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What Am I Missing Here? (James 1:5-8)
12 Plays30 days ago
James, the half-brother of Jesus who eventually became the pastor of the church in Jerusalem, addresses in James 1:5-8 what may be the one thing you are missing in your trials – wisdom.
We often ask the Lord to remove the hardship, but what if that “ship” (even though it is difficult) is exactly the vessel that the Lord is bringing into your life to help you enter a new stage of spiritual growth and maturity?
A better approach is to ask the Lord for wisdom in your current circumstance. If you plan to implement this, then you may want to review HOW James says you need to ask for wisdom.
Awareness of the Need for Wisdom, 1:5
Ask for the Gift of Wisdom, 1:5
Assurance of an Answer of Wisdom, 1:5
Approach when Seeking Wisdom, 1:6
Analogy for Missing Out on Wisdom, 1:6
Assumption that Blocks Wisdom, 1:7
Ambiguity in Life without Wisdom, 1:8
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Growing in Grace Devotions and Inspirations
Hosted by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam Street
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Growing in Grace'
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message.
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Speaker
If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, fbccolumbustx.org. And now, take your copy of God's timeless Word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
Exploring James 1:5-8
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace. I'm Pastor Victor Morrison, serving at First Baptist Church in Columbus, Texas, and I'm so glad that you're listening in today. I want to speak from James chapter 1, verses 5 through 8.
00:00:57
Speaker
James chapter 1, verses 5 through 8, and I want to talk about what am I missing here? Have you ever heard anybody say that? I know it's frustrating if you're ever putting together one of those big puzzles and you find that you're missing a piece and you can't seem to find exactly that piece that goes in that one spot that you're wanting to put it in.
00:01:19
Speaker
But sometimes life can be like that. You know, sometimes we're saying, I don't know what I'm missing, but listen, I want you to know that James has a word for you, something that you might have overlooked.
00:01:32
Speaker
whenever you're thinking about how to resolve some problem that you're facing in your life.
James' Life and Legacy
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Speaker
And so James, you know, was the half brother of Jesus. He later became the pastor of the church in Jerusalem.
00:01:46
Speaker
um And he was stoned to death according to tradition around AD 62. And what I thought was really interesting is that this man who wrote the words we're about to read, he ah when he was being stoned to death, cried out and said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
00:02:06
Speaker
Isn't that amazing? Do you ever learn anything from your older brother? Well, he did, and I'm so glad he did. a matter of fact, I believe James learned a lot about walking with the Lord because by the end of his life, you know what his nickname was?
00:02:21
Speaker
old camel knees. They called him camel knees because he spent so much time on his knees praying. So I want us to see what is it that James says that we should pray for.
Seeking Wisdom Through Prayer
00:02:35
Speaker
There may be something that you are overlooking. Listen to this, James chapter one, verses five through eight. If any of you lacks wisdom Let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
00:02:53
Speaker
But 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.
00:03:04
Speaker
For that person... must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
00:03:17
Speaker
So let's look back through here and sort of look at step by step some of the things that James is telling us we need whenever we're going through, well, a trial or something difficult.
00:03:30
Speaker
You know, there there is a word that connects this passage with the passage that's just before it. You know, in James chapter 1, verses 2 through 4, he's talking about how we should count it all joy when we meet trials of various kinds.
00:03:47
Speaker
And he says the reason is it's going to test your faith and it's going to produce steadfastness. But he says, you're going to have to let the steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
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Speaker
Right after he says lacking in nothing, referring to what God is going to accomplish in our lives through the hard times, He says in verse 5, if any of you lacks wisdom.
Trials and the Need for Wisdom
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So a lot of scholars I learned when I was you know just sort of walking through this passage personally for my own enrichment and growth and so forth, a lot of the scholars say they think that those two references to what is lacking, that connects the two passages.
00:04:35
Speaker
So when you're going through a hard time, the first place you start is with your awareness of the need for wisdom. If any of you lacks wisdom, you're going through a hard time, you're going through a trial, something's difficult in your life.
00:04:53
Speaker
And so the Lord is trying to help you by helping you with what is lacking in your maturity. you know that trials actually can expose our need for wisdom?
