Lacking wisdom

I assume other people are like me, I probably shouldn't. I struggle with reading the book of James. I love Romans and the Pauline epistles. The book of James always seems so harsh by contrast, full of wisdom, but much more tough-love than the grace-filled exhortations found in my more enjoyed readings. I struggle to find grace and mercy in the words that James writes. I generally file the book under the heading that for everything there is a time, and there are times and seasons in life that James' wisdom is more effective in life... but that's a dangerous precedent to set. The word of the Living God is fully authoritative and fully profitable to its hearers in all times and situations. 

In reading through John Piper's A Peculiar Glory and now Reading the Bible Supernaturally I have been convinced that I am to earnestly seek the glory and beauty of God every time I open His word. The reading of the Scriptures is to be a savoring of His glory and ignite within me a white-hot worship. Something I have never sought to do from James.

Between that conviction and a continued season of trials, I sat down this morning and altered my normal reading schedule. I opened to James. And let me tell you, the book is dripping with grace-wrought mercy of a God who earnestly desires that His children shall seek His glory and worship Him.

As many know, our family's plan to move to Seattle and assist in the planting of a church has been slowly progressing. The right opportunity has not come along to allow us to say yes and to move ahead. It's a trying process, and a season that often feels unending. So I approached James 1:2-8 this morning needing to hear God speak. 

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. - James 1:2-8

What powerful grace! What is the purpose of my trials in this time? Why is my faith being so tested? Because God's purpose for me is not only that I would seek to serve Him here and now, but also that I would be transformed, conformed to the image of Christ! It is to increase my steadfastness, because in its fullness, steadfastness leaves me perfected and complete, lacking for nothing! So I look at my current condition and situation, and I find myself lacking wisdom (and many other things). This lack is a symptom, if it were that my trails and testing were to cease, it would signal my finish, my completeness. The fact that I lack simply means that I am still being sanctified, I'm simply still alive! I am not simply failing and flawed because I am in this season. So recognizing my lacking, I am told to ask. "God, I'm lacking _____, please give." But what I am truly asking for? I'm asking that God would reduce my lack, in asking therefore that He would increase my steadfastness. And how has James told us that God accomplishes the production of steadfastness? Through trials and testing of faith! By acknowledging our lack of wisdom, we are acknowledging that we are not yet fully sanctified. And by asking for wisdom, we are asking our God to continue to sanctify us through our trials and the testing of our faith. We are seeking something that no one outside of Christ would ever dare seek. Thus the warning James gives to not ask from a doubting heart. A heart that doubts the desire of God to sanctify His children, to bring them to Christlikeness, is a heart that is ruled by feeling and emotion. The doubting heart asks for wisdom and guidance, but turns away when the next trials and testing come along. They are rocked when they ask God for help, but receive more troubles. And that isn't what God wants for His children. He doesn't want us to be confused or to question His love. So instead, He tell us in James that those who ask with a doubting heart should not ask, and if they do, that they should not expect to receive. It's an act of mercy that God would withhold from the doubting mind. He knows that if He were to give to he who doubts, that that man is likely to be tossed by the waves, possibly unto shipwreck. Instead, mercifully, God simply withholds further wisdom from the doubter until such a time that the current testing of faith produces the measure of steadfastness required to stay the doubting mind. 

So, we pray for wisdom. We say, "God, I lack wisdom in what you are doing, and I desire more. I know that seeking wisdom is to seek a path that will further refine through trials and testings. Lord, I know that your desire is my transformation to the image of your Son, and that all paths in the Christian life lead to that end. God, I do not wish to doubt the path you have set me upon, and I place my faith in knowing that your desire is good. I pray that my current measure of steadfastness would provide the stable base of my understanding that in seeking further wisdom I will remained moored to my faith. That I would not be battered and tossed by doubt. Lord, I desire wisdom."

I still don't know how or when God will bring our path together that leads to Seattle, but I do know he will.