If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.
James 1:5-6 (NLT)
When I was a kid, I went garage sale-ing with my mom and for 25 cents I picked up a treasure – a Magic 8-Ball! Remember those? They’ve been around since the 1950’s and they are still making them today. The “magic” of the Magic 8-Ball is that you ask it a yes or no question, shake it up, then look at the window on the side of it to see what the answer is. You could get anything from, “It is decidedly so,” to, “Ask again later,” to, “Outlook not so good,” as an answer.
While it was fun to ask the ball goofy questions and see what it would say, most of us didn’t use the Magic 8-Ball to help us solve real problems or figure out our futures. My guess is that you didn’t use a toy that you can purchase for under $10 when you decided to propose or say yes to a proposal. You didn’t shake it up before choosing a college, a career, or a city to live in. But where do you turn when you need direction in your life? How do you make wise decisions?
James was the half-brother of Jesus and the author of the book of James in the New Testament. His instruction to us in James 1:5 is that when we need wisdom, when we are not sure what to do and need insight that will help us make the right decision, we should ask God for it. When we do, James writes, He will give it to us and He won’t rebuke us for asking. If you’ve ever had a teacher, a coach, a parent, or a boss bite your head off for asking a question they thought you should already know the answer to, you know how uncool that is. But James says God is not like that. He wants to give us divine direction. He doesn’t want us to be like a wave in the ocean that gets tossed back and forth all the time. If you need wisdom about how to handle a relationship, a situation, or a decision, ask the Lord for help. He wants to give you the direction you need.
Who or what do you usually turn to when you have to make a decision? When is the last time you turned to God for that wisdom? Today is a great day to start.