00:05:08
Speaker
And so the context here is definitely trials and suffering and so forth. So what we're going to do first is we're going to say, am I aware of my need for God's wisdom?
00:05:21
Speaker
So next we see the move that we should make if wisdom is missing. The second thing we do is we ask for the gift of of wisdom.
00:05:32
Speaker
We ask for the gift of wisdom, verse five. Let him ask who gives generously to all without reproach. So here you have a willing heavenly father so ready to give generously to anyone who asks to give them the wisdom that they need, but you also have a waiting child, a waiting child of God, servant of God,
00:05:57
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who's sitting there saying, I don't understand. i don't know what's going on. and don't know how to move forward. And so you're needing God to clarify some things. So don't ask God how to get out of your trials.
00:06:12
Speaker
Ask him what to get out of your trials. Say, Lord, what is it that you want me to to learn here? There was a ah preacher from the past named Vance Havner.
00:06:25
Speaker
Perhaps you've heard of him, but he once wrote these words, if you lack knowledge, then go to school. If you lack wisdom, then school. Get on your knees.
00:06:37
Speaker
Well, that's definitely what old Camel Knees did. He got on his knees. Whenever he didn't know what to do, he said, I know who knows. So he would ask God in prayer.
Wisdom in Christ and the Story of Solomon
00:06:50
Speaker
Do you know that wisdom is actually ah hidden somewhere? Oh yeah, wisdom's hidden. You need to find out where wisdom is. We have the treasure map, though, because Colossians 2, 3 tells us where the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
00:07:08
Speaker
You might be surprised. It's hidden. in Christ. It's hidden in Christ. You might want to look at 1 Corinthians 1.30 as another cross-reference that tells you Christ, he's where the wisdom is.
00:07:22
Speaker
So we're going to ask him for the gift of wisdom. He's going to give it to us if we will just simply ask him. As a matter of fact, there is a third principle that we need to look at briefly that's also included in this very first verse, verse five, when it says, if we will ask him, he will give it.
00:07:45
Speaker
It will be given him is what it says. Have you ever read through 1 Kings? Right now on Wednesday nights at our church, we're in a study through 1 Kings. We're calling it King of Kings.
00:07:58
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So the Lord's telling us all these different lessons that we need to learn about life through these kings that used to serve in Israel. But God signed a blank check.
00:08:11
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and offered it to a king named Solomon. Solomon was about to become king. And so God says to that young king, he says, look, Solomon, I'll give you anything you want.
00:08:23
Speaker
I'm going to go ahead and sign the check. And it's made out to you, King Solomon. What do you want me to do? And you know what Solomon said? He thought about it very carefully and said, I'm going to need wisdom and understanding to know how to lead these people.
00:08:40
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And so his request to God was for wisdom. I'm sure he felt overwhelmed. And so he said, God, would you give me wisdom? You know what that did to God?
00:08:50
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that honored God. God was glorified with that response. God liked that response and was so pleased with it. He told Solomon, I'm going to give you wisdom and no one will even in the whole world will be able to stand before the wisdom that I'm going to entrust to you.
00:09:09
Speaker
But he said, I'm not just going to give you wisdom because you asked for wisdom and not wealth or honor, or long ah longevity of life, I'm going to give those things to you as well.
00:09:22
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I mean, God really liked that. So you know the good news of why James is saying that we should ask God for wisdom when he says it's going to be given to you?
00:09:34
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Because God has already signed a blank check to every believer who is positionally, spiritually positioned in Christ. He's already signed a check.
00:09:45
Speaker
to every believer in Christ, and he says, you ask whatever you want, and I will give you wisdom. I'm not saying you can ask for, I don't know, some new car, some new house, or a million dollars, or go on and on.
00:09:58
Speaker
I'm not saying that's what it is, but he's saying, you ask me, and I promise you, I'll give you wisdom. So you can understand what to do in the midst of your life circumstances.
00:10:10
Speaker
That's a good deal, don't you think?
Faith in Prayer and God's Generosity
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Speaker
Well, let's let's just sort of recap. What's the progression of the text just going through verse 5? Well, we see that trials demand wisdom.
