James 1:5-6, Ask in Faith, Nothing Wavering
James 1:5-6, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”
“Let him ask of God.”
Where do you go when you need something? I don’t know about you, but I’m pulling up Amazon! You can find far more there than you need, for a price of course. (Not sponsored at all!) During the great toilet paper crisis of 2020, I was working at a financial institution with Amazon open in the background of my workstation ready to pull the trigger on any toilet paper that suddenly became available, because it would be gone in a matter of minutes.
Where do you go when you really need something? I hope as a Christian you go where you are invited by God, to the throne of grace. “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16). Whether it be wisdom as discussed in this Scripture or any other need, let us ask of God. He wants us to ask. He is waiting for us to ask as a Father for His children. He gives liberally, and His gifts are good. Matthew 7:11, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”
“Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.”
But we need to ask in faith. Do we believe God or don’t we? We are such sight-based believers that we struggle with exercising faith. We know we don’t have much faith, because Jesus taught that “if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (Matthew 17:20) We would see more, but our faith wavers.
When James says “nothing wavering,” he is referring to having no hesitation, no doubt, and no variance. We hesitate when we ask God to do a work, perhaps even asking for wisdom as this passage teaches and see Him begin to use a trial to answer our request and we pause. We might say, “Wait a minute! This isn’t what I asked for! I don’t want this.” We want the result, but we don’t think it is worth the work done on us. We might hesitate in our faith. Or we tend to doubt that God can even do what He says He will do. We might ask with our lips but our heart is far from belief opening the door for anxiety and fear. If we doubt, are we really exercising any kind of faith? To not exercise full faith puts us at variance of ourselves. Variance is opposition to oneself. We, by our new nature as Christians, are designed to trust God. We trust Him for salvation and a home in Heaven to enjoy in our eternal life. Faith is a necessary part of the walk of the believer. Hebrews 11:6 asserts, “But without faith it is impossible to please him.” Even calling ourselves “believers” implies a continuation of believing God; otherwise, we should be called “the believed” as if it were only in the past. If we are going to ask of God, we better do so in faith, nothing wavering.
“Like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”
Being seasick feels awful. I’ve been on the water more than a few times in a boat tossed by waves. You learn tricks to try to avoid seasickness, but sometimes it just grips you. We see many seasick Christians tossed “like a wave of the sea driven with the wind.” This picture perfectly describes the wavering faith of a Christian. Our new nature wants to have faith toward God while the winds of doubt drive us the other way. The waves and the wind work in opposition, and progress becomes impossible. In fact, the next verse reads, “For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.” How do we get out of this wavering condition?
When you are seasick, you can find relief in a couple of ways. First, you must get your eyes off your condition and on to something stable like the sky. I have felt the worst seasickness when I’m looking down at the moving boat or have my eyes fixed on something that I am doing too long. As soon as you feel the nausea coming on, you must get your eyes up. Second, you need to get yourself to solid ground. When your footing becomes stable again, you very quickly begin to recover.
Christian, if you don’t want to waver in faith, being tossed around by the wind and waves, you need to get your eyes off the problems and trials and back on to Jesus. Put your focus on the wrong thing and you will waver, but put your focus on your Savior and you can thrive. Also, get yourself back on solid footing. Ground yourself in the Word of God and the promises of God. We waver when we leave solid ground. If you find yourself wavering, ground yourself in Scripture. Don’t leave there until you find what you need so that you can “ask in faith, nothing wavering.”
James 1:4-6, If You Lack Wisdom, Just Ask of God
James 1:4-6, “But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed..”
“If any of you lack wisdom.”
Lacking wisdom is trending, wouldn’t you say? If you aren’t sure, just start watching some Facebook reels or random YouTube videos or the news for that matter. But are they the only ones lacking wisdom? Do we have the Biblical, Godly wisdom that is necessary for a close walk with God? Do you think as a Christian that you have all the wisdom that you need? Do any of you lack wisdom? I hope that we can be humble enough to know that we can grow in this area, yet sometimes we actively avoid that which would teach us wisdom.
