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James 1:6–8
“Let him ask [for wisdom] in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
God “gives generously to all without reproach,” James 1:5 says. As we have seen, this means that the Lord not only gives abundantly but also does not give with mixed motives. What He gives to His people, He gives only for their ultimate good, not their harm. James 1:5 focuses on wisdom as one of the things that the Lord gives to us generously. If we lack wisdom, especially the wisdom that we need to persevere faithfully throughout trials, we need only to ask God for it, and He will give it to us (vv. 2–5).
James elaborates in today’s passage on what it means to ask the Lord for wisdom by telling us that we need to “ask in faith, with no doubting” (v. 6). The promise that the Lord will give wisdom applies only to those who ask for it in faith; it is not a general promise that applies to all people or even to Christians who do not really believe that the Lord will give it. Here we should note that the kind of doubtless faith that James commends cannot be a perfect faith that never has difficulty believing that the Lord will answer a prayer. We know that until we are glorified and freed from all sin, our faith will be imperfect and not always as strong as it should be (1 John 1:8–10). A good example of the kind of faith that asks for things without doubting is seen in the father of the boy who had an unclean spirit. This father admitted that he trusted in Jesus to heal his son, and yet some lack of faith remained. He said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:14–29). To ask God for wisdom without doubting entails believing that the Lord can and will give us wisdom while also being honest about how we often do not trust our Creator as we should.
People who ask the Lord for wisdom while nursing persistent doubts about the goodness of God and who are unwilling to be honest with Him about their struggles to believe are double minded and “like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind” (James 1:6). Those who lack faith have no secure foundation on which to stand because they do not believe that the Lord is able and willing to preserve them. They are easily convinced that what is actually foolish is in reality wise and that God’s wisdom is really foolishness. Such individuals have no solid ground, spiritually speaking, under their feet. They are unstable, not asking for wisdom with motives that are pure in the main but are compromised by persistent desires for what is impure (vv. 7–8).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Our faith will never be perfect until we are glorified, and the good news for us is that the weakest faith receives the same omnipotent Christ that the strongest faith does. Nevertheless, we are supposed to grow in faith over the course of our lives, and our peace, joy, and assurance will always be strong in proportion to the strength of our faith. Attending to the preached Word, the sacraments, and prayer is the chief way to have our faith strengthened.
For further study
- Isaiah 26:4
- Acts 16:1–5
- Romans 4:13–25
- Hebrews 11:1–2
The bible in a year
- Isaiah 10–12
- Galatians 5