For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
When wisdom is asked of God, the one who wavers in asking is not to expect to receive anything from Him. The one who lacks wisdom is to ask of a giving God who gives liberally without reproach, but must ask in faith without wavering, for the waverer is like a sea wave driven and tossed, double-minded and unstable in all ways. Wavering is swinging between faith and unbelief, professing trust while acting in distrust, at times believing and then doubting and yielding to discouragement. Receiving is according to steady faith that trusts Christ to give what is asked and holds the blessing as already in hand, persisting in prayer without letting delay turn to doubt. That wisdom is to be sought from God Himself in faith, not from men leaned upon in place of Him, for finite helpers without wisdom from above are a broken reed that disappoints and misleads.
Words and Immediate Context
The wavering asker who comes to God for wisdom is to expect nothing from the Lord. One who asks while wavering in faith, wavering in doubt, and lacking faith receives nothing of what is asked. Such wavering is like a sea wave driven and tossed by the wind, and the one who so wavers is double-minded and unstable in all ways. Asking for wisdom therefore requires trusting God rather than doubting, and after praying the request is to be kept in mind with trust in the promise to hear, remaining like a dependent child waiting for help and blessing. Unlike the unstable waverer, God gives wisdom generously and His goodness does not change.
The warning stands in a fixed sequence: one who lacks wisdom is to ask of God, who gives to all liberally and upbraids not, but must ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed, and the double-minded man is unstable in all his ways, so the wavering asker receives nothing from the Lord. Receiving is according to faith, and wavering blocks the answer unless the asker comes with full assurance of faith, believing the Word that God will do just as He said. The burdened are therefore not to look at difficulties and talk of them, nor to lay the burden on overburdened brothers, pastors, neighbors, or other finite weak men and their finite wisdom, since finite men have no certain light unless they first receive it from heaven. Instead they are to take it all to the Lord in prayer, bow before God who is near, ask Him for what they need, and trust the Father of lights from whom every good and perfect gift comes, for God is the source of all light and wisdom, acquainted with human ignorance and darkness, in whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning.
The wider setting begins with falling into diverse temptations and counting it joy, because the trying of faith works patience unto perfection and completeness. Those lacking wisdom are then to ask the God who gives liberally without reproach, but they must ask in steady faith without wavering, for the wavering, wind-tossed, double-minded asker obtains no help from God. Receiving requires individual work of taking the Word of life as one's own, bringing the promises to the Lord and claiming them, counting trials as joy, enduring temptation when tried, and relying not on any human power but on the strength of the Lord. In contrast, the one who endures temptation and is tried will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. The same passage from James 1:2-7, including the statement that the doubting asker should expect nothing, was also brought to bear on examining a school's financial condition.
The promise of heavenly wisdom to any who lack it is full and broad, to be taken just as it reads. It is conditional, given only when asked in unwavering faith by one who accepts God as Guide and Counselor and brings plans to God and lays them all before Him. It holds God's promise of counsel even for one who is greatly burdened and cannot sleep and needs counsel of God, a promise to be believed when seeking Him.
Meaning of Wavering Faith
Wavering means oscillating between faith and unbelief, speaking as though trusting God at one moment while acting in unbelief the next. In asking God for wisdom it is to be sometimes believing then doubting, grasping faith then yielding to every discouragement, like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. This applies especially to one who lacks wisdom about duty, such as whether it is his duty to preach, and who has become discouraged and is on the point of letting go of everything, for only steady faith receives guidance and is made new.
The waverer is pictured as a sea wave driven and tossed by the wind, with faith no more settled than the waves. Faith must therefore be cultivated so that it does not shrink when tested. Conduct that shifts with emotion rather than principle shows a person not firmly anchored in God, and such inconsistency makes the work unreliable.
