Which schools should I apply for? Which career should I pursue? Which spouse should I choose? How many kids should we have? Which house should we buy? When is the right time to buy it?
These are just a few of the big decisions we face in life. When we come to these forks in the road, we’re tempted to look for signs from the heavens, open and closed doors, and other pointers to the hidden will of God. But according to Proverbs, God’s wisdom isn’t hidden. It “cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice” (Prov 1:20). And James agrees:
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)
James offers some practical steps for those making big decisions. The first is simply this:
1. Ask for wisdom
In context, it’s clear that James isn’t talking about some wispy, theoretical wisdom. He’s responding to Jewish Christians who don’t know how to respond to persecution, so he’s talking about the kind of wisdom that guides you in your everyday life. The kind of wisdom that dictates how you’ll reflect Christ in the hectic stress of the office, or in the chaotic mess of a house with young kids. It determines how you respond to your precious child after he throws his bottle on the floor for the 10th time. It controls what you’ll do when you’re flipping through TV channels, and the show is on that catches your eye, but you know is destructive to your soul.
James is more interested in this everyday wisdom because he realizes that the big decisions we make in life are crucially affected by the little choices we make every day.
When I started out in ministry, I worked for a very well known as a pastor, author, radio speaker. One day during a staff meeting, he told us a story about being at the bank that week. He was in a hurry, late for an appointment, so he rushed up to the teller, and asked to withdraw $80.
He signed the withdrawal slip, took the money, and hurried out. As he was walking, he counted his money, and noticed the teller had given him five 20’s instead of four. He paused for a second as thoughts flooded his mind: “I’m late. I don’t have time to go back. They won’t miss it. This happens all the time. What should I do?”
Immediately, he sensed the Holy Spirit nudging him to go back. Grumbling, he made his way back through the maze of the queue, and finally got back to the teller. “You gave me $100, not $80” he growled.
“I know,” she said, “I know you’re the pastor of that church up the street, and I wanted to see what you would do. I was ready to have the guard stop you if you went out that door.”
God promises to give you his wisdom when you ask for it. But there’s a condition:
Let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. (James 1:6)
He’s talking about someone who asks for God’s wisdom, but then doesn’t follow it once they get it! So the next step in gaining God’s guidance is:
2. Commit to follow God’s wisdom when you get it.
If you ask for God’s wisdom, then ignore it and do you own thing when he answers, James says you’re like a wave tossed in the ocean. On the backside of the Mokulua Islands off Kailua, there’s a little cove with steep cliffs on all sides and a steep protrusion of rock in the middle. There are waves coming in from all directions, and waves bouncing off the walls in every direction.
It’s fun to jump off the cliff into that cove, but when you land in the water it’s extremely difficult to swim out. You may start going in one direction, but then five seconds later you’re going in the opposite direction. There are sharp rocks all around you, and sometimes there are sharks hanging out at the bottom, getting high off all the oxygen churned into the water.
It’s a dangerous place to be! And James says if you’re going back and forth like that — asking for God’s help then rejecting it when he gives it to you — you’d be better off just not asking. So follow his guidance when he gives it in the little decisions you make every day.
But then, James has some advice for the big decisions too. He gives an example of businessmen planning a trip. This was just as common in his day as it is in ours. Through James, we’re listening in on their conversation:
You who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. (James 4:13-14)
Is James condemning their plans? No, not exactly. Is he saying it’s useless to prepare for the future? Not at all. He’s not criticizing the act of making plans, he’s telling us:
3. Make plans with humility
We’re free to set 5-year plans or 30-year plans, as long as we’re following James’ first bit of advice, and truly relying on the wisdom of the Holy Spirit as we do so.
James isn’t rebuking these businessmen for their actions as much as their attitudes. He’s condemning their arrogance and their self-confident planning that doesn’t recognize God or his sovereignty. “What is your life?” James says, “You are a mist!”
When I first bought a house, we started getting all kinds of phone calls from loan companies and insurance salesmen. One guy was trying as hard as he could to sell me life-insurance. He had all the right things to say: “Do you really want your wife to be paying a huge mortgage all by herself, Mr. Dirks? How will she survive?” I told him I would talk to my wife and if we were interested, I would call him back the next day. “That’s fine, Mr. Dirks,” he said, “You go ahead and call me back tomorrow. … If you wake up.” … Click.
I don’t think the guy had ever read James 4, but he was absolutely right. We can make all the plans we want, but we need to make them with a big “IF.” That’s exactly what James says in the next verse:
Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:15).
Is James establishing some kind of ritual incantation that’s to be recited before every statement we ever make? That’s what my dear grandmother thought. “If it’s the Lord’s will, I’ll make it to Bob’s Big Boy for lunch.” … “If it’s the Lord’s will, I’ll watch Lawrence Welk before I go to bed.”
It’s not the words so much as the principle behind the words. So as you’re making your plans with humility:
4. Live your life with dependence
We all make choices in life. School, career, spouse, kids, and on, and on. James says, “God has given you wisdom, so go ahead and make those plans. Just recognize that God’s sovereign will is the final authority, and that any human plan works only “if the Lord wills.”
Maybe you say, “OK, but what if my humble and godly plans fail?” What if you spend four or five years and tens of thousands of dollars pursuing a college degree that you’re never able to use? What if you decide to marry a wonderful Christian woman or man, but the marriage soon falls apart? Does that mean you weren’t following the will of God?
James answers these questions as he concludes his letter:
Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. (James 5:7-11)
Here he returns to the issue of suffering, and how it relates to the will of God. When you’ve relied on God’s wisdom, but your plans seem to be failing, then God doesn’t always call you to give up on your plans. Sometimes he calls us to be like the prophets and…
5. Endure trying times with patience
We might not what God’s ultimate plan might be, but we can know his guidance day by day. And, just like Job, that guidance might lead us straight into suffering. But when it does, we know we’re in good company because Jesus is the best example of suffering for God’s greater purpose.
Following God’s guidance doesn’t mean life will be easier. It almost always means life will get harder. But Jesus promises to guide us, empower us, and even carry us through those times. As he said, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).