James 1:5-8

James 1:5-8

5 Now 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. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Teaching Notes1 / 19
James 1:5-8

Wisdom in Asking

James 1:5-8

Teaching Notes2 / 19
James 1:5-8

We Should Ask for Wisdom Because We Lack It

Teaching Notes3 / 19
James 1:5-8

James 1:5-8

5 Now 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. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Teaching Notes4 / 19
James 1:5-8

James 1:5-8

5 Now 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. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Teaching Notes5 / 19
James 1:5-8

We Must Remember God Gives Single-Mindedly

Teaching Notes6 / 19
James 1:5-8

James 1:5-8

5 Now 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. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Teaching Notes7 / 19
James 1:5-8

Matthew 7:7-11

7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

9 Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Teaching Notes8 / 19
James 1:5-8

Ephesians 1:9

And He has made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ

Teaching Notes9 / 19
James 1:5-8

Romans 8:32

He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?

Teaching Notes10 / 19
James 1:5-8

Psalms 84:11

11 For the LORD God is a sun and a shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.

Teaching Notes11 / 19
James 1:5-8

James 1:5-8

5 Now 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. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Teaching Notes12 / 19
James 1:5-8

Matthew 6:22 (KJV)

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light

Teaching Notes13 / 19
James 1:5-8

We Must Ask Without Doubt

Teaching Notes14 / 19
James 1:5-8

James 1:5-8

5 Now 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. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Teaching Notes15 / 19
James 1:5-8

James 1:5-8

5 Now 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. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Teaching Notes16 / 19
James 1:5-8

The Full Dose, Kierkegaard

Imagine a kind of medicine that possesses in full dosage a laxative effect but in a half dose a constipating effect.

Suppose someone is suffering from constipation. But – for some reason or other, perhaps because there is not enough for a full dose or because it is feared that such a large amount might be too much – in order to do something, he is given, with the best of intentions, a half dose: “After all, it is at least something.”

What a tragedy!

So it is with today’s Christianity. The half has the very opposite effect from the whole. But we Christians go right on practicing this well-intentioned half-hearted act from generation to generation. We produce Christians by the millions, are proud of it – yet have no inkling that we are doing just exactly the opposite of what we intend to do.

Teaching Notes17 / 19
James 1:5-8

The greatest danger to Christianity is, I contend, not heresies, heterodoxies, not atheists, not profane secularism – no, but the kind of orthodoxy which is cordial drivel, mediocrity served up sweet. There is nothing that so insidiously displaces the majestic as cordiality.

Teaching Notes18 / 19
James 1:5-8

James 1:5-8

5 Now 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. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Teaching Notes19 / 19