But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind.

I believe this is a verse that many Christians have struggled with. It creates in them a sense that when they pray there can not be any sense of doubt in their words.They may enter into a sincere prayer for wisdom and then a small thought of doubt creeps in. “Can God really hear me?” And they think, “Wait, was that doubting?” And then the moment they thought of about doubting they think I must be doubting if I am even thinking about doubting. And they start over trying to pray with boldness and confidence without a hint of doubt.

This is not what James is talking about here.

This is statement is more about really believing that God is who is says He is and that God can do what He says he can do. And we trust in his character even though our situation might make us think there is no good way out. There are going to be moments of doubts but we continue to trust.

The writer in proverbs reminds us to lean not on your own understanding. When we are seeking truth, there can be a lot of voices in our life. James in reminded us to believe that there is only one who IS truth. Seek Him. Seek Him only. When we begin to seek truth outside of God will will find ourselves being tossed back and forth like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind.

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him

When we experience difficulties or trials in our lives, often one of our first responses is to ask questions: why is this happening? why now? how do I get out of this this?

This period of questioning can be helpful or hurtful.

If our questions lead us to seek God it is helpful. But too often our questions lead us inward causing us to spiral inside ourselves. There is where despair and depression can grip us. We can get lost in the “why?s”

James doesn’t tell us how to figure out the “why” but reminds us to recognize the benefits of any trial. Trials mature our faith. The question we should ask is how do we go through a trial so that our faith “may be mature and complete not lacking anything”.

As Christians, our view of trials must be different than how the world view trials. The world says trials are detrimental to our life and so they will encourage us to move out of a trial as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, too often Christians view trials the same way the world does. For example: the divorce rate is essential the same among Christians as it is among non-Christians. Statistics show when Christians endure difficulties in marriage we bail out the same way the non-Christian does. This should not be!

This is why James is urging Christians to seek God for wisdom. And not just for those who lack wisdom but we should all ask.

The statement “if anyone lacks wisdom” is a first class condition in Greek that assumes a condition is true for the sake of argument. In other words, what James is saying is, “Since we all lack wisdom, ask God for it.” Or we could say, since we do not have the mind of God, we need to be continually seeking Him in prayer and in His word to know his will and desire.

We all in some way lack wisdom. We have finite minds. We have a sin natural battling against us. Proverbs 14:12 says, “there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”

Our own natural instinct is normally a self-centered instinct which is why we need to be constantly dying to our self daily and seeking God. Our natural instinct during trials in particular is typically not going to be a God-centered response.

So we ask God for wisdom.

This type of wisdom is not book smarts or street smarts but Biblical wisdom. The greek word for wisdom is “sophia” which means ‘what God has revealed about his will for human life.”

If we don’t understand God’s view of life, James says we should keep asking. This word “ask” is a present, active word. You keep doing it. It is not a one time thing.

Verse 5 tells us that when we ask God will give it generously. Here we see an aspect of God’s character that he is a generous God. He does not hold back. He is not stingy with his wisdom or his mercy or his love. 1 John 3:1 talks about “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us…” again, we see he pours out his love on us. God wants to give fully to us.

When it comes to having godly wisdom, God greatly desires for us to live according to His wisdom. He knows the benefits and joy of living life with His perspective and the dangers of living life with a worldy perspective. Because he loves us he says, “ask me and I will generously give you wisdom to endure this trial.”

Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Trials test our faith and the testing of our faith should lead to maturity. James is telling his audience to consider these trials joy because it is allowing them to be matured in their faith.

In verse 3 we saw that the first aspect of our faith being tested is that it develops perseverance. Perseverance is the ability to stand and keeping moving in the face of opposition and hardships. As we continue to trust God in our trials and see his strength and peace lived out in us, it builds perseverance the next time we encounter difficulties. This strengthening and maturing our faith.

James says that “perseverance must finish its work…” This work is a lifetime work. We are constantly persevering through Go’sd strength. Isaiah tells us that God gives “strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” Isaiah says that this strength is for those who hope in the Lord. Those who persevere are those who hope in the Lord and it is a daily, monthly and lifetime process.

As long as we are living in this flesh, battling a sin nature in a sinful world there will always be trials giving us an opportunity to persevere.

