Lesson 2: Faith’s petition
 James 1:5-8
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
6 But let him ask 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.
7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

In the context of these verses, when we face trials we are to ask God for what He wants to teach us through this particular trial – even if we think we already know. Sometimes we have been through the same trial before, and have learned the first step of what Jesus wants us to become. For example, if we lost our wallet with money in it, we learned that Jesus wants us to release to Him our thinking of money as being our security. So when we lose a job, we remember the wallet and ask Him how He wants to deepen this release-of-things in our life.

There are many verses in the Bible which tell us God answers our prayers – but there are conditions for us to receive those answers. (We have another study available which talks about this in much greater depth – called School of Prayer).

One of those conditions is listed with this wonderful promise in Verse 5 above. The condition is that we must not doubt. Two of the other conditions are that we must make Jesus and His Kingdom our first priority (Matthew 6:33) and that we must not ask for our own selfish reasons (this will be the subject in a later lesson as we study this in James chapter 4). This promise states that wisdom is given in response to our trust.


 Someone might think this means that if we just believe it hard enough we will get what we want. This is not what these verses say. Our faith should not be in ourselves and our ability to believe (Ephesians 2:8), our faith should be in Jesus to be able to do what He has promised. We cannot, by our trust, make someone keep their promise, but our trust in them is damaged when they do not keep such promise.

Our faith in God is based on His ability to keep His promises rather than on whether or not we get what we want. When we base our faith on whether we get what we want, our faith will never grow because God will not give us anything that will harm us and we cannot see far enough into the future to know if something we ask for will do so.

 Wisdom, something Jesus wants to give us, is a special kind of wisdom that this world cannot give. The world may give us some kinds of knowledge, but God says only a deep respect for Him can begin to give us wisdom (Psalm 111:10). Also, Proverbs is filled with practical wisdom from God. It is a great place to begin looking for His wisdom when you ask Him for it.

*Memorize James 1:5 - If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.