Devotion for Tuesday, August 30th, 2011
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. -James 1:5
I’m amazed at how practical the book of James is. He tells us in this verse to ask for wisdom. When we are going through “divers temptations” or various trials (remember yesterday?) we need wisdom to know what decisions to make. I need wisdom even in the normal day to day decisions I make, and so that much more when I’m going through difficult circumstances! James tells us to ask God for wisdom, and then he makes the statement that God gives wisdom liberally or generously.
Wisdom is the ability to correctly and efferently apply knowledge and judgment to your life’s circumstances. Talk about valuable. What’s amazing is that James says that the only thing holding you back from attaining wisdom is asking God for it.
Application:
Have you ever asked God for wisdom? If you haven’t today is a great day to ask for it. You need it, and he’ll give it to you generously if you ask sincerely (more on that tomorrow).
If you have asked for wisdom before, ask for wisdom specifically in the various arena’s of your life. “God, I need wisdom with my parents.” “God, I need wisdom with that person at work/school.” You get the idea. This should be a prayer that you pray all the time!
Study the Scriptures with Ben Jennings 
I actually haven’t asked for wisdom. And icthink I should. It’s an important part of ur life. It would be a great day to ask for wisdom. I’m going to challenage myself and ask today for wisdom. If he says he will give it to u then u shouldn’t take a chance, u should go ahead and get it! 😀 thts what I got out of it today! 🙂
I think^ sorry typo.
Easy to apply, huh Trisitan? ! I hope you got to make wise decisions today!
Good job Tristi!!!:P
Thanks Pastor Ben! 🙂 u and the other leaders @ church like Laura John Tim sandi and pastor bales. U guys encourage me to go far! 😀
And a lot more!!!
So it’s saying that if you ask for wisdom god will give it to you abd I haven’t asked for wisdom ethier as for tristian…I’m gonna ask for wisdom but after school cuz if I do it today I’m gonna be late for the bus..so wisdom is coming my way!! 😀
Hillarious! That was wise Mafalda. You can ask Him anywhere and anytime. Good job!
Thank you!! 🙂
I have asked for wisdom on many of issues. It’s an amazing thing to get wisdom or direction from the perfect God in heaven. Something to remember is when you ask God for wisdom in different trials you have to make a decision to act upon the wisdom He gives you. Sometimes the wise thing to do is the hard thing and so when we ask we should also ask for wisdom to do whatever He ends up having us to do. With wisdom comes a form of responsibility to then do what is right.
There have been some times lately that we have had to ask God for wisdom in what to do about Melana’s eyes and if we should hAve surgery or not and through prayer God has given us a peace and an understanding that this would be the best situation for her and the risks were minimal. God always follows through with His promises. He is perfectly faithful.
What an amazing passage we all need wisdom but its so cool that if we ask God for it he will give it too us thats so cool. Ask God for wisdom!
Good stuff Blake.
Hey- tomorrow I’m going to help teach you mediashout at church. 🙂 I haven’t forgot about you!
I’m in english class right now reading all of your comments, and it is so encouraging! Wisdom is SO important and we all need it! I’m going to pray on the way to lunch that God gives me wisdom to get through the rest of the day! Thanks for being so faithful everyone! Devotions are such a good way to brighten up your day! 🙂
Is it wise to be on your iphone in class? 🙂
JK Mel- have a great day!
It’s so true that James is such a practical and useful book. First, he tells us to embrace trials that come our way because we can use them to strengthen our faith and move closer to God. Then, he tells us we can ask God for wisdom to help us deal with these difficulties.
Reading God’s word is one way to ask for wisdom. He has put all the answers there for us. Praying is another way. He always hears us. And don’t forget, we have God’s wisdom with us every day through the Holy Spirit inside us. God is always speaking to us. We just need to slow down and hear Him.
Even if sometimes His answer is not really what we want to hear, it is wise to listen. Megan made a good point when she said its our responsibility to act when God is showing us the right thing to do. I don’t always understand what God’s plan is for me. All I can do is ask God each day to give me the wisdom to seek His will and obey Him. His plan is always right and good.
That’s a good point, Sandi. In a way, we are seeking God for wisdom when we read what He has already given to us!
I have prayed to God about giving me wisdom a lot especially these past few weeks! Every night before i go to bed i pray asking God for wisdom and strength to get through the school day with a smile on my face. & guess what? School’s been getting better and better, & i feel like my prayers are being answered!! Wisdom is so important to have. Without wisdom, i make stupid decisions! Sometimes i dont even ask God what to do in a situation because i dont even think twice about it. But when i do, it gives me relief & helps me feel like i’m not going through it alone! I pray in between my classes sometimes just to ask God to help me through my day. & He sure does 🙂
Another thing i wanted to add – my friend Bella & I somehow got on the topic of the “end of the world.” she asked if i was scared for it & i said no. She kept asking “why why why!” and i said because i have nothing to be afraid of, I know where i’m going when i die! Bella asked if i was saved, and i said yes, and i found out she is saved too! People around us started saying they believed they were going to Heaven when they die, because they were saved. I found that awesome!!! Bella made a point that she wasnt scared, but she was scared for her friends who aren’t saved. Thats exactly how i think all our attitides should be! Jesus can come back anytime, & our friends need Jesus! Just a little side note that i thought was cool 🙂
that is so cool Lindsey.
