God can give us wisdom to live our lives well
Daily Scripture
James 1:2-5, 3:13-18
James 1
2 My brothers and sisters, think of the various tests you encounter as occasions for joy. 3 After all, you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 Let this endurance complete its work so that you may be fully mature, complete, and lacking in nothing. 5 But anyone who needs wisdom should ask God, whose very nature is to give to everyone without a second thought, without keeping score. Wisdom will certainly be given to those who ask.
James 3
13 Are any of you wise and understanding? Show that your actions are good with a humble lifestyle that comes from wisdom. 14 However, if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, then stop bragging and living in ways that deny the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above. Instead, it is from the earth, natural and demonic. 16 Wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and everything that is evil. 17 What of the wisdom from above? First, it is pure, and then peaceful, gentle, obedient, filled with mercy and good actions, fair, and genuine. 18 Those who make peace sow the seeds of justice by their peaceful acts.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
“Moral action is described in agricultural terms (sowing and reaping; see Proverbs 22:8; 1 Corinthians 9:11; Galatians 6:7-8). Justice is the outcome of the actions of those who make peace. This is a reminder of Jesus’ saying ‘Happy are people who make peace, because they will be called God’s children’ (Matthew 5:9).” * Jesus refused to copy the violent way Rome ruled. His influence on people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. did more to bring about justice than all the violent movements in his day and since.
- Scholar N. T. Wright wrote, “These characteristics…. are hard to acquire and hard to maintain…. They only appear where there has been a steady habit of prayer and self-discipline…. It would be worth spending the time to work through [verse 17] one by one. Do it slowly…. note the times, the places, and particularly the people, that make it hard for you to live this way…. The answer is this. Wisdom comes ‘from above’. Pray for it.” ** Will you accept the challenge?
- James did not write through naïve, rose-colored glasses. He knew human nature is not at all inclined to view tests as “occasions for joy.” In verse 5 he wrote that God will freely give anyone who asks, not abstract “wisdom,” but the wisdom needed to take the long view of life and trust in God’s ultimate goodness. When has God given you wisdom to face tough life challenges? Can you look back and see ways God has “grown you” through hard times in your life?
Prayer
Loving Jesus, your love, then and now, can look impossibly soft and naïve. Give me a clear view of history, of the ways your love has defeated violence and hate over and over. Give me the courage to live out your love. Amen.
GPS Insights
Gwyn Thomas
Gwyn Thomas serves in donor relations at Resurrection. She’s a Boston native and moved to Kansas City in 2020. Her husband Blake is a provisional elder in the UMC and is a Congregational Care Pastor at Resurrection Leawood. Her favorite pastimes include pottery, hiking, frisbee, trying new restaurants, and spending time with her daughter and their large orange cat, Tuna.
I love the certainty of today’s text from James. “After all, you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” Do you know that? Have you reflected on the tests you might be in the midst of and thanked God for them? I’m not sure I am as quick to gratitude without the prompting of Scripture. Of course, it is easier to look back and find the wisdom to know some circumstances produced good fruit.
The years I spent studying at a Christian University proved to be some of the most challenging to my faith because it was the first time I was encountering such diversity of thought. I went to a Christian University, but it was a liberal arts school and many of those in attendance were not there for the religious perspective, but solely the academics. I was faced with tough questions about what I believed and why by my peers, all while doing the personal processing of moving away from home and finding my own faith community. It was through those hard conversations that I found certainty in parts of my faith I was forced to defend or wrestle with.
I don’t find myself in as many of those challenging conversations lately and part of me misses that confrontation. Those conversations led to self-discovery and exploration through authors, Scripture and prayer. I can now look back and find gratitude for how the moments of doubt have guided me toward wisdom.
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* Patrick J. Hartin, study note on James 3:18 in The CEB Study Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013, p. 458NT.
** Wright, N. T., Early Christian Letters for Everyone (The New Testament for Everyone) (p. 25). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.