Something we often try to avoid that would teach us wisdom is the trying of our faith. We tend to have the mindset that because trials are difficult that we should try to avoid them. But “when we fall into divers temptations,” and our faith is tried, it works patience. Patience then performs its completing work on us, making us entire and wanting (or lacking) nothing. This means that the perfecting work of patience leaves nothing behind or forsaken of which we need. The part of that refining work that is emphasized here is God’s gift of wisdom.
Proverbs 4:7a asserts that “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom.” James 1 comes behind that saying, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” Wisdom is principal, and God gives it liberally if we will ask Him. We might be embarrassed or feel guilty about having to ask for wisdom, but James shows us that God “upbraideth not” the request, or, in other words, He does not revile or reproach you for asking. The fact that He gives liberally when asked just shows how much He wants you to request wisdom from Him.
“Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.”
But sometimes our faith wavers. Have you ever been asked to teach something only for your student to question your lesson? As a former teacher English teacher, I could tell you of all sorts of times I taught varying grammar lessons and was questioned on every level, but let me share something far more shameful on my part. I have been that student. My wife is a wonderful piano player and teacher. I have heard from a side room as she has taken students from mashing the piano keys to playing music! While listening, I thought it would be great to just sit down to the piano and just play a song that was on my heart, so I asked her to teach me. I’ve heard her teach children and adults of all ages, so certainly I could learn with my “musical background.” Well, we tried. She began teaching me the basics, and I said, “I know this stuff; this is too easy. Try teaching me something harder.” So, she jumped ahead a few lessons. “Hold on, now you’ve gone too far. What are you talking about?” Needless to say, after yo-yoing her around for a while, she informed me that this wasn’t going to work. I have to admit, she was (and still is) right.
Here's what happens: we ask God for wisdom, and it is wise to do so, but when the lesson comes, we waver. Perhaps the problem is that we want God to give wisdom in the same way we wanted to learn in school, by osmosis. (Osmosis is one-way diffusion through a semipermeable membrane—the one thing I remember from biology. Thank you, Mrs. Crawford, and sorry I don’t remember more!) We want God to just stick wisdom in our minds in the same way we wanted the information in our Biology text books to just sink in as we slept with it under our head, but God gives wisdom the same way our teachers taught us, through lessons, testings, and trials. So the trial comes, we don’t like the trial, and our faith wavers. “I want wisdom, but I don’t want it the way you want to give it to me.” But it doesn’t work that way. We don’t get to set the terms of our own growth; we just need to trust God to see Him grow us. Growth is a painful process. Muscle growth relies on the micro-tearing of muscle tissue which heals to be stronger than it was. (Maybe I remember two things from biology.) We are sore but stronger.
If we are going to let patience have her perfect work, we need to have faith in God’s work through the trials and that without wavering. “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:24) “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13b) If you are saved, you have already trusted God for that. If we can trust God for salvation, and certainly we can, then we need to trust Him as He gives us wisdom as He sees fit.
James 1:3-4, What's So Great About Patience
James 1:3-4, “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
“Worketh patience.”
And what’s so great about patience? I’ve always heard the half-joke growing up, “Don’t pray for patience because the Lord will send it. Be careful what you ask for!” The response is generally a mild laugh with a nod of recognition that you really don’t want the thing in your life that works patience. But truthfully, we need patience!
Patience is well-defined as steadfastness, constancy, and endurance. 1 Corinthians 15:58 teaches, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” Being so resolute that we are unmovable and always abound in God’s work is not a natural quality—we must learn it. God must use trials in our life to teach it to us. We have to learn the qualities that aid to staying constantly in Jesus—in abiding in Him. We have to learn what we must lay aside as Hebrews 12:1 reminds us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us.” We must endure; we need patience.
“But let patience have her perfect work.”
