Our new vacuum cleaner was playing up the other day. My wife and I tried and tried to get it working. We were using an attachment that we hadn’t used before and we just couldn’t get it to do what it was designed to do. Maybe you’ve found yourself in a similar situation. Perhaps it wasn’t a vacuum cleaner but some other appliance. You get to the point where in utter frustration you do what you should have done in the first place: checked the manufacturer’s instruction booklet. It’s amazing how quickly that can solve your appliance headaches.
I thought of that when a few days later I was reading some words from the Bible book of James. James gives us some most encouraging advice. He tells us that when we are lacking in wisdom we should ask God who gives to everyone generously and ungrudgingly. So does James mean that next time we get exasperated with the way some appliance is supposed to work that we just say a little prayer and that God will then zap down to us the wisdom to solve the problem? Well, that may be an improvement on letting fly with a string of expletives. But James is talking about something much more important than trying to get an appliance to do what is was designed to do. He was talking in a context where people were going through some very tough times. The Christians he was writing to were being persecuted for their faith. His readers were caught up in some serious trials and hardships. Maybe our corona-pandemic lockdowns with the accompanying loss of income and mind-numbing isolation is a better comparison than a problematic appliance.
That advice of James seems almost tailor made for our current situation. Many are struggling with the need for wisdom. Do I cash in my super so I can meet my mortgage payments? Do I cower in fear at home or do I bravely go to work? Do I make that important visit when the government is telling me to avoid all unnecessary travel? Do I wear a face mask when they are not yet compulsory in the area where I am living? These and a dozen other questions occupy our minds in these troubled times and now James comes and he says, “If anyone lacks wisdom he should ask God who gives to everyone generously and ungrudgingly.”
This advice James gives doesn’t go down equally well with everyone. In fact it’s probably true that those who most lack wisdom are least inclined to ask God for it. They’ll just bungle along trusting in their own limited wisdom. But what about for the rest of us who want to take this advice seriously? Is James suggesting that when life gets us into a downward spiral we should just say a little prayer to God and that will make everything okay? Well, yes and no! Pausing in the middle of the mess that life so often becomes and looking to God may well be the best thing you ever do. But that’s just the point. Asking God is looking to Him to meet your needs and that’s a little more than just mouthing some pious words in the hope that God will solve our problems. James goes on to add that when we ask God for wisdom then we should ask in faith and faith is a trust in God that He will make all things well. And that sets us up for receiving God’s wisdom. The reality is that God has already given us much of the wisdom we need for handling life’s challenges. It’s there in the Bible, and that Bible is, amongst other things, the Manufacturer’s Instruction Manual. In fact, that Manufacturer’s Instruction Book will lead you to Jesus who is wisdom personified.
John Westendorp