If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. (James 1:5-8)
I used to read this verse in the first session of the class I taught at a local university and ask for an explanation to see what answers I would get. Most people thought it had to do with faith. I would point out it spoke of wisdom. The students were, most of them, studying to go into the service professions: social work, nursing, teaching. They would need wisdom. They would need the ability to discern what was good and bad for their students, clients, patients, and themselves. The verse was not an excuse to not study, because God would not magically put answers in their heads for exams. They had to get knowledge the old-fashioned way – they had to read and study. They had to take notes, mark their books, make flashcards, work with each other in study sessions. They obtained knowledge commensurate with how much they put into the topic.
God, however, offers us something better, in that He offers us wisdom as we need it if we ask Him for it. Those who ask for it should not doubt that they will get wisdom, it’s a promise He’s made, and He doesn’t break promises. (For the record, knowledge is an accumulation of facts; wisdom is what is done with them.)
It’s also a statement about doubting God. If you trust in Him, you will not be unstable. A person who can never make up their mind, always wavering back and forth between two ideas, is unstable. I see unstable every day at work. People can’t make up their minds. They can’t see their way out of a dilemma they’ve gotten themselves into. They can’t see the options. Life is going to hell in a handbasket and they have no way to stop.
I listen to them, I make sure I understand, and then I present to them several ways they can reframe, rethink, rework the problem and find a solution.
There is always a way of escape if you are tempted to sin, but what if the choice is between two equally good things? I think of a young lady, just a quality person, who came to me trying to decide which of three colleges she should attend. She’d been accepted at all three. The first college offered her a full scholarship for being on the woman’s sports team. The second offered her a free ride based on her ACT scores. The third had no sports teams, and she’d have to pay for part of it, but it had the best reputation afterward for being successful in her career choice. She liked all three of them. She had funds set up for all three of them. She could not go to three places.
We broke it down. Did her parents prefer one over the other? No, they had left it up to her.
What were the reputations of the schools? She admitted the first had a reputation of being somewhat of a partying type college. The second was a small Christian university. The third was also a Christian campus. Since she was a Christian, I suggested, the first school might not fit her worldview. She considered it, agreed, and we tossed it aside. The second two were equally good. One was out of state and she’d have to pay for room and board. One was closer, she could stay at home and save $13,000 a year in costs which would have had to have been covered by student loans. She wanted to be independent of her folks but if she went to the closer school, she’d have $52,000 in student loans at the very beginning of her career after graduation. She hadn’t thought much about that, and, realizing being debt-free was a blessing she wanted to have, she reconsidered the two offers. She went to the college where she would not be in debt; she did well and is happily in practice today. She had a decision; she broke it down and she made a wise choice for her.
In all of our decisions in life, God has a hand and a heart to help us make wise choices. It’s when we go against our worldviews, the principles we were raised with, or have learned, that we start getting into slippery times. Too many people I know can’t understand the reason for some of ‘the rules’, as they call it. They tend to complain about them and worry them over in their heads as if looking for loopholes. It’s not a good way to look at the boundaries in our lives.
Rules are like fences, keeping us sheep in; we wander around if we don’t have them, and we end up being eaten, stolen, hurt, or lost if we don’t stay within the boundary fences. Part of wisdom is to know when we’ve come to a fence and to back away. To trust in God and then ask Him in faith to help us make good choices makes for a strong person. To waver, to mumble, to pretend we don’t know what to do (when we actually do and what we are looking for is God to agree with a bad decision), that makes for confusion.
Ask God for the wisdom you need, set your mind on His wise rules, and go forward. You will find no problem being ready to walk the streets of gold when the time comes, for just as Enoch, you have walked with God.