It should be obvious by now that if God is allowing a trial that He has a purpose behind it. Why can’t we learn to trust Him more? Patience is working toward that end. These trials are developing patience in us that allows us to wait for God to deliver and provide. We get beyond our ability and can do nothing but wait for God. This is the perfect work of patience. Anything God is working is perfect, for God is perfect—He makes no mistakes. And the work that patience is doing is a perfecting work. God allows trials which teaches patience and helps bring us to be complete, wanting (or lacking) nothing.
Did you notice that we are to “let” patience have her perfect work? We need to allow God’s work in our lives. We need to not only accept it but also look to God and humbly let Him work. We can refuse to learn what we need, but then we have not grown. Will the trials just make us bitter? Will we patiently wait for God as He works and learn the endurance? What is your heart toward God’s work through trials? When God allows you to suffer a trial and He brings you through it, you become that much more enduring. An athlete improves by pushing the boundaries of his body to exhaustion so that the next time he can endure more. Over much time, he finds that he can accomplish more as he pushes more. God allows trials to push our boundaries so that we learn that we are able to endure more for the cause of Christ. Thank you, Lord, for working in our lives so that we “may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
James 1:2-3, The Trial of your Faith
James 1:2-3, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”
The joy of a trial is not the trial itself, but it is God working in our lives.
“Count it all joy.”
The Christians to whom this letter was directly written were familiar with trials. We notice in verse 1 that this letter is to “the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad.” Not all Jews were scattered, just those that followed Christ. Acts 1:8 describes the time: “And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.” We learn also in verse 4, “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.” Praise the Lord that while being persecuted and driven from their homes they could preach God’s Word. But these were people who understood diverse temptations. They were driven from their homes, separated from their culture, separated sometimes from their family, imprisoned, tortured, seeing friends martyred, and more than we can only imagine. Yet here, James tells them to “count it all joy.” I believe the only way you can continue God’s work in the middle of a trial is to count the trial as joy, knowing that God is working.
“The trying of your faith.”
But joy in a trial? Rejoice over some difficulty for which I never asked but I fell into it? How is this possible? Understanding that God is working all things together for good is easy when life feels good, but our faith in God’s promise is tested when we cannot see the good in a situation. A loved one passes away, a job falls through, an expected and oversized bill shows up, a frightening medical condition is discovered—the diverse temptations really put our faith to the test. But it is when our faith survives these trials that the reality of what we believe becomes even more clear.
When I lost my best friend, knowing he was with our Savior made Heaven that much more real. I already knew by faith the reality of eternal life in Heaven with Jesus, but knowing my best friend was right there was a glimpse of when faith becomes sight! My faith was tried and strengthened, not because I am strong but because God is good and faithful. He used a trial to do a work in me. We can count the trials all joy because we can trust our loving God.
Let it be clear, it is our faith that is being tried in these temptations. Faith does not follow understanding; instead, we understand by faith (Hebrews 11:3a, “Through faith we understand…”). Our faith being tried produces patience in us. Our attitude becomes, “Lord, I don’t understand why I am going through this, but I know you are working and I trust that You will are working for good. I will wait for you as you do a work in me.” When we don’t understand and don’t know what to do, we are most ready to learn to wait on the Lord. We have to understand that we are at the end of ourselves before we further learn to trust God. God has used various financial trials in my life to show me time and again that He will always provide. And every time I trusted in the Lord, not only did He provide but also He showed me that I can trust Him more. Now, as a pastor, I am learning to trust Him not just for my own provisions but also for the provisions of an entire church body. Had the Lord not tried my faith, I would not have the patience for this new trial. We need the trials to teach us to trust Him more so that He can use us for even greater things. And through it all, we can do nothing but point to “God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)
James 1:2, What Happens When You Fall
James 1:2, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.”
Notice with me two phrases from this verse.
“Count it all joy.”
