FridayReflection

  17^th November 2023

'David Guzik' offers

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How to receive the wisdom you need from God.

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

Trials bring a necessary season to seek wisdom from God.
We often don't know we need wisdom until our time of difficulty.
Once in a time of trial, we need to know if a particular trial is something God wants us to eliminate by faith or persevere in by faith.

This requires wisdom.
In trials, we need wisdom a lot more than we need knowledge.

Knowledge is raw information but wisdom knows how to use it.
Someone once said that knowledge is the ability to take things apart, but wisdom is the ability to put things together.

To receive wisdom, we simply ask of God - who gives wisdom generously (liberally), and without despising our request (without reproach).

"We are all so ready to go to books, to go to men, to go to ceremonies, to anything except to God... Consequently, the text does not say, 'Let him ask books,' nor 'ask priests,' but, 'let him ask of God.'" (Spurgeon)

God does indeed give liberally.
Without reproach: "This is added, lest anyone should fear to come too often to God... for he is ready ever to add new blessings to former ones, without any end or limitation."

The language here implies humility in coming to God.
"It does not say, 'Let him buy of God, let him demand of God, let him earn from God.'
Oh!
No - 'let him ask of God.'

It is the beggar's word.
The beggar asks an alms. You are to ask, as the beggar asks of you in the street, and God will give to you far more liberally than you give to the poor.
You must confess that you have no merit of your own." (Spurgeon)

But let him ask in faith: Our request for wisdom must be made like any other request - in faith, without doubting God's ability or desire to give us His wisdom.

We notice that not only must one come in faith, but one must also ask in faith; and this is where the prayers of many people fail.

"You know, dear friends, that there is a way of praying in which you ask for nothing, and get it." (Spurgeon)

With no doubting...
let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord: The one who doubts and lacks faith should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
This lack of faith and trust in God also shows that we have no foundation, being unstable in all our ways.

A double-minded man, unstable in all his ways:
To ask God but to ask Him in a doubting way, shows that we are double-minded.
If we had no faith, we would never ask at all.
If we had no unbelief, we would have no doubting.
To be in the middle ground between faith and unbelief is to be double-minded.

According to Hiebert, double-minded is literally two-souled.
"The man of two souls, who has one for the earth, and another for heaven: who wishes to secure both worlds; he will not give up earth, and he is loath to let heaven go." (Clarke)

The man who said to Jesus,
"Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" was not double-minded.

He wanted to believe, and declared his belief.
His faith was weak, but it wasn't tinged with a double-minded doubt.

"Do you believe that God can give you wisdom, and that he will do so if you ask him?

Then, go at once to him, and say, 'Lord, this is what I need.'

Specify your wants, state your exact condition, lay the whole case before God with as much orderliness as if you were telling your story to an intelligent friend who was willing to hear it, and prepared to help you; and then say, 'Lord, this is specifically what I think I want; and I ask this of thee believing that thou canst give it to me.'" (Spurgeon)

This is an edited version. The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request

Enduring Word
exists to promote the work of Christian discipleship and evangelism worldwide, mainly through the publication and dissemination of the Bible teaching work of David Guzik and likeminded people.
When David Guzik was a young pastor in Simi Valley, California, he (among many other pastors) was asked to send his teaching notes to the developers of a new internet Bible research site: Blue Letter Bible.
In the late 1990's, David's material first appeared on the Blue Letter Bible, and was found to be a valuable resource.