To be double-minded and unstable in all ways is to be divided in purpose, divided in trust, and divided in heart. It is to seek to follow one's own will while professing to do God's will, God not forcing the will so that He cannot lead those too proud to be taught and bent on having their own way, His promise of wisdom and guidance being only for those willing to follow Him wholly. It is to be divided between God and earthly desires, absorbed in worldly customs and pursuits rather than committed to God, so that instability in faith and conduct leaves a person without assurance of receiving from God. Selfish aims and divided loyalty distort faith and character and lead away from God, calling for making God's will one's own and placing every faculty in His service. Inconstancy begins when a person does not give himself fully to God or keeps something back, leaving an opening for temptation, so that when faith cannot see God clearly there is no barrier against sin. A divided, undecided person who tries to avoid loss rather than commit to doing what is right is unsettled and cannot be used in God's work, and a passing glance at faults followed by no change does not make a person upright or steady.
What the wavering person calls faith is only the impulse of the moment, showing itself in praying little and having little real trust in God. He trusts his own working and planning more than God's working for him and takes himself into his own keeping, failing to realize his own need and God's willingness to give. He does not persevere in keeping his requests before the Lord, and this unbelief without living faith is the cause of spiritual weakness and of not seeing more of the power of God.
Doubting Christ's power or willingness to forgive when past sins feel overwhelming is wavering faith. With true repentance toward God and firm faith in Christ, sins are covered and transgressions pardoned. People should not instead let impulse and feeling govern them.
Condition for Receiving Answer
Receiving is according to faith, for the one who asks must ask in steady, trusting faith in Christ, believing He will give what is asked. The blessing is to be trusted as already in hand, as if already in possession, without fluctuating between hope and fear, despair and despondency. God gives wisdom liberally to all and upbraids not, giving as promised, so to ask and then doubt dishonors Him, while wavering leaves the asker unstable like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed and blocks the answer. Success in God's work is proportionate to faith, so workers must ask for wisdom with trust rather than doubt, with much larger faith in God as sure Helper, Sufficiency, and exceeding great Reward, instead of remaining weak by leaning on human beings who are powerless to help unless they first receive wisdom from on high. Without the courage, strength, sustaining hold upon comfort and power, and peace that come from holding communion with God and laying all wants before Him, the wavering man receives nothing from the Lord.
After praying, the request is to be kept in mind with trust in God's promise to hear. The petitioner is to remain like a dependent child waiting for help and blessing, persisting in prayer. Delay must not be allowed to lead to doubt or unbelief, for God gives generously and does not reproach those who ask Him. Faith must be cultivated, exercised, and strengthened so that it does not shrink when tested. Firm reliance on promised help is to be kept without losing faith and courage, at the urging of the Lord Jesus that every soul trust Him.
Prayer in a mere form of words without earnest sincerity, fervent desire for help, and expectation of receiving gets nothing from God. Asking and receiving are closely linked together only when prayer is offered in faith. To receive what God has promised a person must believe that God is and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him, and such prayer of faith brings corresponding returns, while prayer without faith avails nothing. Weak faith, lack of faith, and wavering distrust keep prayer from being answered. Distrust and wavering separate the believer from God.
When prayer receives no immediate answer, faith must hold firm and not give way, with strong confidence in God enduring until the needed blessing comes in its time when help is most needed. Without living faith there is no receiving, and this unbelief is the cause of spiritual weakness and of not seeing more of the power of God. What the wavering person calls faith is only the impulse of the moment, showing itself in praying little, having little real trust, trusting his own working and planning more than God's working, taking himself into his own keeping, failing to realize his own need and God's willingness to give, and not persevering in keeping requests before the Lord. Petitions are to be offered in the name of Jesus with unwavering faith that God hears and will answer, carrying difficulties to God with humility and counseling with Him in every matter because He never misleads. Depending chiefly on human help and human guidance instead of God lets unbelief steal in and faith die.
