A video link! In
case you want to see me giving this message.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gspkpfmftco2phedifd7n?oref=fre
James 1:5-8
Last week we discussed how trials and tribulations test and prove faith, making healthy things grow. It is not obvious to our human reasoning that this should be the case. We hate suffering and try to avoid stress. We prefer a life of ease. So how can we possibly accept the teaching of James and obey his instructions to rejoice when we face trials of many kinds?
James himself suggests the best answer in his next words of instruction. James says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” Wisdom enables us to take the proper view of things.
We don’t want to miss the connection James has made. He said in verse 4: “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Then in verse 5 he uses that word again, “If any of you lacks wisdom.” James means that as our faith grows to maturity in Christ through enduing trials and even rejoicing when they come, then we will gain wisdom. But if we’re having a hard time with understanding how to rejoice in suffering then you can also ask God directly for the wisdom to understand how this works.
Or perhaps you do trust in God and believe in his purposes to lead you to maturity, but there is more than one path opening ahead. Prepared as you are to persevere, you do not know which way to choose as the divinely appointed way forward. Again, you need wisdom. James says God gives generously to anyone who asks him. God does want us to know how to deal with the harder things in life. The original Greek words there say that God is the giving God. It’s one of his unchanging characteristics. God is always giving, just as much as he is always gracious. God is very generous. He specializes in giving us what we need. We can have wisdom in abundance!
This is very similar to what Jesus said in Luke 11:11-13, “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom! And the loving Father is more than willing to give you all you need! What we need most is his Spirit and his wisdom. Now let’s get into why.
I have often thought of life on earth as similar to a Marine corps boot camp. I have never been to boot camp. But I do know it is about facing tough mental problems, very difficult physical conditions, and learning to work together with other recruits. When you join the Marines, you know there is going to be boot camp, and you know it’s going to be hard. But you don’t know how hard it is until you try to get through it.
Here’s my point. In boot camp the whole obstacle course is preplanned and set out beforehand. The instructors do know exactly what you’re in for, even if you don’t. Their job is to make sure that the course, tough as it is, doesn’t kill you but builds your confidence and conditions you for victory. In the same way, we read in Ephesians 2:10, “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” I usually think of that verse’s “good works” in terms of ministry or service that I might offer to the world in the power of the Holy Spirit, things like Sunday School lessons or sermon prep or works of any kind of service that I would do for God. But it has recently occurred to me that just surviving hardship and maintaining a good attitude through it can be a good work too! And the “prepared in advance” part of that verse is what reminds me of boot camp.
God in his wisdom orchestrates our lives and circumstances with the goal of forming good character in us, the character of Christ. In fact, some have said that forming Christian character in you is the most important thing God is doing in your life. At the end of your life, the only thing that you get to take to heaven with you is your own character. What matters the most to God is not what you have done, but who you have become while you walked with him on the earth. Your most valuable asset in life, after your saving faith in Jesus Christ, is going to be your dependence upon the wisdom that comes from God so that you know the most basic reason why everything happens to you.
And here now is the most basic reason: God loves you and he is intent on helping you to become the very best version of your personality that could possibly exist. There is only one you. And God is working on making you into the best “you” you can be. That is why he has prepared in advance the works he has prepared for you. There is a plan! This is not about self-improvement. It is about trusting in God to know what he is doing. So, seek this wisdom. As James said, “You should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”
But there is a problem. It seems to me that a lot of us spend a lot of time asking God for his help and he doesn’t seem to come through very much at all. So, it doesn’t feel like he is generous. What could be the problem? James says it’s us. He’s kind of blunt about it too. He says, “When you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”
First, James is specifically talking about wisdom for living that answers the two questions, “Why is this happening?” and “What do I do now?” Many people have taken this verse out of context and assumed the generous God who answers prayer will give us anything we ask for and if we don’t doubt, then we are sure to receive it. Perhaps you have heard of the “name it and claim it” kind of teaching, or the prosperity gospel. Never forget that what James is talking about here is wisdom. God is generous with his wisdom. “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God.”
But we may still have a problem with this because we are asking God for wisdom and he just doesn’t seem to be answering. We don’t feel like we’re getting any smarter! So, what do you have to believe without doubting? First, believe this Biblical fact, the generous God does want to share his wisdom with you. The question then becomes, do you want the wisdom he is offering? That’s the great challenge, to want what God wants for us.
