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. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. James 1:5-7
While not a malevolent person, Reuben was judged by his dying father as ‘unstable as water’ and for this reason, it was prophesied of him and his offspring: ‘thou shalt not excel’ (Genesis 49:4). Just as water cannot remain in place by itself, but spills and is absorbed by the earth, so Reuben’s indecisiveness in times of trial rendered him weak and vacillating in moral character.
Since water has no ability to fix itself upon a foundation, the waters of the sea are whipped up into waves by action of the winds which blow upon it. These waves are driven wherever the external forces carry them. Such is the professed believer who wavers in faith.
Circumstances arise in each of our lives which require wisdom. But God’s promise is that when we ask for wisdom, He ‘giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him’. Since there is no ambiguity in this promise, why is that when we ask, we continue to wander in doubt? Since God’s promises cannot fail, the fault lies with ourselves.
Later in his epistle, James declares, ‘Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts’ (James 4:3). We see therefore, that the reason why we do not receive what we ask for is because we’re seeking our own lusts and desires. With this self-centred mindset, even if God did offer us wisdom, we would not receive it because heavenly wisdom is not what we seek. As the apostle Paul states, ‘the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him’ (1 Corinthians 2:14).
Through the discipline of ‘active contemplation’ – developed by Ignatius of Loyola – the Jesuits made their minds impervious to doubt, wavering not to carry out the sanguinary orders of their superior. But the forcing away of doubt is not exercising faith. Asking in faith is not so much the spiritual exercise of removing doubt from the mind as it is the surrender of ourselves to the will of God, which we find clearly defined in Inspiration. It is a promise that ‘if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us’ (1 John 5:14).
The winds of circumstance will not cause to waver the man who asks in faith, as his feet are planted securely upon the Rock of truth which ever lightens a clear path for his feet.
Christopher Sparks