Asking God For Wisdom

Transcript

GR 1641
05/20/2012
Asking God For Wisdom
James 1:5-8
Gil Rugh

We are going to the book of James in your Bibles. The little of the epistle of James in the very back of the New Testament, almost to the book of Revelation. James is writing to Jewish believers who were scattered outside the land of Israel. James has a firmness about him. We noted that there are 108 verses in this rather short letter and there are 54 commands given. On an average of every other verse is given something of a command. Something they must do. James has a concern of the spiritual condition of those he is writing to. They profess to be believers of Christ and he deals with them as such. There is a constant warning that if they have true saving faith, their lives will be changed, transformed and they will be living in conformity with the word of God. We get confused, you cannot be saved by works. But when you are truly saved by God’s power, your life changes. So the things you do now are in conformity with what God has said.

There is a danger for the Jews. Israel faced it in the Old Testament, they had the Law. And as general conformity of the Law, they thought they were saved and everything was fine. We are Jews! And even if we don’t keep the Law very well, we are assured of salvation by the fact that we are Jews. The Jews come to understand that conformity to the Law; some of them were very strict as Paul was before his conversion as a Pharisee. A danger that they failed to appreciate. Being free from the Mosaic law doesn’t mean to you are free from the requirement to live an obedient life to what God commands. So keep that perspective.

There is also the danger that some of these Jews would get caught up in a new movement, the proclamation that the Messiah has come and died. They go through the motions of professing faith in him, joining other Jews who have come to be believers in the church but they have never really trusted Christ for Salvation.

Back up just before James, there is the letter of Hebrews; go back to Hebrews 2 writing to the same kind of audience, Jewish believers, outside of the land of Israel, but Jewish believers. But through the letter to Hebrews, remember there are five clear warning passages. These passages, even these letters are addressed to believers, believing Jews, warns them about the danger of stopping short of true saving death in the Messiah of Israel. Failure to understand his death and resurrection as the payment in full for the penalty of sin and trusting him. For example, in Hebrews 2:1, “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” Picture in those days of a sailing ship that would drift by the safe harbor, carried out to the waters and suffer destruction. Hebrews 2:2-3, “For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” So that warning that they need to be sure that truly trusted in Christ.

Turn over to Chapter 3 of Hebrews. Hebrews 3:6, but “Christ was faithful as a Son over His house w3hose house we are,” (note this) “if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” Saving faith is enduring faith. It is not just going through the emotion at a point in time and saying, “Oh now I’m saved, I am glad I got that done.” We are saved by faith and that is the beginning of a life of faith. In Hebrews 3:12, 14, “Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.” These kind of concerns are coming out in James letter; we will come out more as we read through the letter.

Down in Hebrews 3:18-19, “And to whom did He swear that they should not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.” The danger of stopping short of saving faith in Christ. In Hebrews 5:9, “And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.”

And one other, jump over to Hebrews 10:38-39, “But my righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him, But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.” This concern that some of these Jews could get caught up in a popular movement and profess faith in Christ but never really experienced his salvation. It was a superficial getting carried along.

Come over to James again. James started out by talking about trials, the pressures of trials and that believers can count trials as Joy. That was the content of Hebrews 10 and those who profess faith in Christ have endured much suffering and the loss of possessions and so on. That they count it joy. So we are to count it joy, the reason being that we know that God is at work in the trials that come into our lives to mold us and to shape us and to bring us to more maturity, greater perfection and completion in Christ. When we place our faith in Christ, we are washed clean from the defilement of sin, whiter than snow. We are born into God’s family. But that is not the end of God’s work in our lives. Now it is a process of developing us and maturing us and preparing us for the glory of his presence. The trials are a part of that.

So verse 4 told them they must “let endurance have it’s perfect result. So that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.” Verse 5 picks up with “But if any of you lacks wisdom.” And the way that is expressed “If any of you lacks wisdom,” implies that we all do. If any of you lack wisdom and you do, here’s how you get it. None of us has the full wisdom. We talked about this, when we talked about trials. What is the purpose of this trial, I don’t see any purpose in it. I don’t see any good that comes out of it. I don’t understand why God is doing this or things like that. If any of you lacks wisdom and that word lacks picks up from the end of verse 4. God’s intention that we be lacking in nothing. But if any of you are lacking in wisdom.

