The word “if” in verse 5 could also be translated “since.” James recognized that we are all going to walk through trials and we are all going to need the wisdom of God to be able to allow those trials to mature our faith.
And James tells us that God does not just give us wisdom but that he gives wisdom generously, he gives it in abundance. In other words, God will give it to you in a way that you will not lack in understanding how to walk through this trial in a manner that pleases God.
One of the things that Scripture tells us about the character of God is that he gives us things in abundance. Lamentations tells us that his mercies never come to an end (Lamentations 3:22-23). Romans tells us that God’s grace increases not decreases (Romans 5:20). 1 John tells us he lavishes us with his love (1 John 3:1). God is not a God who is stingy with is grace and mercy and peace and wisdom. He gives generously. There is great encouragement in those words. Because sometimes we can walk through hard stuff (or we just keep finding ourselves in difficult situations) and we might think that God is going to say, “I am done extending mercy, I am done extending grace, I am done give you my wisdom.”
We have all probably been in that place of need so we asked someone for something and they gave it and then again, we found ourselves in a place of need again and we ask that same person and they give it again to us. And then later we once again find ourselves lack in something and we think, “I can’t ask them for a third time.”
And sometimes we can have the same attitude toward God. And yet Scripture tells us to keep coming to God because he is rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4), because is his love is unconditional (Romans 5:8) and his peace is like a river (Isaiah 66:12) that just keeps flowing.
If you ask for wisdom, he will give. And he will give in abundance. That is a promise that we need to remember.
James also says that he gives generously without reproach. In other words, he will not rebuke you or condemn you for asking for help.
God does not mind prayers that begin with these words: “God, I don’t know how to do this, I don’t know how to get through this.”
That is not a prayer of weakness or spiritually immaturity. God wants us to ask him for help. God created us to be people dependent on Him. We are not self-sufficient people. The wisdom we need for trials does not come from within us. It is good for us to be people who say, ‘God, I need you.”
Sometimes shame can keep us from going to God and honestly saying, “I don’t know what you are doing in this trial and I don’t even know if you are still with me in this trial. And that is where I am at.”
Or sometimes our own pride can keep us from going before God and saying, “Help me!” Our own pride can tell us that you should be strong enough to endure this. And we can find ourselves thinking that if we admit our doubts or weaknesses before God that God will rebuke us for asking. But what James reminds us is that God does not rebuke a person for humbly coming before him and saying, “I need you and I can’t do this on my own.”
Asking for wisdom isn’t not a statement of weakness. In fact, asking God for wisdom is where we find strength. But then James says there is a way that we need to ask for wisdom.
James adds a condition to verse 5. Verse 5 says ask and God will give generously. But then James says, there is a manner, there is a heart attitude that we need to have when we ask.
You need to ask for wisdom in faith with no doubting. And James goes on to give a very visual comparison of the one who does not ask in faith.
He describes this person like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. When observe waves they go wherever the wind blows. They have no foundation of their own. They are not driven by their own desire and wisdom. They are at the mercy of the wind.
When I think about that picture that James paints, I think about the numerous movies I have seen of a boat in a storm in the middle of a lake or ocean and it is just being thrown around and there is no stability, no security. And the people on the boat can do nothing but ride out the storm hoping they survive.
Why does James use this comparison?
If you are asking God for help, but you don’t really think he can help you, you are viewing God as just one of many options meaning you are willing to consider other options. And so if that person asks God for help but then God doesn’t respond quick enough or in the way they want him to respond, then that person will then run to the next option—they will run to whoever or whatever they believe can meet their needs. And they become like a wave that is easily directed.
In the same way, one day you are putting your hope in God and then the next day you are putting your hope over here and then the next day you are putting your hope over here. And you are being driven and tossed by whatever appeals to you in the moment.
This is why James calls this person double-minded and unstable in all their ways. They do not have their hope anchored in God. That person is ready to run to, jump to, crawl to whatever they think can meet their needs. And since nothing can truly meet our needs outside of God, that person will constantly be going from one thing to the next thing to the next thing like a wave tossed by the winds.
You see, this person is not really desiring to walk through this trial in a way that please God. They just want out of the trial. They are not asking God in order for God’s will be done in their life. They just want God to fix their problems. They are not asking out of relationship. They are not asking so that they are being molded more and more into the image of Christ. They are not desiring deeper and deeper intimacy with God.