Ask God Not People
Wisdom is to be asked of God directly in faith, not sought from an overburdened brother or from finite human wisdom, and the one who wavers in asking will receive nothing from the Lord. God gives liberally and upbraids not, but the gift comes only to asking in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed, double-minded and unstable in all his ways. The burden is not to be laid on pastors, neighbors, counselors, conference presidents, human guidance, or another person's claimed revelations, nor are other people to be depended on to determine duty or to guide conscience. Instead of looking at difficulties and talking of them, or carrying burdens to fellow men who are weighed down on every hand, the need is to take it all to the Lord in prayer, bow before God who is nigh, and ask Him for what is needed, trusting the Father of lights from whom every good and perfect gift comes, with an individual experience shared with others. Safety is found only in asking God directly in unwavering faith, since finite, weak men have no certain light to give unless they receive it from heaven, and the help needed comes from God alone, the source of all light and wisdom, acquainted with human ignorance and darkness, in whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning.
Trusting man leans on a broken reed and is a snare to souls, bringing weakness, disappointment, and misleading, while leaning on human beings for aid leaves one weak because they are powerless to help unless they first receive wisdom from on high. Finite men depend on their own wisdom, feelings, likes and dislikes, and preferences, and therefore mislead the work and cripple and dwarf those who trust them. Turning away from Christ to seek wisdom from finite human beings is unbelief that dishonors the Master, like leaving pure water to drink from lowland cisterns that hold no water of life. Receiving is according to faith, with much larger faith called for in God as sure Helper, Sufficiency, and exceeding great Reward.
Fellow workers in foreign fields who must decide in an emergency are to decide on the ground where they know the situation better, taking counsel among themselves and asking help from God as their Counselor at their right hand. They are not to place dependence in erring men or wait for permission from a board or committee thousands of miles away that cannot comprehend the situation, but to believe He has given them a certain work to do, knows the great necessities of the different fields, and will guide and prepare the way for all who desire to understand His will and follow in His footsteps. Before taking up a new work a person must move guardedly under the Lord's guidance and be assured orders come from the right source, yielding to His guidance and control, and then the Lord will guide and instruct.
Safety is found only in looking directly to Jesus as the fountainhead of wisdom and source of strength, looking to Him to receive grace and strength for every need. The remedy for unbelief is to cast it away and go directly to the Source of strength, believing to receive pity and compassion from the One who knows the human frame. He gave His own life and bore in His own body the strokes due for transgression of the law of God so that sinners may become prisoners of hope.
Persevering Prayer Without Doubt
The wavering asker is to remain steadfast in asking for wisdom even when the answer is not immediate, holding firmly to the promise rather than growing weary, changing purpose, or losing faith, since wavering from purpose is why many receive nothing. Prayer must express earnest desire to know the divine will joined to steady trust, and delay must not be allowed to lead into doubt or unbelief, for the Giver gives generously and does not reproach those who ask. When prayers are not answered at once the petitioner is to keep waiting and hold faith firm, because wavering distrust separates from God. Strong confidence endures until the needed blessing comes in its time when help is most needed, and separates no more from God.
Prayer is to be learned without doubting, for the divided heart that prays in doubt is not to expect to receive anything. Such prayer is faint and soon forgotten, while watching and guarding speech in keeping with prayer leads instead to blessing and steady, hopeful peace. Petitions are to be offered in the name of Jesus with unwavering faith that God hears and will answer. Difficulties are to be carried to God with humility and every matter counseled with Him because He never misleads, while depending chiefly on human help and human guidance lets unbelief steal in and faith die, and without living faith there is no receiving.
The promise belongs to taking set seasons for silent communion with God in prayer and study of the Word without interruption to sharpen weapons for the harvest field. It belongs to talking the truth, praying the truth, believing the truth and communicating the truth and scattering the incorruptible seed. It belongs to using precious golden hours to cultivate faith and perfect Christian character by watching and praying and drawing on the inexhaustible storehouse and ocean of love placed in Christ's hands, since the Redeemer holds the key to unlock the treasure house of wisdom and gives liberally without reproach to whoever lacks and asks in faith, nothing wavering, while he who wavers like a wave of the sea driven and tossed must not think he will receive anything.