So it is not totally different from what he is talking about. The wisdom to deal with the trials properly. Wouldn’t just have to be limited to that but that’s the context that he has been talking about. The trials they are going through and to handle them in a way that I will grow, I will mature, I will benefit from it for the fullest of God’s intention for me. I may not understand everything about it, like Job didn’t while he was going through it. The responsibility is to trust God during that time. Even though I don’t understand all about it, I can get wisdom from him how to handle it, how to go on.

So that is where he is going, “if any of you lacks wisdom;” the wisdom to take the truth of God, the truth he just talked about. In “letting endurance have it’s perfect result; that you may be perfect and lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom,” how to apply that. In your situation, go to God. “Let him ask of God.” That is another command. Some of these that we translate let him do this are really given in a Greek and imperative form. This is a form of a command. This present imperative. He must be asking God, the pattern of our life. For the wisdom to handle what God is doing in my life. The wisdom to properly apply the word of God into the things that come into my life. And they are magnified when there are trials in our life and there are difficulties.

Remember there are difficulties of all kinds, multi-faceted, multi-colored difficulties. Because they come in a variety of ways. If you are lacking wisdom, you must ask of God. All wisdom centers in God. We talked about this recently. Come back to the book of Proverbs. Simple truths that if we are not careful, we go by and we begin to get confused and mired down and we don’t understand what is wrong. Sometimes, the problem is very simple, we just have to take the simple truth of God and respond to it. Do what He says. You lack wisdom, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know how to handle this, I don’t know what the next step ought to be. Go and talk to God about it. You must be asking God for wisdom. We are going to Proverbs 9:1. The book of Proverbs, much of it about wisdom and those opening chapters of Proverbs particularly emphasis wisdom, wisdom often personified. “Wisdom has built her house, She has hewn out her seven pillars;” and so on. Come down to Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Now this is where we start when we talk about wisdom that we’ve talked about connected to other studies. We start out with the knowledge of God. Without a true knowledge of a living God that we enter into with the salvation he has provided for us in Christ, we are adrift. There is no anchor for life. We are just being blown here and blown there. Picking up what we are to do by whatever is in the air. Whatever public opinion says, whatever someone says. We’ll try this, we’ll do that.

So “the fear I of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” We are talking about believers here truly knowing God enables us to be prepared for life. This is not just to prepare us for eternity but it prepares us for life. That is what the book of Proverbs is telling us about, practical matters in conducting ourselves in life. You start out with the true knowledge of the Lord as the one who is the source of wisdom. Come back to Proverb 2, Chapter 1:7 says the same thing we just read in Proverbs 9. But in Proverbs 2:6-12, “For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, Guarding the paths of justice, And He preserves the way of His godly ones. Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity and every good course. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; Discretion will guard you, understanding will watch over you, to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things;” and so on. So you see, it is from the Lord that comes wisdom and this wisdom is provided for the upright. For those who belongs to him. That enables you to sort things out, to be discerning, that guards you and protects you.

So it is a matter of coming to the Lord. What a change in life the Lord makes. We are not only being prepared for eternal glory, we are prepared for life today by the work of God in our lives. And now the truth of his Word and sometimes we need the wisdom of how do I respond biblically in this situation? How do I handle this? Because what does it do? It reminds me that the Lord is my resource. I don’t want to get into the trap of the world. You can do it; you work it out. The pride of man, but I’m coming to the Lord seeking the wisdom that he gives. I’m acknowledging my dependence on him, I’m acknowledging my trust in him. Like a child coming to his father, I don’t know what to do here. How do I handle this? Well often the parent can’t protect the child from everything but he can give him the mature advice to handle in this way.