Before I started homeschooling Mikayla and Mackenzie I didn’t think i would be able to do it. Such a big responsibility. But when I realized that this is what God wanted me to do I figured He certainly would give me the tools to do it. Well I am in my 6th year now and I have God to thank for getting me through it. I don’t ask for wisdom near enough though. When I have though, I always notice a difference in my teaching life and my life in general. When I don’t pray for it I see how it backfires on me. This is another great reminder for me to get out of the way and let God lead my life.
Wow that is so true I don’t nearly enough pray for wisdom and I really should more often! I think it’s cool that if you ask for wisdom for God will provide it for you! Wisdom is a thing that comes around in everyday life we should pray for, but we shouldn’t pray just for us we should pray for our friends,family, and the people you know and see!! I pray for wisdom to make the right descisions in every day life!!! I just thought today’s passage was really cool!:D
Mackenzie!, I like what you said about not only praying for ourselves, but everyone around us too!! Good idea!! 😀
I have asked God for wisdom before, but I don’t think I do it enough! “let him ask of God.” This command is a big part of prayer! Sometimes God puts us through hard times to show us how much we need to depend on him, no matter what. Usually I only ask when things get hard, but like Ben said, we should be asking God for wisdom daily! I know it’s hard, and I forget sometimes and think that I don’t need to ask cause God already knows everything! But it doesn’t matter if He already knows what we are thinking, He still wants us to ask! & not just one time.. He wants us to be persistent with our prayers! It’s hard, but it will be so worth it in the end! I want to get to a point in my life that when I’m going through something hard, the first thing I think of is to ask God to give me wisdom and help me through it! 🙂
AHH! Everyone has been doing such an awesome job on these devotions! What a great way to start a new devotional series and a great way to start a week! I’m proud of all of you! Let’s not let this momentum fall, let’s keep striving to get better!! 😀
On to the devotion:
Wisdom is so important! I know I’ve definetly asked God for wisdom before, but no where near as much as I should be. Pastor Ben said that we should be asking God for wisdom everyday. As some of you have mentioned praying for something everyday is hard to remember sometimes. Something that helps me, is having a prayer list. Like a legit list on paper. I have to write down everything that I need to be praying for each day because if I didn’t I would forget about a lot and important things at that! Praying for others is extremely important. Everyone needs prayer whether they think they don’t need it or if they even want it. Prayer is so important in our lives as we learned doing these devotions. I’ve learned by having a prayer list, it helps make prayer more part of your everyday life and a priority! 🙂
Wisdom can help in so many ways, and we need to pray everyday to God for wisdom in the areas of our lives that we need it!
I’m praying for all of you for a great week in school! Love you guys! See you guys tomorrow night! 😀
Great idea Mel. I know when I have a list going I find more things to pray about cause I’m not just trying to remember ones I heard and then add my own into the mix. It’s a great way to keep track and also to mark when God answers them. I still have mine from my trip to Thailand and it’s so awesome that He is still answering some of the prayers I wrote 6 years ago.
I was Meg’s answer to prayer! 🙂
Say hi to “white face”
I dont ask for wisdom as much as I should and that is not right so I am going to try to ask for wisdom evry night I think I dont know what to type!!!!!!!! If I am doing something wrong please let me know so I can fix it……Thankyou!!!!! 😀
Kendra, sometimes I worry about saying the wrong thing.too. But the truth is there is no wrong answer. We are a family. We are here to encourage each other and get closer to God together. I have learned so much from all of you. You’re doing a great job.
Sandi is exactly right Kendra. We’re not looking for perfection. What is needed is a teach-able attitude!
Thankyou both! that really helped me to understand what the real meaning of this is about!!!!!!!!!! 😀
Great job everyone! It’s simple yet effective, when you are going through hard times ask God to give you wisdom to get through it. This is definitely cool because including God in your descision making process is definitely a good idea. So the application for me is to include God and pray for wisdom when I am faced with decsisions.
I’m proud of you Ryan. You’re really being faithful to this. Good job!
It is a little late for these past few nights, and apparently too early for tomorrow’s devotional, even tho’ it is technically Wed as I type this, but I just want to be on record as saying that I am really proud of the way everyone (that is participating) is participating. I gave everyone at Connection Group this past Sunday a challenge and an encouragement to either start, or stay at the daily devotional, and the response has been really encouraging, as Pastor Ben remarked yesterday! Thanks to you who have responded and been that encouragement to me, and to those who have fallen off a little this week, I hope to see your presence here again soon (it’s the only way to get something out of it, is to put something into it). My prayer this evening/morning is for wisdom in how to go about influencing those that haven’t yet tried the devotion to do so, and to be obedient to follow that wisdom God supplies!
That will take some wisdom from us, won’t it? Thanks John!