Gaining Wisdom
John Crosby
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. James 1:5
When the Bible speaks of wisdom, it is referring to God's perspective. To gain wisdom is to gain God's perspective. I love the sarcasm in James' writing: If any of you lacks wisdom . . . Clearly, we each lack wisdom. Proverbs 1:7 says, Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Each passage is pointing to humility as the beginning of wisdom. James says I must first acknowledge that I lack wisdom before I can gain wisdom. I must acknowledge that I don't have all the answers, that I don't even know all the questions. Fear of the Lord is that recognition that there is a God, and I am not him.
The great news in the verse above is that when I realize I need God's perspective on my job, my spouse, my life, my circumstances . . . I simply need to ask, not for God to fill my prescription for solving my problems, but for him to show me his perspective. There are no hoops, no mantras, no minimal requirements, because God knows when we see the gap between our lives and his will, wisdom always brings its own conviction.
Do you have the humility and courage to ask God to reveal his perspective on the most troubling areas of your life?
From Called to Lead: 52 Weekly Devotions for Workplace Leaders, by John Crosby