The Lord gives the wisdom, opens our eyes to the truth of the Word in a particular area. Now I see here, times of difficulty which I have shared with you, I just go in and close the door of my room. Lord, I just need Your wisdom. I just start reading His Word. One thing it reminds me, Lord I need from You, I need You to quiet my heart and mind to give me the wisdom to think this through properly. What better thing to do than to come to the Word, where He has revealed Himself, His mind, His will. Sometimes we complicate it because we are so busy running here and there to do this and that to solve a problem or deal with an issue. Sometimes the best thing to do is just stop and get apart with the Lord. Open His Word and just let the words speak to me, calm my heart and mind, clear my thinking. Lord give me Your wisdom, give me understanding. I don’t need to have all the answers; I just need to know the next step from You on how to deal with this. So we come to the Lord for that.

Come back to James 1. There are tremendous promises here, given as a command, but what a privilege to be commanded to ask of God. You mean I could do that? Well can’t we? Of course we can. I am delighted that under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, James is moved to command me to be doing this present tense as my continual practice. If any of you lacks wisdom, you must ask God. Where better to go for wisdom than to God. Well what is God’s response going to be? He is the God who gives to all generously and without reproach. And it will be given to him; he is a giving God.

This is going to be emphasized a little bit later in this chapter where “every good gift and every act of giving comes down from the Father of lights with Who there is no variation or shadow cause by turning.” This is the God who is our Father, this is the God we come to and He gives generously, no reproach. Not a matter of what are you doing here? You should know this without having to come to me. No, that is not the hand of God here. I’ve come to you Lord and I’m looking to you for the wisdom. Now with this go to the rest of the Word. You know if I’ve been ignoring the Word, ignoring the opportunity to be taught the Word, ignoring the opportunities, reading the Word, then I come and say to God now answer it as though He is going to answer without me reading what He says. You know if you come to your human father and say I need to know what to do here, but you’ve ignored everything he said, of course you are in confusion.

So it is not just a matter, well this is a short cut so I don’t have to be in the Word and filling my heart and mind with the Word. That is, if I can say it this way, a given. That we are God’s people, we are a people of his Word, but now we need the wisdom of how to apply the Word and have it direct our lives in these situations. You must come to God and be asking Him to give the wisdom needed generously, where there is no reproach. You don’t need to be afraid that God is going to say, “you know you were here a dozen times yesterday and here you are back again.” There is no reproach. I can come continually. That is why the present tense. You must be asking continually of Him. He gives to all generously without reproach. And it will be given by Him. The wisdom we seek will be ours.

James drawing from some of Christ’s earthly instruction. Even though he wasn’t a believer during Christ’s earthly ministry, this half brother of Christ has absorbed much of what Christ taught during his earthly ministry. Come back to Matthew 7:7-11, [Jesus instruction here] “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find;” [we are on the Sermon on the Mount, remember], “knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened. Or what man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”

That is what we have is God’s assurance. We come in faith trusting him and what we seek from him, he provides. Now it is not just a blanket statement that anyone, we started out with the Sermon on the Mount on the Beatitudes and so on, these are people who are trusting him. It doesn’t mean that everyone who ignores him that has never submitted himself to the truth of the Word and the salvation that is provided can come at any time and just tell God what he wants and he gets it. We are talking about those who belong to God. His children come to Him as their heavenly Father. He gives to them. He is addressing them at the end of verse 11, “your Father who is in heaven will give this.” So you have to be born into God’s family to have him be our Father. And so speaking to us as his children and the wonderful privileges that are bestowed upon us. A proper view of God’s character, why would I hesitate to come to Him. Do I have a sufficient view of Him?

Come back to James. Do I really believe He is the good God who delights in giving me good things? He delights for me to come and ask Him. Because I am acknowledging my dependence upon Him. I am acknowledging that He is the God who can give me everything necessary to live pleasing to Him. “So if any of you lacks wisdom, you must be asking of God who gives to all generously and without reproach.” It will be given him. How do we ask? Some clarification here. Another command, but he must ask in faith. There must be a willingness to trust God, believe God. My trust is in Him, my trust is that He will do as He has promised. You must ask in faith.