Faithful Life and Character
Asking requires wholehearted trust in the Lord rather than reliance on fickle human wisdom, pride, or selfish ambition. In making plans this means praying, believing, and acting in agreement rather than wavering, with complete surrender to God needed for steadfast faith. Divided commitment and being swayed by other people make a person irresolute and unstable, while trusting one's own judgment instead of God leaves the asker divided and unable to receive. Trust God and His word when asking, then follow the direction He gives, for divided trust reflects a lack of humility in coming to Christ.
God's promise of wisdom and guidance is only for those willing to follow Him wholly. He does not force the will of any, so He cannot lead those who are too proud to be taught and are bent on having their own way, for the double-minded man seeks to follow his own will while professing to do the will of God and gets nothing.
Inconstancy begins when a person does not give himself fully to God or keeps something back, leaving an opening for temptation, and when faith cannot see God clearly there is no barrier against sin. Selfish aims and divided loyalty distort faith and character and lead a person away from God, since making God's will one's own and placing every faculty in His service belongs to seeking wisdom with single purpose. The safe course for developing Christian character during probation is to trust God without uncertainty, holding fast His Word in every circumstance and bringing every power, including thought, under Christ. Doubt deepens with instability until promises and the words and actions of trustworthy people seem unreal, which is why the one unstable in doubt must not expect to receive.
Asking in steady faith means living in close fellowship with Christ, obeying His commands, constantly looking to Jesus, and consulting His will in every perplexity, so that character proves Christ directs and pervades the life. It means inquiring constantly at the throne of grace, asking in every perplexity, uncertainty, and action what the Lord would have done and whether a way is His will and way. Such faithful asking brings familiar intercourse with the divine Leader, oneness with Christ in faithful duty, the most exalted view of His greatness, full obedience, and strength found in confidence in Him. Such trustworthy servants are promoted to positions of trust, while the wavering, double-minded person like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed gets no response.
In daily life and God's work success is proportionate to faith, so workers must ask for wisdom with trust rather than doubt. Each person has a God-given work to do with every God-given faculty of body and mind, and to do it must depend on God, allow the Lord to take supervision, ask the Lord for wisdom, and believe it will be given. In health people must do their part to protect health by obeying the laws of life and then ask God in faith to bless their efforts, since asking God to prevent sickness while disregarding those laws is not faith perfected by works. God answers when doing so can glorify His name, but does not miraculously preserve those who carelessly pursue sickness.
In facing difficulties everything is to be taken to the Lord in prayer and faith rather than talked about or carried to weighed-down fellow men, bowing on the knees before God who is nigh and asking Him for what is needed, trusting the Father of lights from whom every good and perfect gift comes down. Asking for wisdom requires trusting God rather than relying on human counsel or overburdened brothers and finite wisdom, with each person needing an individual experience with Him to share what is received. Believers are to take everything to God in prayer and faith, trusting that strength from Jesus will enable them to overcome. The one who asks in faith, trusts God to fulfill His word, and acts according to God's will receives rich blessings, including spiritual gifts, which are then to be shared with those in need.
Great promises are given to meet temptations because a cunning and cruel foe attends every step and works every moment with all strength and skill to turn people from the right way. He has gained more than six thousand years of continual practice in deceiving and alluring since overcoming the first parents in their Eden home, while each yielding to temptation leaves a person spiritually weak and more ready to yield again. Every repetition of sin blinds the eyes, stifles conviction, and weakens resistance, so that human power to resist keeps decreasing as skill and power to tempt keep increasing, making the temptations of the last days more severe than those of any other age.
The warning applies to seeking God's strength to do what is right, for wavering faith is why people receive nothing from Him. It applies to seeking wisdom and understanding of Scripture, where prayer must be offered in faith, not doubt, because wavering makes a person unstable. It applies to asking for spiritual gifts, where the asker trusts God to fulfill His word and acts according to His will.
