Here’s a trick question to start your thinking: When you pray for wisdom, what do you expect God to give you?
Did you answer “wisdom”? Then you are off to a good start! But consider, for a moment, what we often expect from God when we pray for wisdom.
Do you ever expect a feeling, an impression, a sign, a dream, a sensation, a revelation, a coincidence, a lightning bolt, or a check in the mail?
While a few of the above might be possible, when we pray for wisdom what we should expect to receive is wisdom.
So, what is wisdom?
Fundamentally, wisdom is skill. We sometimes hear statements such as “wisdom is skill in applying knowledge.” That’s essentially what wisdom is! In the context of trials (which is the context of the verse on praying for wisdom), it is a prayer for skill to know what we ought to do or how we ought to respond when trials come our way.
In applying wisdom to the “trial” of making decisions, I like to think of it this way: a prayer for wisdom is praying for both the skill to find the information I need and to interpret that information correctly. I need skill in collecting the information needed to make a decision. I need skill in interpreting the information that God brings my way.
The passage that commands us to pray for wisdom is James 1:5-7: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.[i]
This passage reminds us that there are three ways we should ask for wisdom.
James encourages us to ask for wisdom unashamedly. God is a generous Giver when it comes to wisdom and will not scorn or rebuke you for asking for it. He does not take our crises lightly, nor does He expect us just to shrug our shoulders and hunker down until the calamity passes over.
In addition, James emboldens us to ask for wisdom expectantly. God will give wisdom, the verse promises, to those who ask for it. No doubt, there are occasions where we could have wisdom, but we do not because we did not ask for it (James 4:2).
James does add a condition to the promise, however, by asserting that we need to ask unreservedly: we are to ask in faith with no doubting (v. 6).
The people who doubt are double-minded (v. 8); that is, they have not fully committed themselves to obeying the wisdom that God will give them. Such a person can have no confidence that God will answer his or her prayer for wisdom.
Once you pray for wisdom, what do you do next?
We need to do what I call putting feet to our prayers for wisdom. If we are seeking wisdom in rearing godly children, for example, we do not just pray for it, turn on Monday night football, grab a bowl of popcorn, and wait for God to shovel wise ideas into our minds. Wisdom (“skill”) comes to those who cry out for it and then go searching.
My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God (Proverbs 2:1-5).
In other words—to refer back to our child-rearing example—we pray for God to give us wisdom, and then we sweat through the study of Bible passages on child-rearing until their principles become engrained in us. The same can be said as we pursue skill in managing our finances, controlling our tongues, making friends, and developing a proper work ethic.
To give you a more mundane example, our Bible college in the Philippines was holding a pastor-training seminar one year in a mountainous area where a typhoon would shortly be blowing through. We prayed for wisdom about whether we should cancel the seminar. What did we do then? We consulted various internet weather sites for more details about the typhoon: its expected velocity, arrival, departure, and pathway. We put feet to our prayers for direction by gathering more information about the approaching storm. Wisdom is the fruit of prayerful searching.
So, pray for wisdom, and then start gathering data! Take the time and expend the energy to garner the knowledge necessary to make an informed decision or to plan wisely. Fact-finding may involve various forms of research: seeking counsel from people in the know, self-education, a magazine subscription, repeated trips to the library, web-based research, hands-on experience, or personal observation. Think of decision-making as getting a plane off the ground. The bigger the airplane, the bigger the runway needed. In the same way, the bigger the decision, the bigger the “runway” of knowledge needed.
Proverbs repeatedly extols the importance of knowledge. Here’s just one example:
Also, it is not good for a soul to be without knowledge; and the hasty person makes mistakes with his feet (19:2; my translation).
Of course, part of gathering data involves allowing the full force of Scripture to influence your decision. How to properly light your pathway with Scripture is so vitally important that we will devote the next blog article to that topic.[ii]
[i] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the NKJV.
[ii] This blog series is adapted from the book Planning Your Life God's Way.