The negative side of that “without any doubting.” There cannot be any wavering between two opinions. The word translated doubting here. There is that idea of a division between two opinions. Without any doubting, wavering between two opinions. In the Old Testament we have that how long you halt between two opinions. We don’t come as God is one of my options. I am not sure that I’ll get what I am asking, what I need from Him. So I’ve also maybe I’ll have to be working on something here as well. No I cannot come to God that way. That is not coming in faith. That is putting God to the test. Because I have a couple of options here. One of them is God, I’m going to ask God if He isn’t going to be working Plan B. Then I’m not coming in faith. I’m coming testing God. Seeing if He will come through or if I have to use another plan here. So when He says, you must ask in faith without any doubting, any division of mind over this. This is the way Abraham, the father of the faithful lived his light.

Come back to Romans 4:19-20, “And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God.” This is a part of our giving glory to God, we trust Him. The more fully we trust Him, the more He is honored.

But here is a situation which is overwhelming. God is promising a child to Abraham and Sarah, two people who are going to be 100 years old, 90 years old and they are going to have a child. He didn’t waver in unbelief. It doesn’t mean that Abraham never had times where his faith wasn’t weaker or stronger. But the pattern here in this overwhelming situation here was faith. That is the characteristic of a child of God, that he trusts God. I mean if I can’t trust God with the daily situations of my life and the pressures and trials that come, how would I ever trust him with my eternal destiny. I mean I trust him with an eternal heaven and an eternal hell but the things of everyday life I don’t trust him. This is where James is going to be raising issues, that he is concerned these readers be careful that they truly have trusted Him. Because if I am unwilling to trust Him in these areas, maybe reflects the fact I am without faith. There is the problem. You don’t live a life of faith, because you have never had saving faith. That is why when we get to chapter 2, he will develop this more fully and talking about a dead faith which really accomplishes nothing.

Come back to James and then we are going to jump to the New Testament. He must ask in faith without doubting and here is the characteristic of one who is divided in his thinking over this. Partially wanting to trust God, but not trusting God. The point is you either trust him or you don’t. Because if you are divided on it, you are really not trusting Him. Again you are back to giving Him a chance to prove Himself but I don’t really trust Him. I can’t just partially trust Him. Because if I’ve provided another out, I don’t really trust Him. But if He comes through that will be fine, but if He doesn’t, here is my plan. That is not trust. That is not faith.

And so the characteristic of the one who is doubting divided like that, he is “like the surf at the sea tossed and driven by the wind.” James is fond of these nature analogies in his letter. Here is one of them. It’s like the waves of the sea, they are driven and tossed by the wind, back and forth, the turmoil there is. Come back to Isaiah 57, a verse many of you could quote, but go ahead and turn to. Isaiah uses this analogy, James being a Jew writing to Jews just like many of you are familiar with this verse, these Jews would be familiar with this verse. What does it say? Isaiah 57:20-21, “But the wicked are like the the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, And its waters toss up refuse and mud. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.” This is an analogy of the wicked, they are like the tossing sea, they are tossed here and there and their instability and that, they are just turning up other sin.

So a warning here when you come back to James 1. “The one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.” That is more like the wicked that Isaiah talked about. It is a danger here, because now we are talking about people who are not going to God for wisdom because they don’t trust Him in these situations. You are raising the issue of saving faith and James is going to develop this and put the pressure on even further. James 1:7, “For let not that man” the doubter, the one driven about with the instability of life, tossed here and there, this situation blown them over there, this one has blown them over there, life is just unsettled for them, that man who doesn’t come in faith to God but is divided in his mind on whether he can really trust God here. “That man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord.” You know what James does is disassociate himself from this person. He didn’t just say, brother we can’t expect anything from the Lord if we are like this. No, it is that man that can’t expect anything from the Lord. So he is disassociating himself from the doubting man, he is not including himself him by saying we all have doubts, we all have uncertainty, we all know what it is like to wonder. No, the man who doubts, not asking in faith, tossed about by the waves, the world, that man ought not to expect anything from the Lord. It has moved along here that are we really aren’t dealing with a child of God. If you can’t trust the Lord, you need to back up, you need to go in that room that I talked about, open the Word before the Lord and say Lord, I need to examine my heart before you.

