit must open the knowledge of God that is revealed to us in the Scriptures to our hearts and minds. But such knowledge, even when illuminated by the Holy Spirit needs to be applied in our lives, in all our ways i.e. in our attitudes, motives, responses, relationships etc.
I might add, that it is my sense, from this text that wisdom is not deposited once and for all in your heart and head, but comes daily, even moment by moment from God. Wisdom is God-given, but is given through your relationship with Him. He doesn't give wisdom via long distance calling, but by direct dealing with you and you with him. I say this because of the emphasis that James places on prayer as the God appointed means for obtaining wisdom. The verb ask, "let him ask God," is in the present tense and this suggests a certain regularity to the asking...a continual asking, a persistent asking. The picture is one of intimate communion, which is regular and constant.
This is really what it means to ask in faith. Faith believes the Scriptures, concerning God's character and His stated promises. Faith draws near, certain of what God has promised and convinced of his goodness and willingness to give to me what he says he will. To pray in faith is not simply giving bare intellectual assent. To pray in faith is to go to your heavenly Father through the person and ministry of Jesus Christ, yearning for intimacy and communion with Him, longing for the triumph of His kingdom and desiring the promotion of His agenda. Asking God for what you need is not bringing to him a shopping list, but is the cry of a child-like heart to a caring father who delights in giving to his children.
It is against this backdrop that you can begin to understand what James means by doubt and how awful it is to doubt God. We can trace the origin of doubt back to the heart. Doubt comes from the heart. MAR 11:23 "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him." In other words you can say anything in prayer, but what is really the stance of your heart. Do you really trust God and affirm his goodness? To go to God out of need but to doubt that he will keep his promise, is likened to a wave that is tossed by the wind and surf. That is the simile that James uses in verse 6. Such a person is said to be unstable in all his ways-verse 8. But the real diagnosis of the problem of doubt is that it is the symptom of a double-minded heart. Doubt and instability are twin symptoms of a double-minded heart.
James will latter call those who have been ambitious and envious and are in conflict with others, to purify their double-minded hearts. (James 4:8). The need for a clean heart is recognized in the Scriptures: To purify the heart is what is meant when we are called to circumcise our hearts. It is what David prays for when in Psalm 51:10 he asks God to create within me a pure heart. Again the same idea is found in Psalm 86:11 when David prays, "Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name." It is what God promises to do for us in Ezekiel 11:19-20.
EZE 11:19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. EZE 11:20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. EZE 11:21 But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and detestable idols, I will bring down on their own heads what they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord."
To be double-minded, is to have a divided heart. This is a heart that is not wholly devoted to God. An undivided heart is a sign of functional idolatry. The double minded man, is both drawn to God out of a sense of need and desperation, but at the same time doubts that God can or will help him. The double-minded person feels that he is really on his own. It is all up to him. That is why with such a person a life of ambition, envy and relational conflict results because they really believe that in the final analysis it is all up to them. To have a heart full of faith, or to put it another way, to have a circumcised heart, on the other hand is not only trust in God, but is also a wholehearted commitment to his way...to his agenda. (Deut 30:6) It is not just enough to pray to God, you must pray with pure motives. (James 4:3).
To doubt is really to call into question the truthfulness of God, the character of God, the reliability of God, the power of God. That very fact shows a spirit of unbelief and disloyalty... it results in a life of instability, turmoil and conflict.
When such a person prays to God, he gets exactly what he expected...NOTHING!
We need to be careful here lest we over-interpret this text and put the weight of discouragement on any that are weak in their faith. The double-minded person is really a person with two personalities-two souls. When it seems that spiritual matters suit him then he will give his soul to pursue religion. Yet he may just as soon turn from the Lord and assert his self-sufficiency and independence. For a while he moves toward the things of God yet like a wave tossed by the sea he then moves in the opposite direction having nothing to do with the Lord, the Word, the Church or spiritual matters in general. This is not the same as a genuine believer who wrestles with doubt. We all struggle from time to time with doubt and perplexity.
For example the father of the epileptic asks Jesus if he can to help his child, Jesus said to him "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." Then he responded "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief." Jesus heard his prayer of faith and healed his son. Yet the man struggled with his weak faith and asked the Lord for help. His faith was not strong. He had doubt yet he took what weak faith he had and fought against his doubt and the Lord answered him.
In the heart or soul of a true believer faith is the predominate principle. Yet that faith may be weak. However to pray in faith for wisdom is to pray against your doubts. To wrestle with the residue of unbelief just like this father did. Weak faith enables you to see through the fog of doubt that the Lord who promises is both willing and able to do what he promises. Here he promises you wisdom in the midst of trial. He will give it to you. Such wisdom will help you navigate through the trials in such a way as to benefit from them so that your faith increases and God is increasingly glorified.
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Sermon Series on The Epistle of James
"A Letter to God's Pilgrim People about Practical Issues of Faith"