James 1:2-8 J.B. Phillips New Testament
The Christian can even welcome trouble
2-8 When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence. And if, in the process, any of you does not know how to meet any particular problem he has only to ask God—who gives generously to all men without making them feel foolish or guilty—and he may be quite sure that the necessary wisdom will be given him. But he must ask in sincere faith without secret doubts as to whether he really wants God’s help or not. The man who trusts God, but with inward reservations, is like a wave of the sea, carried forward by the wind one moment and driven back the next. That sort of man cannot hope to receive anything from God, and the life of a man of divided loyalty will reveal instability at every turn.
Word of God for the Children of God
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Truth or False: There is a kind of prayer that receives nothing from God?
It is the prayer of the doubter, the one who does not “ask in faith.”
When James says we are to make our requests to God “with no doubting,” he’s not saying we must never have any uncertainty or confusion in our minds, ever.
To doubt in the sense that James uses the term here is more than simply saying, “I am struggling, wavering to be certain about this” or “I guess almost know this to be maybe 1% true but, ugh however, maybe sometimes I wonder it is not even less”; refusing to firmly ground themselves, entrust ourselves to our Father’s care.
It is to make a back-up plan that relies on our efforts even as we ask God for His intervention, or to ask for something that deep down we do not really want.
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g1252/nasb95/mgnt/0-1/
J.B. Phillips paraphrases this verse in a helpful way: “He must ask in sincere faith without secret doubts as to whether he really wants God’s help or not.”
James is addressing the issue of divided loyalty, describing the doubter as one whose prayers and desires are clearly at hard core odds with each other.
This person comes before God and asks for things that he or she has no intention of doing, much as the great 5th-century theologian Augustine famously prayed prior to his conversion: “Lord, make me pure, but not yet.”[1]
1 Confessions, 8.7.17.
God knows exactly when we are simply playing the game, using the language, singing the song without any truth or desire to match up our lives to our words.
He knows whether we really want His help, are secretly reserving the right to do only exactly what we feel like doing if His wisdom does not lead, move, us in the only direction we naturally desire.
Faith says no to this kind of deliberate insincere hypocrisy, which prays for wisdom but acts only in complete foolishness. The faith James describes is therefore more than comprehension; it is an expression of trust and devotion.
Honesty lies at the heart of any genuine appeal, whether to an earthly father or our heavenly Father.
When you come before God, you must “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22).
With this kind of sincerity, you will make it clear in your own soul and to God that you are fully trusting Him to be faithful to His promises and that you are serious about acting on whatever wisdom He provides.
In what area of your life are you particularly aware that you absolutely need God’s wisdom?
Entrust yourself to your heavenly Father and be ready to follow His guidance, so you will walk steady in your faith and joy, and not be tossed about by the wind.
When You Not so Simply Don’t Know What to Do
James 1:5-8 Amplified Bible
5 If any of you lacks wisdom [to guide him through a decision or circumstance], he is to ask of [our benevolent] God, who gives to everyone generously and without rebuke or blame, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask [for wisdom] in faith, without doubting [God’s willingness to help], for the one who doubts is like a billowing surge of the sea that is blown about and tossed by the wind. 7 For such a person ought not to think or expect that he will receive anything [at all] from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable and restless in all his ways [in everything he thinks, feels, or decides].
Throughout my ministry I’ve had people come to me and say, “I just don’t know what to do. I want to do God’s will, but I don’t know what he wants for me.”
And, really, how do you know for sure what school to go to, or what job to take? How do you know when to move, or not to move, what cars, homes to buy?
How do you know what person you should marry, when to start a family, or whether you should adopt?
More than once when we had to make an important decision, I found myself wishing that God would send a clear message to guide us.
So how do we know God’s will?
James 1:5 gives the answer, at least in part: “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God …” By ourselves we don’t have the wisdom to know what God plan has in mind for us. And that’s the reason we need to ask God, “who gives generously.” If you don’t know what to do, ask God for wisdom.
God gives us his wisdom through the Bible.
“Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105).
God gives us wisdom through the people in our lives. Don’t be afraid to ask other people for their insight. God gives us wisdom through open and closed doors and through doors closing, doors slamming, changing life circumstances.
We have to ask, and then we need to observe closely as God provides answers.
Truth or Nonsense?
When praying …
12 I assure you and most solemnly say to you, anyone who believes in Me [as Savior] will also do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these [in extent and outreach], because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in My name [[b]as My representative], this I will do, so that the Father may be glorified and celebrated in the Son. 14 If you ask Me anything in My name [as My representative], I will do it.
Authenticity (Psalm 51) of our hearts 100% does not, will not, matter to God?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Praying …
Psalm 137 Complete Jewish Bible
137 By the rivers of Bavel we sat down and wept
as we remembered Tziyon.
2 We had hung up our lyres
on the willows that were there,
3 when those who had taken us captive
asked us to sing them a song;
our tormentors demanded joy from us —
“Sing us one of the songs from Tziyon!”
4 How can we sing a song about Adonai
here on foreign soil?
5 If I forget you, Yerushalayim,
may my right hand wither away!
6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
if I fail to remember you,
if I fail to count Yerushalayim
the greatest of all my joys.
7 Remember, Adonai, against the people of Edom
the day of Yerushalayim’s fall,
how they cried, “Tear it down! Tear it down!
Raze it to the ground!”
8 Daughter of Bavel, you will be destroyed!
A blessing on anyone who pays you back
for the way you treated us!
9 A blessing on anyone who seizes your babies
and smashes them against a rock!
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 