When wisdom is asked of God, the one who wavers in asking is not to expect to receive anything from Him. The one who lacks wisdom is to ask of a giving God who gives liberally without reproach, but must ask in faith without wavering, for the waverer is like a sea wave driven and tossed, double-minded and unstable in all ways. Wavering is swinging between faith and unbelief, professing trust while acting in distrust, at times believing and then doubting and yielding to discouragement. Receiving is according to steady faith that trusts Christ to give what is asked and holds the blessing as already in hand, persisting in prayer without letting delay turn to doubt. That wisdom is to be sought from God Himself in faith, not from men leaned upon in place of Him, for finite helpers without wisdom from above are a broken reed that disappoints and misleads.
Words and Immediate Context
The wavering asker who comes to God for wisdom is to expect nothing from the Lord. One who asks while wavering in faith, wavering in doubt, and lacking faith receives nothing of what is asked. Such wavering is like a sea wave driven and tossed by the wind, and the one who so wavers is double-minded and unstable in all ways. Asking for wisdom therefore requires trusting God rather than doubting, and after praying the request is to be kept in mind with trust in the promise to hear, remaining like a dependent child waiting for help and blessing. Unlike the unstable waverer, God gives wisdom generously and His goodness does not change.
The warning stands in a fixed sequence: one who lacks wisdom is to ask of God, who gives to all liberally and upbraids not, but must ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed, and the double-minded man is unstable in all his ways, so the wavering asker receives nothing from the Lord. Receiving is according to faith, and wavering blocks the answer unless the asker comes with full assurance of faith, believing the Word that God will do just as He said. The burdened are therefore not to look at difficulties and talk of them, nor to lay the burden on overburdened brothers, pastors, neighbors, or other finite weak men and their finite wisdom, since finite men have no certain light unless they first receive it from heaven. Instead they are to take it all to the Lord in prayer, bow before God who is near, ask Him for what they need, and trust the Father of lights from whom every good and perfect gift comes, for God is the source of all light and wisdom, acquainted with human ignorance and darkness, in whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning.
The wider setting begins with falling into diverse temptations and counting it joy, because the trying of faith works patience unto perfection and completeness. Those lacking wisdom are then to ask the God who gives liberally without reproach, but they must ask in steady faith without wavering, for the wavering, wind-tossed, double-minded asker obtains no help from God. Receiving requires individual work of taking the Word of life as one's own, bringing the promises to the Lord and claiming them, counting trials as joy, enduring temptation when tried, and relying not on any human power but on the strength of the Lord. In contrast, the one who endures temptation and is tried will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. The same passage from James 1:2-7, including the statement that the doubting asker should expect nothing, was also brought to bear on examining a school's financial condition.
The promise of heavenly wisdom to any who lack it is full and broad, to be taken just as it reads. It is conditional, given only when asked in unwavering faith by one who accepts God as Guide and Counselor and brings plans to God and lays them all before Him. It holds God's promise of counsel even for one who is greatly burdened and cannot sleep and needs counsel of God, a promise to be believed when seeking Him.
Meaning of Wavering Faith
Wavering means oscillating between faith and unbelief, speaking as though trusting God at one moment while acting in unbelief the next. In asking God for wisdom it is to be sometimes believing then doubting, grasping faith then yielding to every discouragement, like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. This applies especially to one who lacks wisdom about duty, such as whether it is his duty to preach, and who has become discouraged and is on the point of letting go of everything, for only steady faith receives guidance and is made new.
The waverer is pictured as a sea wave driven and tossed by the wind, with faith no more settled than the waves. Faith must therefore be cultivated so that it does not shrink when tested. Conduct that shifts with emotion rather than principle shows a person not firmly anchored in God, and such inconsistency makes the work unreliable.