Perhaps God has already answered your questions but you don’t like what he said and so you doubt it came from him. You may remember that Gideon had that problem. It’s where we get the story of the fleece that was set out to ask God to confirm it was his voice. And God was gracious and confirmed his words twice. The first night Gideon asked for the fleece to be wet with due but the ground around it dry. But that could have been a fluke so, the second night Gideon asked God to do the reverse: dry fleece, wet ground. Then Gideon trusted God! He knew for sure!
But do you realize why it was so hard for Gideon to trust God before those two tests? It was because God was asking Gideon to do a very hard thing, to dare to face a strong enemy with a weak army and trust in God for the outcome. Gideon had to fight by faith. God’s wisdom message to Gideon was, “Trust me and obey me and things will go well with you.” That’s where we have a problem. When God speaks his message of wisdom, we might not like what he says. He asks us to trust him and obey him even when we just can’t see how God’s idea would ever really work.
That’s where the double mindedness come in. We say we want God’s wisdom, but what we really want is for him to affirm our own wisdom. “Faith is our absolute confidence that God will give what we ask. Doubting is our own inner uncertainty about whether we really want him to give what he offers.”[i] We would rather that God would employ his great wisdom to do things the way we want him to. We end up looking at two alternatives, God’s way, and our own way. And we want them both.
Admittedly, this is probably the hardest thing a human ever has to do. We can even see Jesus working through this issue in the Garden of Gethsemane where he prayed so earnestly that his sweat came out like drops of blood. He literally prayed with blood, sweat and tears. In the end, he took the hardest path. He said, “Not my will, but yours be done.” And the same for us, what God wants from us is our total allegiance to him and to his ways.
If that thought troubles you, perhaps the trouble is that you really don’t trust God enough. We each have to decide who is going to be the real master of our lives. Is it really going to be God? Or do we keep hanging on to our own preferences and try to have both. That’s a double minded person.
James says that such a person, plagued by doubts, will end up being tossed back and forth like a wave on a raging sea. The water has no mind of its own. It only moves when the wind blows, first this way, then, that. All is in flux and motion. And James says, “the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.” If you doubt whether you really trust God, that is going to seriously hinder your prayer life.
It’s a similar principle to what we find in the Lord’s prayer and Jesus teaching about forgiveness. Those who forgive can confidently ask for forgiveness. But if you refuse to forgive, how can you expect to be forgiven? And this one too: Remember what happens in the parable of the unmerciful servant? The mercy he had initially been granted by the Lord was revoked because the servant did not in turn show mercy to his fellow servant. It is the same in this case, answers to prayer come to those who really want what God is offering.
Jesus has said, “You cannot serve two masters.” He was not just talking about the divided interest between God and money. It counts for any two masters, such as God and self. And that is what a double minded person is trying to do. He or she is trying to have God’s will, or says he does, but really wants his own will to prevail.
This is more easily illustrated when we think of that verse in Psalm 37:4, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” It’s easy to come up with the desires of our hearts, more money, bigger house, better job, etc. or anything else like that. And then we think, “Well, in order to get those things, the desires of my heart, God’s word says that I should take delight in the Lord! What a great strategy!” But it will fail. Because the real meaning of desires of your heart is exactly that which you take delight in.
If the desire of your heart is for more money, then you take delight in wealth, not God. You would just be paying lip service to God, trying to give him what you think he wants so that you might get what you really want! But if you truly take delight in God, that means he IS the desire of your heart and then the giving God will surely give you more of himself. But if you don’t really desire all that God has to offer it must mean that you don’t really trust him to give you what is good for you. That would mean you are insecure in your faith and if you are not secure in God then you are not secure at all. That’s why James adds in that the double minded person is unstable in all he does.
Do we see evidence of this in the world around us? “One of the most frightening features of the present day is the widespread dependence on sedatives to cope with situations which our grandparents would not have seen as a problem—ordinary factors like bringing up children, facing a tomorrow which is essentially the same as today, [or dealing with changes,] problems of feeling trapped or bored, problems of having time and not knowing how to fill it. [And so, people think they need a drink, or a sedative or any of a number of ways to cope with stress except turn to God.] The cynic would say that the problem of whether there is life after death has been replaced by the problem of whether there is any life before death!”[ii] Is there a life worth living today?
