Dear Brothers and Sisters,

You are invited to come to the Wednesday evening prayer meeting and pray. (7:00 PM LHF time, Wed., Nov. 15, 2000)

If any one of you lacks wisdom... These verses come immediately after James's command to consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds. So at least we can assume that he may be talking about asking God for wisdom to understand what is happening to you when you face trials of many kinds. But I think that the wisdom James is talking about is broader than that. I think the wisdom he's talking about applies to all kinds of decisions. "Should I do A or B?" "Should I marry this person or that one or stay single?" "Should I go to the store now or should I put it off until later?" "Should I stop to help this person with car trouble or should I keep going so that I get to church on time?" (Or for me right now, "Should I stay up late and write this message or go to bed and do it tomorrow?") We need wisdom to know what God wants us to do in all sorts of situations so that we are able to make decisions, whether big or small. Ultimately, though, we want to know God's heart -- to know him and know what he approves of and what he disapproves of.

Some things are obvious. You don't have to ask God to know whether or not to steal or commit adultery. He has already told us the answer to those questions. But other things seem to not be so obvious. For some things you may feel that you need some wisdom from God to make a decision. For others, maybe you don't think you need any wisdom from God. You believe that you have your own wisdom.

James says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." This tells us, first of all, that God is the source of wisdom. Second, that he is very willing to answer your request for wisdom. James says, "It WILL be given to him." Finally, God will not find fault with you for asking. He wants you to ask.

Now when you ask for wisdom, what should you expect? You must expect, absolutely, to receive wisdom from God. James says that if you don't expect to get wisdom, you won't. Not only that, it'll show that you are double-minded and unstable in all that you do.

But HOW should you expect God to answer your request for wisdom? Should you expect to hear a voice in your mind saying, "It's better to do A than to do B?" Maybe. I think God answers that way sometime. Or how about, after you have prayed, you have a sudden insight that it would be stealing if you did B? God sometimes answers that way too. Or maybe some scripture comes into your mind that answers the question so perfectly that you are completely confident that God gave it to you. Or maybe a friend comes to you and says, "Do A because... (whatever reason)." And you say, "Wow, I never thought of that. That's the perfect answer."

But what if after considerable praying, God has not spoken to you in any obvious way? What should you do then? Should you say, "God has not answered my prayer for wisdom?" If you say that, you'll be double-minded and unstable in all that you do. What you should do is what James says. Trust God. You can tell him, "I believe that you have answered my prayer and have given me wisdom and this is what I'm going to do." Then tell him what you have decided to do and do it, knowing that God has given you wisdom to make a good decision.

Come and pray for us to have God's wisdom in all that we do. Come and pray that we may know his heart in everything. Come and let's pray for each other as well as for the whole church. Come and encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.

Love in Christ,
Dean

PS: If you absolutely can't make it to the prayer meeting, send your prayer request back to me by e-mail and we'll pray for it.