If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
James 1:5
If you've ever been faced with a tough decision to make, you most likely prayed to God asking Him for wisdom. But maybe you've stopped and wondered whether such prayers really work. Can we really, through the grace now given by God through Christ, receive heavenly wisdom or are we pretty much on our own when making decisions?
Wisdom is defined as the ability to take knowledge and accurately and faithfully apply it into life. We all need wisdom in our everyday life - from the smallest of tasks to the biggest of decisions. Wisdom is not a luxury but a necessity if we want to live a life of victory. But can we truly ask God for wisdom, or should we work to gain wisdom on our own?
The problem comes when we confuse knowledge with wisdom. Knowledge is simply the accumulation of information and we can gain knowledge on our own. However, wisdom is more than just an accumulation of knowledge. It is having the ability to apply what we know to a certain situation. And when it comes to gaining wisdom, wisdom comes only through God.
Proverbs 4:7 tells us, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight."
So in that sense, God does give wisdom when we ask Him for it. In fact, God wants us to constantly ask Him for wisdom always. Just as Solomon, who requested that God grant the king great wisdom, honoured God by desiring the right thing, God wants us to ask Him for His wisdom. We can go as far to say that the Lord is the only true source of wisdom. Apart from God there is no wisdom and there is no discernment.
And while the world may have wisdom of it's own, but even the greatest wisdom this world offers will not compare to the wisdom given by God through His grace. 1 Corinthians 1:25 says this: "For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." God's wisdom is beyond the wisdom of this world and the wonderful thing is that we now, through Jesus, have access to it.
God does give us wisdom when we ask, but we should never misunderstand God's available wisdom as being a test leakage or an unlawful work hack. God wants us to walk in wisdom, not convenience. And He wants us to walk in wise discernment, not mere knowledge. You can know a lot of things yet not walk in wisdom.
And God doesn't just make His wisdom available to all. He strongly desires that we walk in His wisdom and under His guidance. The problem is not that people don't know of God's wisdom but that they know of His wisdom but reject it because it only reveals the foolishness in us. But we know for a fact that God's wisdom is made readily available through the Holy Spirit who guides us in our everyday walk.