The real problem is, how do we get to the place where we really do trust God and accept the wisdom of his ways? How can we ever learn to pray as Jesus prayed? “Truly, not my will but yours be done, in my life.” God himself has provided a most assured remedy. It is the gospel by which we see Christ on the cross demonstrating for us the great love that God has for us.
Think of this, when Jesus died on the cross, it was not done so that God would change his mind about man, but so that man would change his mind about God! God’s mind did not have to change. He has never wavered in his great, great love for his entire creation. That is why Jesus came to earth for our sake. The truth of the matter is, we selfish humans needed this demonstration, so that we would repent and change our minds about God. Christ on the cross makes it possible for us to put away all idolatrous and man-made ideas about God and stop believing that he’s always out to get us or that he is some kind of tyrannical rule maker, or that he could be won over to do what we want if we make a worthy sacrifice or say and do just the right things. God is none of those things. God is pure, unselfish, ever giving love! Like the sun never stops shining, God never stops giving!
God is not out to spoil our fun by calling everything we like a sin. God is out to save us from the destructive forces in the sins that satan so easily tempts us with. God is the good guy! Satan has always been the one to try to get you to think bad things about the God who loves us all so much that he would die for us on a cross. God gave his great life for us; His immense, infinite life. He loves us that much! Once we see that, how could we not trust him to be looking out for our best interests so that we can trust his wisdom?
Proverbs 3:5-6 in the Living Bible puts it well, “If you want favor with both God and man, and a reputation for good judgment and common sense, then trust the Lord completely; don’t ever trust yourself. In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success.”
So, let me turn James’ very blunt teaching around to the positive view. “If you ask God for wisdom, he loves that and gives generously to all without finding fault. Believe that with all your heart and trust in what he says to you and you will live a rock-solid life that can withstand any storm! Not a trouble-free life, but a durable life. Yes sir, a whole hearted, single minded devotion to God who loves you with all his heart, as shown in Christ on the cross, is the best way to blessing and true happiness! That when you get a real life to live and live it abundantly!”
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gspkpfmftco2phedifd7n?oref=fre
James 1:5-8
Last week we discussed how trials and tribulations test and prove faith, making healthy things grow. It is not obvious to our human reasoning that this should be the case. We hate suffering and try to avoid stress. We prefer a life of ease. So how can we possibly accept the teaching of James and obey his instructions to rejoice when we face trials of many kinds?
James himself suggests the best answer in his next words of instruction. James says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” Wisdom enables us to take the proper view of things.
We don’t want to miss the connection James has made. He said in verse 4: “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Then in verse 5 he uses that word again, “If any of you lacks wisdom.” James means that as our faith grows to maturity in Christ through enduing trials and even rejoicing when they come, then we will gain wisdom. But if we’re having a hard time with understanding how to rejoice in suffering then you can also ask God directly for the wisdom to understand how this works.
Or perhaps you do trust in God and believe in his purposes to lead you to maturity, but there is more than one path opening ahead. Prepared as you are to persevere, you do not know which way to choose as the divinely appointed way forward. Again, you need wisdom. James says God gives generously to anyone who asks him. God does want us to know how to deal with the harder things in life. The original Greek words there say that God is the giving God. It’s one of his unchanging characteristics. God is always giving, just as much as he is always gracious. God is very generous. He specializes in giving us what we need. We can have wisdom in abundance!
This is very similar to what Jesus said in Luke 11:11-13, “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom! And the loving Father is more than willing to give you all you need! What we need most is his Spirit and his wisdom. Now let’s get into why.
I have often thought of life on earth as similar to a Marine corps boot camp. I have never been to boot camp. But I do know it is about facing tough mental problems, very difficult physical conditions, and learning to work together with other recruits. When you join the Marines, you know there is going to be boot camp, and you know it’s going to be hard. But you don’t know how hard it is until you try to get through it.