I need to consider carefully whether I really come to recognize who You are, how sinful I am, and the wonder of the Savior that You have provided in the person of Your son. He needs to know, be sure, why am I in doubt on this. I say I trusted you for my eternal salvation, but forgive me the sin and the sins of my life, to wash me as white as snow, but I can’t come and trust that I’ll get the wisdom of you from this situation in life. I need to back up here. I don’t want to all of our salvation in doubt but I don’t want to blow by the crucial issues. James is not willing to. He is disassociating from that man. That man will not receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man. In talking about double-minded, he uses a form of that word over in James 4:8, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” Literally two souls, they are divided, split. Well I trust God, but I don’t trust Him. How does he call them? You need to draw near to God, you need to cleanse you sinners, purify your hearts you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn, taking you back to the Beatitudes doesn’t it. Blessed are those who mourn, they shall be comforted. They see their sin and their guilt, conviction of the Spirit has come and causes them to turn to the Lord. So that kind of context is why we went to those verses in Hebrews. You see the same kind of concern coming out of James. We have to be careful. Sometimes we miss an opportunity. We have to be careful we don’t always question everybody’s salvation, but there is a danger that James and the writer to the Hebrews is concerned about. We get in the environment of Christianity and we go through a certain conformity as “Christians”. It’s like we caught it and been conformed to it, but the transformation of heart has never occurred. So living a life of faith is something foreign. I’m around people who are doing it and I’m trying to do like they do and be like they are. But I’ve never really had the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in my heart.

So James doesn’t want that to happen. Sometimes we just blow by it. Well you’ve trusted the Lord. We all have doubts. We all have difficulties. We just want to move on. Well let’s just talk about it, tell me about it. How do you know for sure you have really been born again? Tell me what’s happened. I don’t just want to assume this. How do I know you did, how do you know I did? Some of these things that come out, James says, if you’re a double minded man in these things and can’t come to God in faith, to seek the wisdom from Him, even in the trials of life that can be so difficult. If you’re a double minded man in this, there is serious concern here. Than man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being double minded. Come back to Deuteronomy 6, look at verse 4 “Here, O Israel! The Lord is our God; the Lord is one!” Now note verse 5, You shall Love the Lord your God with half your heart, half your soul, part of your might, NO! “With all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might.” Well, how can I be two souls? Double souled, double minded, it’s translated. No, the requirement is, I must love Him with All my heart, All my soul, All my might. Turn over to Deuteronomy 10:12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” James is writing to Jews who’ve come out of the background of Judaism, familiar with the Old Testament, now professing faith in Christ. We’ve got a problem; we’ve got some two souled people here. But God requires that you serve Him with all your soul. This is why the issue here will come out as we move through James again and again. We understand there’s a difference between saving faith and dead faith. That superficial faith that saves no one. We’ll talk more about this in James 2.

You can stop in Psalm 119. You know what happens in the evangelical world, if I can use that title. You know we start out firmly teaching the gospel and emphasis on hearing and believing the gospel and having a changed life, over time, and it happens as we are successful and our churches grow and our children grow up in this and now we have a second generation and a third generation. We loose that focus that each one must come to trust Christ. It’s a blessing to be raised in a Christian home, but that doesn’t guarantee your salvation. That doesn’t make you saved, being part of a Christian church, but we play down because we want people to come, to be comfortable, and we get to thinking, well they’ll catch salvation by just being here. Like you catch a cold. It doesn’t happen that way. You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. I can’t do that for my children, my grandchildren. They can’t do it for me. We follow the danger of Israel, that just over time, everybody just assumes we’re part of Israel, we’re saved. I go to Indian Hills, I’m saved. Wait a minute, you may go to Indian Hills, are you saved? You may be saved and not go to Indian Hills. These are two separate issues. Psalm 119:1-2 “How blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. How blessed are those who observe His testimonies” note this, “Who seek Him with all their heart.” There is the hypocrite, I should have had you stop earlier in Psalms, but Psalms 12:1 “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be, for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.” We think what’s going on in the world is something new and unique. Here’s what David said a thousand years before Christ. The godly man ceases to be the faithful disappear, where are they? They seem so few. Verse 2 “They speak falsehood to one another; with flattering lips and with a double heart.” That divided heart is a characteristic of the unregenerate person. Just like being driven by the waves of the sea, was a characteristic of the wicked.

