Painful But Profitable Series

And so we embrace trials. And what else do we see in the text about how to view our trials?

2. TRUST GOD’S HEART WHEN YOU CANNOT SEE HIS HAND – vs 5-11

Let’s be honest with each other…in the moment, we don’t always see our trials the way God sees them.

• We are near-sighted and pessimistic

• We get discouraged to the point where we can’t even think straight

• We wonder if God’s in control

• Sometimes we even question if God is still good

And we end up failing to remember that God is refining us and calling us to trust him. How can we know that we’re not trusting him?

• We complain…a lot

• We blame him…instead of trying to learn

• Our prayers are “God, remove this trial,” instead of “God grow me in the midst of this.”

• We blow up at others because we’re under duress…and we subsequently blame our anger on our circumstances, not our sinful hearts

• We withdraw emotionally from those we love

• We look for changes in scenery (maybe this means leaving a job or even a spouse)

• Our prayer life goes in the toilet

This last one to me, this is the ultimate sign of quitting. We stop communicating with God. We fail to lay our burdens at his feet. Our prayerlessness becomes the ultimate sign of our lack of trust. But James has a word for that too…look at verse 5: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Now, if you’re not careful, verse 5 almost feels like a totally disconnected thought. But taken in the context of various trials, James is saying that we lack wisdom. Imagine that, we lack wisdom. Why is that? BECAUSE WE’RE NOT GOD. Because we have limitations. Because we’ve not been there before. And since these things are true of us, we need wisdom. But God is not sitting up in heaven stiff-arming us, not wanting to give us wisdom for the journey ahead. James tells us to ask and God will give generously without reproach. Without reproach means he won’t be irritated that we are coming to him. He won’t look upon our request as something petty that he can’t be bothered with.

If you have a little person that lives with you, then chances are that they are close to driving you insane with their incessant asking for things. We’ve all seen the poor mother in the grocery store whose 4-year-old won’t stop begging for candy. But God, as our perfect heavenly Father, delights in our requests. He delights in my neediness and dependence. I may not be able to see his hand, or how he’s at work, but I can trust his character when he promises wisdom in the midst of a trial. The God of the universe is saying that he wants to give us all the wisdom we need for the situation we are in—but with one condition. We have to ask. And the truth that we can ask and God will give generously without reproach is one of the most beautiful and encouraging truths in the entire Bible.

This week, the words of this old hymn have been rattling around my head.

What a friend we have in Jesus

All our sins and griefs to bear

What a privilege to carry