Here’s my point. In boot camp the whole obstacle course is preplanned and set out beforehand. The instructors do know exactly what you’re in for, even if you don’t. Their job is to make sure that the course, tough as it is, doesn’t kill you but builds your confidence and conditions you for victory. In the same way, we read in Ephesians 2:10, “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” I usually think of that verse’s “good works” in terms of ministry or service that I might offer to the world in the power of the Holy Spirit, things like Sunday School lessons or sermon prep or works of any kind of service that I would do for God. But it has recently occurred to me that just surviving hardship and maintaining a good attitude through it can be a good work too! And the “prepared in advance” part of that verse is what reminds me of boot camp.
God in his wisdom orchestrates our lives and circumstances with the goal of forming good character in us, the character of Christ. In fact, some have said that forming Christian character in you is the most important thing God is doing in your life. At the end of your life, the only thing that you get to take to heaven with you is your own character. What matters the most to God is not what you have done, but who you have become while you walked with him on the earth. Your most valuable asset in life, after your saving faith in Jesus Christ, is going to be your dependence upon the wisdom that comes from God so that you know the most basic reason why everything happens to you.
And here now is the most basic reason: God loves you and he is intent on helping you to become the very best version of your personality that could possibly exist. There is only one you. And God is working on making you into the best “you” you can be. That is why he has prepared in advance the works he has prepared for you. There is a plan! This is not about self-improvement. It is about trusting in God to know what he is doing. So, seek this wisdom. As James said, “You should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”
But there is a problem. It seems to me that a lot of us spend a lot of time asking God for his help and he doesn’t seem to come through very much at all. So, it doesn’t feel like he is generous. What could be the problem? James says it’s us. He’s kind of blunt about it too. He says, “When you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”
First, James is specifically talking about wisdom for living that answers the two questions, “Why is this happening?” and “What do I do now?” Many people have taken this verse out of context and assumed the generous God who answers prayer will give us anything we ask for and if we don’t doubt, then we are sure to receive it. Perhaps you have heard of the “name it and claim it” kind of teaching, or the prosperity gospel. Never forget that what James is talking about here is wisdom. God is generous with his wisdom. “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God.”
But we may still have a problem with this because we are asking God for wisdom and he just doesn’t seem to be answering. We don’t feel like we’re getting any smarter! So, what do you have to believe without doubting? First, believe this Biblical fact, the generous God does want to share his wisdom with you. The question then becomes, do you want the wisdom he is offering? That’s the great challenge, to want what God wants for us.
Perhaps God has already answered your questions but you don’t like what he said and so you doubt it came from him. You may remember that Gideon had that problem. It’s where we get the story of the fleece that was set out to ask God to confirm it was his voice. And God was gracious and confirmed his words twice. The first night Gideon asked for the fleece to be wet with due but the ground around it dry. But that could have been a fluke so, the second night Gideon asked God to do the reverse: dry fleece, wet ground. Then Gideon trusted God! He knew for sure!
But do you realize why it was so hard for Gideon to trust God before those two tests? It was because God was asking Gideon to do a very hard thing, to dare to face a strong enemy with a weak army and trust in God for the outcome. Gideon had to fight by faith. God’s wisdom message to Gideon was, “Trust me and obey me and things will go well with you.” That’s where we have a problem. When God speaks his message of wisdom, we might not like what he says. He asks us to trust him and obey him even when we just can’t see how God’s idea would ever really work.
That’s where the double mindedness come in. We say we want God’s wisdom, but what we really want is for him to affirm our own wisdom. “Faith is our absolute confidence that God will give what we ask. Doubting is our own inner uncertainty about whether we really want him to give what he offers.”[i] We would rather that God would employ his great wisdom to do things the way we want him to. We end up looking at two alternatives, God’s way, and our own way. And we want them both.
Admittedly, this is probably the hardest thing a human ever has to do. We can even see Jesus working through this issue in the Garden of Gethsemane where he prayed so earnestly that his sweat came out like drops of blood. He literally prayed with blood, sweat and tears. In the end, he took the hardest path. He said, “Not my will, but yours be done.” And the same for us, what God wants from us is our total allegiance to him and to his ways.
If that thought troubles you, perhaps the trouble is that you really don’t trust God enough. We each have to decide who is going to be the real master of our lives. Is it really going to be God? Or do we keep hanging on to our own preferences and try to have both. That’s a double minded person.
James says that such a person, plagued by doubts, will end up being tossed back and forth like a wave on a raging sea. The water has no mind of its own. It only moves when the wind blows, first this way, then, that. All is in flux and motion. And James says, “the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.” If you doubt whether you really trust God, that is going to seriously hinder your prayer life.