To be double-minded and unstable in all ways is to be divided in purpose, divided in trust, and divided in heart. It is to seek to follow one's own will while professing to do God's will, God not forcing the will so that He cannot lead those too proud to be taught and bent on having their own way, His promise of wisdom and guidance being only for those willing to follow Him wholly. It is to be divided between God and earthly desires, absorbed in worldly customs and pursuits rather than committed to God, so that instability in faith and conduct leaves a person without assurance of receiving from God. Selfish aims and divided loyalty distort faith and character and lead away from God, calling for making God's will one's own and placing every faculty in His service. Inconstancy begins when a person does not give himself fully to God or keeps something back, leaving an opening for temptation, so that when faith cannot see God clearly there is no barrier against sin. A divided, undecided person who tries to avoid loss rather than commit to doing what is right is unsettled and cannot be used in God's work, and a passing glance at faults followed by no change does not make a person upright or steady.
What the wavering person calls faith is only the impulse of the moment, showing itself in praying little and having little real trust in God. He trusts his own working and planning more than God's working for him and takes himself into his own keeping, failing to realize his own need and God's willingness to give. He does not persevere in keeping his requests before the Lord, and this unbelief without living faith is the cause of spiritual weakness and of not seeing more of the power of God.
Doubting Christ's power or willingness to forgive when past sins feel overwhelming is wavering faith. With true repentance toward God and firm faith in Christ, sins are covered and transgressions pardoned. People should not instead let impulse and feeling govern them.
Condition for Receiving Answer
Receiving is according to faith, for the one who asks must ask in steady, trusting faith in Christ, believing He will give what is asked. The blessing is to be trusted as already in hand, as if already in possession, without fluctuating between hope and fear, despair and despondency. God gives wisdom liberally to all and upbraids not, giving as promised, so to ask and then doubt dishonors Him, while wavering leaves the asker unstable like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed and blocks the answer. Success in God's work is proportionate to faith, so workers must ask for wisdom with trust rather than doubt, with much larger faith in God as sure Helper, Sufficiency, and exceeding great Reward, instead of remaining weak by leaning on human beings who are powerless to help unless they first receive wisdom from on high. Without the courage, strength, sustaining hold upon comfort and power, and peace that come from holding communion with God and laying all wants before Him, the wavering man receives nothing from the Lord.
After praying, the request is to be kept in mind with trust in God's promise to hear. The petitioner is to remain like a dependent child waiting for help and blessing, persisting in prayer. Delay must not be allowed to lead to doubt or unbelief, for God gives generously and does not reproach those who ask Him. Faith must be cultivated, exercised, and strengthened so that it does not shrink when tested. Firm reliance on promised help is to be kept without losing faith and courage, at the urging of the Lord Jesus that every soul trust Him.
Prayer in a mere form of words without earnest sincerity, fervent desire for help, and expectation of receiving gets nothing from God. Asking and receiving are closely linked together only when prayer is offered in faith. To receive what God has promised a person must believe that God is and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him, and such prayer of faith brings corresponding returns, while prayer without faith avails nothing. Weak faith, lack of faith, and wavering distrust keep prayer from being answered. Distrust and wavering separate the believer from God.
When prayer receives no immediate answer, faith must hold firm and not give way, with strong confidence in God enduring until the needed blessing comes in its time when help is most needed. Without living faith there is no receiving, and this unbelief is the cause of spiritual weakness and of not seeing more of the power of God. What the wavering person calls faith is only the impulse of the moment, showing itself in praying little, having little real trust, trusting his own working and planning more than God's working, taking himself into his own keeping, failing to realize his own need and God's willingness to give, and not persevering in keeping requests before the Lord. Petitions are to be offered in the name of Jesus with unwavering faith that God hears and will answer, carrying difficulties to God with humility and counseling with Him in every matter because He never misleads. Depending chiefly on human help and human guidance instead of God lets unbelief steal in and faith die.