We may say what is the point of persevering? Verse 4 tells us that the point is so that our faith may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Is it possible to ever not lack anything? We all have areas that we are more susceptible to fall into sin. These are the areas that need to be strengthened through God’s grace. Trials allow these areas to be tested and matured. The other thought with “not lacking anything” is that a mature faith moves us into living life with a God-perspective. We see life through his eyes and his heart. When we do that we can say as David did in Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing” (NET translation). When we see life through God’s perspective we can recognize as Paul did that His “grace is sufficient” for me. His power is made perfect in our weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Our trials are not pointless and certainly not something to quickly dismiss but God uses them as one of the primary ways that we are matured.

because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

James begins his letter to his persecuted audience with unexpected words: consider it joy when you have trials. This is probably not what they wanted to hear. But it wasn’t a fake expression of joy that James was writing about. It was that deep rooted joy found in the soul of those who are new creations in Christ.

In verse 4 James immediately makes the connection between our trials and our spiritual lives. He equates trials with the testing of our faith. He doesn’t define trials but his audience and bible readers can quickly develop the definition  through their own lives. Everyone understands struggle and pain and hardships. No one escapes them. Verse 2 says, “when we face trials” not “if”. Every single person walks through seasons of trials.

As believers we should immediately make the connection between trials and the testing of our faith. Our response in difficulty times is a spiritual response. We respond in view of our faith.

In verse 3, James says that the first benefit of our faith being tested is that it develops perseverance. Perseverance is the ability to keep doing something despite opposition or difficulties.

Why is perseverance important to our Christian walk and our relationship with God? One, perseverance strengthens us. It builds spiritual toughness in us. Too many Christians wither when they encounter hard times. But when you learn to persevere it creates a boldness in us. This strength does not come from ourselves but through God. When we fully trust God we see him become our protector and deliverer. This changes us. As we encounter new trials our instinct now becomes onen of trust and not fear.

After the death of Moses, Joshua was given the huge task of leader the Israelites. This seemed like a daunting role. God new what Joshua was thinking and so he encouraged him with these words: “Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Joshua trusted Hod and persevered through many trials as leader of Israel. At the end of Joshua’s life, he spoke to the nation about trusting in God and makes this personal declaration, “as for me as my household, we will serve the Lord.” His persevered and it created in him a strength and a boldness and a peace that simply declared, “I will follow God no matter what.” What I great thing to proclaim!

That is what perseverance does for us. It allows us to see that God is trustworthy and faithful and we can follow him no matter what.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,

In verse 1 we mentioned that one of the crucial words was “scattered” as James referenced his audience. His audience is scattered because they have been persecuted for their faith. They are going through difficulties and hardships. They may have seen their own family members and friends murdered because of their allegiance to Jesus Christ. These early Christians are trying to learn how to follow Jesus in the middle of trials and they are probably looking for answers and encouragement from James.

Essentially in verse 1 James addresses his audience by saying ‘To my fellow Christians who are going through difficulties time…” You would think in verse 2 James would continue that thought by saying, “I’m so sorry for your pain” or “please be encouraged that God has not abandoned you”.

But he writes something completely unexpected. He says “consider it pure joy whenever you face trials”. And not just any kind of joy but PURE joy. Our attitude toward trials should be joy. He is asking Christians to completely change their view of struggles and hardships. He is telling them because of their relationship with Jesus Christ their life has change. Therefore, since their life has changed their view of life has change and one of the big changes is our attitude toward trials.

But it is not a forced attitude of joy. It is not faking it just to fake it. Verse 3 gives us the “Because…”

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.

Too often we often skip pass the introduction sentence in New Testament letters but in this first sentence James sets the context for how we should be reading this book. The context is found in one word: scattered. He is writing to Jewish Christians (“to the twelve tribes”) who have been persecuted because of their relationship with Jesus. He is writing to people who are away from their homes and away from their normal way of life. He is writing to people who have and are experiencing trials, hardship and difficulties because of their faith. Their faith in Christ has not made their external, physical life easy in fact very hard and painful.

As we enter into verse 2, we need keep this context in mind because it impacts how we view James’ words.