It’s a similar principle to what we find in the Lord’s prayer and Jesus teaching about forgiveness. Those who forgive can confidently ask for forgiveness. But if you refuse to forgive, how can you expect to be forgiven? And this one too: Remember what happens in the parable of the unmerciful servant? The mercy he had initially been granted by the Lord was revoked because the servant did not in turn show mercy to his fellow servant. It is the same in this case, answers to prayer come to those who really want what God is offering.
Jesus has said, “You cannot serve two masters.” He was not just talking about the divided interest between God and money. It counts for any two masters, such as God and self. And that is what a double minded person is trying to do. He or she is trying to have God’s will, or says he does, but really wants his own will to prevail.
This is more easily illustrated when we think of that verse in Psalm 37:4, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” It’s easy to come up with the desires of our hearts, more money, bigger house, better job, etc. or anything else like that. And then we think, “Well, in order to get those things, the desires of my heart, God’s word says that I should take delight in the Lord! What a great strategy!” But it will fail. Because the real meaning of desires of your heart is exactly that which you take delight in.
If the desire of your heart is for more money, then you take delight in wealth, not God. You would just be paying lip service to God, trying to give him what you think he wants so that you might get what you really want! But if you truly take delight in God, that means he IS the desire of your heart and then the giving God will surely give you more of himself. But if you don’t really desire all that God has to offer it must mean that you don’t really trust him to give you what is good for you. That would mean you are insecure in your faith and if you are not secure in God then you are not secure at all. That’s why James adds in that the double minded person is unstable in all he does.
Do we see evidence of this in the world around us? “One of the most frightening features of the present day is the widespread dependence on sedatives to cope with situations which our grandparents would not have seen as a problem—ordinary factors like bringing up children, facing a tomorrow which is essentially the same as today, [or dealing with changes,] problems of feeling trapped or bored, problems of having time and not knowing how to fill it. [And so, people think they need a drink, or a sedative or any of a number of ways to cope with stress except turn to God.] The cynic would say that the problem of whether there is life after death has been replaced by the problem of whether there is any life before death!”[ii] Is there a life worth living today?
The real problem is, how do we get to the place where we really do trust God and accept the wisdom of his ways? How can we ever learn to pray as Jesus prayed? “Truly, not my will but yours be done, in my life.” God himself has provided a most assured remedy. It is the gospel by which we see Christ on the cross demonstrating for us the great love that God has for us.
Think of this, when Jesus died on the cross, it was not done so that God would change his mind about man, but so that man would change his mind about God! God’s mind did not have to change. He has never wavered in his great, great love for his entire creation. That is why Jesus came to earth for our sake. The truth of the matter is, we selfish humans needed this demonstration, so that we would repent and change our minds about God. Christ on the cross makes it possible for us to put away all idolatrous and man-made ideas about God and stop believing that he’s always out to get us or that he is some kind of tyrannical rule maker, or that he could be won over to do what we want if we make a worthy sacrifice or say and do just the right things. God is none of those things. God is pure, unselfish, ever giving love! Like the sun never stops shining, God never stops giving!
God is not out to spoil our fun by calling everything we like a sin. God is out to save us from the destructive forces in the sins that satan so easily tempts us with. God is the good guy! Satan has always been the one to try to get you to think bad things about the God who loves us all so much that he would die for us on a cross. God gave his great life for us; His immense, infinite life. He loves us that much! Once we see that, how could we not trust him to be looking out for our best interests so that we can trust his wisdom?
Proverbs 3:5-6 in the Living Bible puts it well, “If you want favor with both God and man, and a reputation for good judgment and common sense, then trust the Lord completely; don’t ever trust yourself. In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success.”
So, let me turn James’ very blunt teaching around to the positive view. “If you ask God for wisdom, he loves that and gives generously to all without finding fault. Believe that with all your heart and trust in what he says to you and you will live a rock-solid life that can withstand any storm! Not a trouble-free life, but a durable life. Yes sir, a whole hearted, single minded devotion to God who loves you with all his heart, as shown in Christ on the cross, is the best way to blessing and true happiness! That when you get a real life to live and live it abundantly!”
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