trial. Wisdom is the right application of knowledge. You may know all the principles of God's Word but in the midst of a trying situation you have to understand how right ly to apply Scripture to the area. This wisdom comes only from the Lord. I do not believe this passage has to do with lacking intelligence, praying that God will give us some kind of knowledge. This is not what he refers to. The context here ap plies to people who are experienc ing difficulties. Wisdom is the vital ingredient and it can only fully come from above. James urges, "Let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be giv en." What a very simple request. There is no pleading, begging, "praying through," or anything of the like. The simple prescription is just, "ask." . When Elijah met with the priests of Baal they cried out in anguish to their gods. They screamed and yelled trying to get the lifeless deity to hear them. It was all to no avail. Elijah, at the end of the day, calmly lifted his eyes to God and prayed simply that the Lord would show Himself to be God by consuming the sacrifice on the altar. The words had barely been spoken before He acted. In our asking we must recognize who God really is. Too often He is considered as merely One who is something of a distribution agency. God is the One who is the Giver. He is always pleased to give. The bestowal from His gracious hands is to all men liberally. There is never any scolding and chiding when we continually come to Him. Christ pointed out, "If ye, being evil,
perfect work. The purpose of all this is "that you may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing" (vs. 4). Ev erything that God implants within us will reach a certain ripeness and maturity. How do we cope with tempta tion? Emotionally we are to count it all joy. Intellectually we are to know what we believe and what trials will accomplish in our lives. Finally, we must allow temptation to have its perfect work so that we might be the person God desires us to be. The Apostle James has told us what our attitudes should be when trials come. Now he tells us what we can do when trials come (vrs. 5-7). The first action is found in verse five, "But if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God." There must be a recognition of our need in the midst of trial. Even then there is a greater need than that of being delivered. So many times we Christians think that escape is the most important need. We rational ize, "If I could only get out from under this situation then things would certainly be better." The pri mary need is to identify the real basic problem. Why is there a ne cessity to understand the trial? This is the starting place with regard to action. No matter what form the trial may take, ultimately we need wisdom to cope with the situation. Secondly, we must isolate this need. By doing this we can take the first step in being able to set priori ties. This is generally a mental ac tion. Peter refers to this when he talks about setting our minds per fectly upon something. He tells us believers to "gird up loins of your mind." In other words, finding out what is basic in the midst of each
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