We all know what it is to doubt. When we hear something that sounds too good to be true, we doubt that it’s true. When we see an infomercial that touts the benefits of an exercise machine or some miracle pill— “but wait, there’s more!” they tell us. Is there really? Doubtful. When a certain Minnesotan NFL franchise has a chance at the playoffs, maybe even the Super Bowl, will they manage to pull it off? Doubtful. Where do these doubts come from? Well, one way that they come is from other people. They tell us that they’ve tried the exercise machine, “That was a waste of money,” they say. No need to try it ourselves— we trust the person telling us, so we doubt. We tend to trust people we know or maybe trust a consensus of the majority on certain things, so we doubt what others claim—especially when it sounds outlandish. Another way that doubt comes into our lives is through experience. If you’ve been a fan of a certain Minnesotan NFL franchise, you’ve learned through experience that no matter how well we’re doing in our season, eventually, we’ll choke. Call it doubting, call it being savvy, call it being discerning, or even call it being smart or realistic, we doubt.
By the way, I think that the ability to doubt is a good thing. After all, do you really want to be swindled by someone who is saying that they’ve created a miracle drug that will cure whatever ails you, only to find out that it’s just sugar?
But, oftentimes, we doubt what we should have faith in, and we trust a lie that we should see right through.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.” James 1:5–8
Because we can’t see each other, I won’t ask you to raise your hand if you immediately read this and thought to yourself, “Well, I guess I’m not going to receive anything from the Lord.” Why do we think like that? Because we all doubt! We know ourselves too well. We don’t believe that our faith is strong enough to receive the wisdom that we’re asking for.
But where does our doubt about our faith come from? Maybe we’re basing our doubts about the strength of our faith on what other people have said about us, so we doubt ourselves. They have told us who we are and so we feel that we shouldn’t even try— we trust the person telling us, so we doubt. Or maybe we doubt that our faith is strong enough to receive wisdom because of past experience. Maybe we’ve tried to have faith, but it just hasn’t worked out and we interpret that as not having “strong enough” faith. We tried, but we choked. And maybe, we’ve lived long enough believing our faith is weak so much and for so long that, by now, we call it being discerning, we call it being smart or even realistic— but we doubt.
All this because of what others have told us or what we have told ourselves. Our faith just isn’t that strong. So, best not to “expect to receive anything from the Lord.”
But this passage isn’t about the strength of your faith. Don’t get so caught up on James’ warning that we miss the promise—and the promise is this: God gives generously to all without finding fault. That’s what you can put your faith in. We don’t receive the wisdom that we need from God because of the strength of our faith. We receive the wisdom that we need from God because he is the God who gives generously to all without finding fault. If we become convinced of just that one sentence, then I believe that our doubts can begin to dissipate. How can he not give us the wisdom that we need if he is the God who gives generously to all without finding fault? He’s not looking for your faults. He’s not looking for a lack of faith. Trust him. He will not refuse you.
Okay, but then what do we do with James’ warning about doubting and double-mindedness?
Here are a few ways we can look at this:
- In context, we have to recognize that James has been talking about adopting God’s perspective regarding trials, namely, that we should count our trials as “pure joy” because our trials are working for us to shape us into steadfast people who are “mature and complete.” And if rejoicing because of trials sounds crazy to you, it is. At least, according to the wisdom of our world. According to the wisdom of our world, trials are not to be rejoiced in but rejected. So, adopting a perspective in which trials are cause for rejoicing requires God’s wisdom. So, James is not being overly broad in what he’s saying God will give us. He’s certainly not saying that we can ask God to increase our intellect. He’s focused on us receiving the wisdom that we need to see our trials from God’s perspective.
- So, if we have asked for wisdom before and felt like we haven’t received it, we can look back and ask, “Was I asking God for his perspective on the matter, or was I hoping for something else?” Maybe we were asking for wisdom so that we could reject trial, avoid it, escape from it. But asking for wisdom for that reason may have been rejecting what God wanted to allow in our lives to mature us.
- Another way of looking at this would be: if we are doubting that God will give us the wisdom that we need in the first place, are we in a position to recognize the wisdom that he gives us at all when it comes? Here’s what I mean. Let’s say that you’re expecting an important letter from a close friend. They tell you to be alert for the letter— that it might not come in an envelope you expect. So, every day, you tear through all the mail that you get— including the junk mail— to see if the letter has come. Eventually, you find it and there’s great rejoicing.
Compare that to being told by a friend that there’s a letter coming for you, and you doubt that the friend will ever send anything, so we don’t look for it. We don’t tear through all the mail to find it. You end up throwing away the letter, having never opened it, because you had doubted that it would come in the first place. I think that if we doubt God’s goodness in the first place, we won’t tear through what God is sending us. We won’t even be looking for God’s wisdom after we’ve asked for it. Maybe we shouldn’t expect anything from the Lord not because he’s not sending the wisdom, but because we’re not receiving it.
Whatever we think of James’ warning, let’s be resolved to remember that God is the God who gives generously to all without finding fault and put our faith in him. He’s not too good to be true— he’s too good to not be true. He won’t disappoint us. He won’t choke. You can be smart and realistic and have faith. The most real thing in the universe is this generous God.
Believe the promise that he will give generously to you the wisdom you seek without finding fault in you.