So you come back to James 1. Strong warning in James here, because these are Jewish believers here who have this background in the Old Testament as James pours out this stuff. And his letter is a very Jewish letter as we’ve talked about. They would grasp this. So the background for this, the double minded man, unstable in all his ways. Boy how we’ve moved here. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. You must be asking of God. And then we have a generous God, who gives without reproach, and you will get what you need. But you must ask in faith, without any doubting. Now we’re going to talk about those who aren’t asking in faith. Now we have an issue. Are we talking about those who have never experience God’s salvation through saving faith? You end up here with someone who will get nothing. And he’s a divided person who doesn’t love the Lord God with all his heart, might and soul. He’s unstable in all his ways, he’s like the wicked, they’re blown here and there. Like the waves of the sea. The doubt is a reflection of the double mindedness. It doesn’t mean there are never times when we as believers, we talk about our faith as weak now, of course it’s weak and there’s a need here. We don’t know what to do, that’s why we’re coming to God. But I have full confidence in God. I don’t have all the answers to everything, I don’t need all the answers. I serve a God who has all the answers. He doesn’t have to give me the answers for next week. He doesn’t have to give me the answers to tomorrow, because each day has enough trouble of it’s own. Lord, I need how to proceed today. I need the wisdom and understanding in applying your word, for now. It doesn’t mean I can come and He’ll clear up the future. Then I wouldn’t have to trust Him tomorrow. Why would I? Oh, I got it all worked out, God told me what for the next week. Sometimes the wisdom He gives and I apply it, I can see more clearly further down the road. But I have to remember, Jesus said each day has enough trouble of it’s own. So I have that in mind. So part of my trouble has been maybe, what, unsettled about next week or next month. In the wisdom of God, as I seek from Him, bring to my mind, well I should be applying that where it says. Gil, you’re not functioning according to His word. Thank you Lord, for reminding me again. Sometimes it’s something the word doesn’t directly address. Our Lord gives. So we need to be sure as His people, beyond a doubt, we come trusting Him. Because that’s how we live our life. The just shall live by faith. We enter into our salvation by faith and that’s the beginning of a life. Live trusting in the God who now is our savior and our father. If that’s not the characteristic of your life, you need to back up and say, Lord, I want to settle this and clarify this. Something’s wrong that I’m unwilling to trust you. I want to clear this up, I want to settle this. This is not a game; I can’t fool you. You know I’m divided in heart, I’m not willing to trust you, and settle it. What a confident way to have the privilege of living our lives. I’m not the smartest guy on the block, but I serve a God who is the source of all wisdom. And anytime I have need, I just come to Him, say Lord, here I am. I’m stuck, I wand to honor you, I want to do what is pleasing to you, I want to handle this in a way that will glorify you. I need your wisdom to bestowed upon me. I know He’ll give it to me generously, without holding back, without reproaching me and that’s the way we live our lives.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord, for who you are. We are in awe, you the awesome God. The God whose greatness is beyond compare, beyond understanding. You have made yourself known. You have provided salvation for us, sinful beings. Ones who have lived our lives in rebellion against you. Not just disinterested, but actively rebelling. And yet you’ve saved us and forgiven us. Made us new. What a wonderful salvation. Lord what a wonderful privilege we have to walk in fellowship with you. To come to you, to find the wisdom we need, for all the situations, circumstances, pressures, difficulties, trials, confusion that may come as we walk through this life. You are a generous God, a giving God and we bow trusting you. For any who don’t know that privilege for living two-souled, double-minded, with the confusion and instability that brings. Lord may they find you as their Savior, even today, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.