Ask God Not People
Wisdom is to be asked of God directly in faith, not sought from an overburdened brother or from finite human wisdom, and the one who wavers in asking will receive nothing from the Lord. God gives liberally and upbraids not, but the gift comes only to asking in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed, double-minded and unstable in all his ways. The burden is not to be laid on pastors, neighbors, counselors, conference presidents, human guidance, or another person's claimed revelations, nor are other people to be depended on to determine duty or to guide conscience. Instead of looking at difficulties and talking of them, or carrying burdens to fellow men who are weighed down on every hand, the need is to take it all to the Lord in prayer, bow before God who is nigh, and ask Him for what is needed, trusting the Father of lights from whom every good and perfect gift comes, with an individual experience shared with others. Safety is found only in asking God directly in unwavering faith, since finite, weak men have no certain light to give unless they receive it from heaven, and the help needed comes from God alone, the source of all light and wisdom, acquainted with human ignorance and darkness, in whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning.
Trusting man leans on a broken reed and is a snare to souls, bringing weakness, disappointment, and misleading, while leaning on human beings for aid leaves one weak because they are powerless to help unless they first receive wisdom from on high. Finite men depend on their own wisdom, feelings, likes and dislikes, and preferences, and therefore mislead the work and cripple and dwarf those who trust them. Turning away from Christ to seek wisdom from finite human beings is unbelief that dishonors the Master, like leaving pure water to drink from lowland cisterns that hold no water of life. Receiving is according to faith, with much larger faith called for in God as sure Helper, Sufficiency, and exceeding great Reward.
Fellow workers in foreign fields who must decide in an emergency are to decide on the ground where they know the situation better, taking counsel among themselves and asking help from God as their Counselor at their right hand. They are not to place dependence in erring men or wait for permission from a board or committee thousands of miles away that cannot comprehend the situation, but to believe He has given them a certain work to do, knows the great necessities of the different fields, and will guide and prepare the way for all who desire to understand His will and follow in His footsteps. Before taking up a new work a person must move guardedly under the Lord's guidance and be assured orders come from the right source, yielding to His guidance and control, and then the Lord will guide and instruct.
Safety is found only in looking directly to Jesus as the fountainhead of wisdom and source of strength, looking to Him to receive grace and strength for every need. The remedy for unbelief is to cast it away and go directly to the Source of strength, believing to receive pity and compassion from the One who knows the human frame. He gave His own life and bore in His own body the strokes due for transgression of the law of God so that sinners may become prisoners of hope.
Persevering Prayer Without Doubt
The wavering asker is to remain steadfast in asking for wisdom even when the answer is not immediate, holding firmly to the promise rather than growing weary, changing purpose, or losing faith, since wavering from purpose is why many receive nothing. Prayer must express earnest desire to know the divine will joined to steady trust, and delay must not be allowed to lead into doubt or unbelief, for the Giver gives generously and does not reproach those who ask. When prayers are not answered at once the petitioner is to keep waiting and hold faith firm, because wavering distrust separates from God. Strong confidence endures until the needed blessing comes in its time when help is most needed, and separates no more from God.
Prayer is to be learned without doubting, for the divided heart that prays in doubt is not to expect to receive anything. Such prayer is faint and soon forgotten, while watching and guarding speech in keeping with prayer leads instead to blessing and steady, hopeful peace. Petitions are to be offered in the name of Jesus with unwavering faith that God hears and will answer. Difficulties are to be carried to God with humility and every matter counseled with Him because He never misleads, while depending chiefly on human help and human guidance lets unbelief steal in and faith die, and without living faith there is no receiving.
The promise belongs to taking set seasons for silent communion with God in prayer and study of the Word without interruption to sharpen weapons for the harvest field. It belongs to talking the truth, praying the truth, believing the truth and communicating the truth and scattering the incorruptible seed. It belongs to using precious golden hours to cultivate faith and perfect Christian character by watching and praying and drawing on the inexhaustible storehouse and ocean of love placed in Christ's hands, since the Redeemer holds the key to unlock the treasure house of wisdom and gives liberally without reproach to whoever lacks and asks in faith, nothing wavering, while he who wavers like a wave of the sea driven and tossed must not think he will receive anything.