No, the double-minded person simply wants the work of God without the relationship with God. In other words, its like saying, “God, I don’t really want to know God and I am not going to trust you with my life but could you snap fingers and get me out of this jam. That would be great.”
James says that person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord because that person doesn’t really want God, they don’t want to be transformed by God. They are not willing to patiently wait on God to truly experience the work that produces steadfastness which leads to maturity (James 1:3-4).
The work God wants to accomplish in us begins when we in humility surrender ourselves to the work of God so that our hope is in Christ and Christ alone.
When James says, “ask in faith with no doubting” I think that statement can make us nervous because we can find ourselves wondering if God is not delivering us out of our trial because we do not have enough faith or maybe because are doubting. And we find ourselves in this mental loop that keeps wondering, “am I really praying in faith?” We can start to pray and then this doubt pops into our mind and then we think “Oh no! I just doubted God is not going to answer and God is not going to give me wisdom.”
And we get get paralyzed in this mental loop.
When James writes “ask with no doubting.” James is not saying that we better not have thoughts of doubt while we are praying.
This statement about asking in faith is about being devoted to God. We place our faith in who or what we are devoted to. We place our faith in what we believe will give us hope, life, and salvation. When we ask God in faith, we are coming before God and recognizing that God and God alone is our hope and our salvation.
When we come before God we can come before him with our own doubts and insecurities and fears (this is what David did – in Psalm 13 he begin his prayer with, “How long, O God, will you forget me forever”. David is bringing all of his wrestling and doubts before God. ‘God are you still there, are you going to save me, where are you in this midst of this suffering?’
God doesn’t mind if we bring out doubts and wrestling before him. In fact, God wants us to bring our wrestling and doubts before him because when we bring those before him we are recognizing that he is the one who can bring peace to our wrestling. We are saying to God, “I have questions here and I have fears here but I am bringing those things to you because in you I know there is hope and truth.” That is what it means to ask God for wisdom in faith.
This is why trials produce steadfastness (James 1:3). And why it is important for steadfastness to complete its work in us not giving up on God in the midst of the trial (James 1:4). Because it produces in us a faith that is able to stand firm and say, ‘God, I don’t know how you are going to deliver me, but I will trust in you as the deliverer.”
One of the things that trials gives us an opportunity to do is to keep coming back to God, to keep asking him for wisdom. Often, the way our faith is made known in the midst of a trial and how our faith is shown genuine in a trial: is that you keep asking.
If you have been in a trial and you are crying out to God and it doesn’t seem like your prayer is being answered in the way you hoped it would be answered. It could be that you continually coming before God is the answer. It could be that is the place that God is wanting you to be. A place where you are continually seeking him.
And what happens is when we seek him, you will find him. That is what God wants to give you in the midst of the trial. When you go through a trial, what he hopes you will have found is him. That is the wisdom we need. We need Him and him alone.
The disciple Peter makes a statement to Jesus that I think illustrates this idea of going to God in faith even when you have questions and doubts. In John 6 Jesus is teaching the crowds and he refers to himself as the bread of life. And then he makes this controversial statement “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.”
And then John 6:60 says, “On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” And John goes on to say: “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”
And so Jesus turns to the group of men known as the 12 disciples and says, ‘Do you want to leave, too?”
And listen to this response from Peter who may have also been wrestling with these words from Jesus and what does this mean and what do we do with this.
Peter says in John 6:68, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Peter may not understand everything that Jesus is teaching right now. And still may have many questions. And he may have his own doubts and wrestling in what it looks like to follow Jesus. But his devotion is firmly rooted in Jesus as the Christ. That is who he is placing his hope in. He knows that Jesus offers words of eternal life. He knows Jesus offers true wisdom. And so Peter makes this wonderful statement of faith: Where else would we go. Who else would we turn to? We know you are the Holy One of God.
I think is what it looks like in the midst of a trial and pain and suffering to ask God for wisdom by faith: “God, I know you are God. And sometimes, it feels like you are far away and sometimes it feels like you don’t hear my prayers. But that is not going to stop me from continuing to come to you and cry out to you. I am going to trust in you and you alone. Because where else can I turn to. Because I know that in you there is true wisdom and true hope and true life.”