James 1:5-8 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
Have you ever been rejected? I have been rejected many times in my life. In fact, the woman I married once rejected me in high school. (But we see how that ended ;). Some of you have been rejected by a bank or perhaps you’ve been rejected by people. Rejection is never a fun process, especially when you’ve been rejected by people you love. One of the reasons rejection is there is because certain criterion hasn’t been met.
Yet, the thing I love about this text is that there is no criterion when it comes to asking God for wisdom. He doesn’t give a litmus test nor does he expect us to have our act together. He simply says, “If you lack wisdom, ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach.”
We have read so much about wisdom in this book, but we haven’t talked much about foolishness. There is a refrain throughout this book that goes from wisdom to folly. We would be foolish not to talk about foolishness. Although this passage is not from Ecclesiastes, it holds heavy weight to what we are going to go through this week. Furthermore, this passage reveals that God saved us from our sin – but he didn’t save us from our stupidity. That’s why he said that we ought to ask for wisdom. And if we live our life trying to figure out what we can get away with, we are foolish and our thinking pattern needs to change. We have the wonderful privilege of coming to our Father and asking him to help us not be stupid.
“I will give you a little bit of worldly wisdom; it is this, – whenever you do not know what to do, do not do it.” – Charles H. Spurgeon