Faithful Life and Character
Asking requires wholehearted trust in the Lord rather than reliance on fickle human wisdom, pride, or selfish ambition. In making plans this means praying, believing, and acting in agreement rather than wavering, with complete surrender to God needed for steadfast faith. Divided commitment and being swayed by other people make a person irresolute and unstable, while trusting one's own judgment instead of God leaves the asker divided and unable to receive. Trust God and His word when asking, then follow the direction He gives, for divided trust reflects a lack of humility in coming to Christ.
God's promise of wisdom and guidance is only for those willing to follow Him wholly. He does not force the will of any, so He cannot lead those who are too proud to be taught and are bent on having their own way, for the double-minded man seeks to follow his own will while professing to do the will of God and gets nothing.
Inconstancy begins when a person does not give himself fully to God or keeps something back, leaving an opening for temptation, and when faith cannot see God clearly there is no barrier against sin. Selfish aims and divided loyalty distort faith and character and lead a person away from God, since making God's will one's own and placing every faculty in His service belongs to seeking wisdom with single purpose. The safe course for developing Christian character during probation is to trust God without uncertainty, holding fast His Word in every circumstance and bringing every power, including thought, under Christ. Doubt deepens with instability until promises and the words and actions of trustworthy people seem unreal, which is why the one unstable in doubt must not expect to receive.
Asking in steady faith means living in close fellowship with Christ, obeying His commands, constantly looking to Jesus, and consulting His will in every perplexity, so that character proves Christ directs and pervades the life. It means inquiring constantly at the throne of grace, asking in every perplexity, uncertainty, and action what the Lord would have done and whether a way is His will and way. Such faithful asking brings familiar intercourse with the divine Leader, oneness with Christ in faithful duty, the most exalted view of His greatness, full obedience, and strength found in confidence in Him. Such trustworthy servants are promoted to positions of trust, while the wavering, double-minded person like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed gets no response.
In daily life and God's work success is proportionate to faith, so workers must ask for wisdom with trust rather than doubt. Each person has a God-given work to do with every God-given faculty of body and mind, and to do it must depend on God, allow the Lord to take supervision, ask the Lord for wisdom, and believe it will be given. In health people must do their part to protect health by obeying the laws of life and then ask God in faith to bless their efforts, since asking God to prevent sickness while disregarding those laws is not faith perfected by works. God answers when doing so can glorify His name, but does not miraculously preserve those who carelessly pursue sickness.
In facing difficulties everything is to be taken to the Lord in prayer and faith rather than talked about or carried to weighed-down fellow men, bowing on the knees before God who is nigh and asking Him for what is needed, trusting the Father of lights from whom every good and perfect gift comes down. Asking for wisdom requires trusting God rather than relying on human counsel or overburdened brothers and finite wisdom, with each person needing an individual experience with Him to share what is received. Believers are to take everything to God in prayer and faith, trusting that strength from Jesus will enable them to overcome. The one who asks in faith, trusts God to fulfill His word, and acts according to God's will receives rich blessings, including spiritual gifts, which are then to be shared with those in need.
Great promises are given to meet temptations because a cunning and cruel foe attends every step and works every moment with all strength and skill to turn people from the right way. He has gained more than six thousand years of continual practice in deceiving and alluring since overcoming the first parents in their Eden home, while each yielding to temptation leaves a person spiritually weak and more ready to yield again. Every repetition of sin blinds the eyes, stifles conviction, and weakens resistance, so that human power to resist keeps decreasing as skill and power to tempt keep increasing, making the temptations of the last days more severe than those of any other age.
The warning applies to seeking God's strength to do what is right, for wavering faith is why people receive nothing from Him. It applies to seeking wisdom and understanding of Scripture, where prayer must be offered in faith, not doubt, because wavering makes a person unstable. It applies to asking for spiritual gifts, where the asker trusts God to fulfill His word and acts according to His will.