Wisely, this verse starts with the joy before the temptation. Often, we need to be assured before we understand the difficulty. If God is working—and He is—then there is reason to rejoice. God takes pleasure in working in you both to will and to do, and as we see God uses trials to build us, meaning that we can have joy in difficulties. The joy we can experience is not because we love the temptation or trial, but we rejoice knowing that God is working on us by the trial. I can have joy because I know God is working for good as He already assured us. I can rejoice assuredly because the end result, described in verse 4 of this chapter, will guide me toward being “perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” Trials are part of making us fully complete and equipped for a closer walk with God and more dedicated service.
“When ye fall.”
Falling into temptation is inevitable. The Holy Spirit could have just as easily directed this verse to read “if ye fall,” but falling into temptation is a fact of life. Notice, though, the fall is into temptation but not to sin. The reality is that we sin as we are drawn of our own lust and enticed. Our lust brings us to sin; we do not “fall” into sin. When referring to the sin of Adam and Eve that resulted in sin nature being passed down to all mankind, we often use the term “the fall of man.” Probably a more appropriate phrase would be “the jump of man.” Sinful man is guilty not by accident but by the work of the flesh.
But we do fall into temptations as in the sense of trials. Nobody in his right mind seeks out a trial or a difficulty. But trials are necessary in this life to mold us into a Christian that is “perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” In order to be completely equipped as needed, we have to accept that trials are essential. And of course, God does not leave us to ourselves in our trials to fend for ourselves. 1 Corinthians 10:13 reminds us, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” God is faithful always, even during times of temptation when we most realize our need for Him. So, what happens “when ye fall”?
The word translated ye fall here in James 1:2 is used two other times in Scripture. The first is when a man fell among thieves and was stripped of his raiment, wounded, and left for dead. I imagine that this man had a completely different plan for his day; nevertheless, this is what happened. In fact, it pretty well ruined a few days in a row. This man’s account is the one we remember by the “the good Samaritan” who would sacrificially save this man’s life. God used this Samaritan to rescue and care for this total stranger who had fallen into this terrible trial.
The second time we can find this word in Scripture is in Acts 27 when Paul found himself imprisoned on a ship and caught in a great storm. The crew attempted to bring the ship to a safe harbor but fell “into a place where two seas met” causing the ship to run aground on the bow and the stern to be broken into pieces. The soldiers guarding the prisoners wanted to kill all the prisoners, including Paul, to prevent their escape. Verse 43 retells, “But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose.” God used that centurion to save Paul’s life. The common theme in each of these verses of those who fell into a temptation is that God provided a way of escape. For every fall, God is faithful. So “when ye fall,” you know that our faithful God “will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” Look to God for the way of escape. Look to God so that ye can bear it.
Be Strong in the Grace
2 Timothy 2:1-2, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”
As God allows and directs, my heart is to commit to the faithful what God has taught me. If we will reach the next generation and those to follow with the grace of Christ Jesus, we first must be strong in that grace and commit what we know to the faithful who will teach others also. We can no longer afford generational gaps of teaching Biblical truth! We need to increase in our learning from God’s Word and be faithful to teach others also.
With this blog, I hope to encourage who I can to be strong enough to walk the path of Christ while teaching and strengthening others along the way. As a teacher within a church environment for almost two decades, I have had opportunity to see God work in the lives of those that He has so graciously allowed me to influence. I am humbled now to serve as a pastor and to see God use the preaching of His Word to affect hearts for Him. I pray this to be an avenue that God will use to stir the hearts of His people to follow and be encouraged in Him, and then that God’s people will transmit this knowledge to someone else.
Of course, much of the teaching will not mean a lot to a person who has not accepted Jesus Christ as Savior. You cannot be encouraged in God’s Word if you have not placed your faith in Jesus as the only way of salvation. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” There is no salvation in any other. It is only by the salvation that God freely offers by grace through faith that the wages of sin, which is death, can be satisfied. You will only find peace and purpose in Jesus Christ, who by His death and resurrection offers eternal life to “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord.” The way of salvation is simple: you must realize you are a sinner (“all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”), repent of your sin (turn from the way of your sin to Christ), receive Jesus as your Savior (‘as many as received him, to them gave he power to be the sons of God), and you can rejoice in your new life!