00:10:22
Speaker
And that wisdom... demands prayer. So now there's another principle that we need to learn, and that is prayer demands faith.
00:10:34
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Let's look at that together. We're going to see that even though we ask God for wisdom, there is a certain manner in which we should seek wisdom. There's a certain approach when seeking wisdom from God.
00:10:49
Speaker
Let's see what it is in verse six. But let him ask in faith with no doubting. You see, in verse five, God commands us to ask God for wisdom.
00:11:03
Speaker
But in verse six, well, he explains how to ask God for wisdom. Now, the writer of Hebrews, he also understood the importance of faith for the Christian life.
00:11:16
Speaker
And so in Hebrews 11, 6, he actually says, you know, it's impossible for you to get anything from God if you don't believe that he even exists.
00:11:27
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You know, even if you ask him, if in your heart of hearts, you're thinking, he's not really out there, but I'm just going to go ahead and dot that I and cross that T. And I'm going to go ahead and ask him for what I want.
00:11:39
Speaker
But really inside your heart of hearts, you don't have one ounce of faith. I'm telling you, you got to deal with that first. If you go to the word, the word will build within your heart faith.
00:11:52
Speaker
But don't just try s slipping something past God because he it won't pass the smell test. God will know that you don't believe in your heart. And so that's why Jesus reminds us, you know, that there's a necessity of faith whenever we're praying.
00:12:08
Speaker
Sometimes check out Mark 11, 22 to 24. I mean, it doesn't take a lot of faith. So I'm not talking about somebody who says, well, my faith is really small. That's okay.
00:12:19
Speaker
It only takes mustard seed type for size faith to really see God work. He says, if you just have mustard side seed faith, man, you're going to be able to move mountains in your life.
00:12:31
Speaker
But, you know, John reminds us, the the Apostle John, he reminds us that confidence or faith or trust in the Lord is based on something.
00:12:42
Speaker
It's based on the content of God's will. You see, I'm not saying that you should have a lot of faith to get what you want. What I'm saying is we should have a lot of faith to trust God for what He wants to give.
00:12:59
Speaker
That's what I think 1 John 5, verses 14 and 15 is trying to tell us, that we can have confidence whenever we ask according to His will.
00:13:11
Speaker
And so that is all the difference. Whenever you're reading through scripture, like let's say James chapter one and verse five, and you're seeing that God's promising to give you wisdom in the midst of your trials, if you will just ask him,
00:13:26
Speaker
You don't have to, you know, agonize and struggle. I don't know if he's going to give me wisdom or not. No, no, no. He's promised. I'll give you wisdom. I'll give you wisdom.
00:13:37
Speaker
Sometimes we get so discouraged about how effective prayer is because we're trying to ask God for something he's not promised to give us. But those things that he has promised to give us, you can count on it.
00:13:51
Speaker
And I'll tell you another reason why I think that it all goes back to faith, because faith is built upon the character of God. Let me go back to verse five one more time and just tell you why I'm so certain that God's going to hear your prayer when you pray to him humbly and desperately for wisdom to know what to do.
00:14:15
Speaker
I'll tell you why. Because it says, let him ask God. Now you're going to learn and I'm going to learn. We're going to learn together something about God. Let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
00:14:34
Speaker
You see, the thing I'm saying is we need to say to the Lord, you know what? You're a generous God. You are a God who wants to give good gifts, just like Jesus said in Matthew 7, verses 7 through 11, and If we keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking, then he's like a father. If we as fathers on this earth know how to give good gifts and we're so fallen and broken, imagine the heavenly father.
00:15:02
Speaker
He's the one who taught us how to be a good dad. And so we are to say, okay, when I approach God and I'm seeking wisdom, I'm not going to go in there questioning whether he's even out there or not.
00:15:15
Speaker
I'm going to go in there saying, you know what? My heavenly father has invited me to come into his throne room of grace and to ask him for wisdom so that I can know the best and the right thing to do in my life.
00:15:30
Speaker
Wow. To me, that's so encouraging. But if you want to say, I don't think I'm going to go that route. Well, I do want you to know verses six and seven and eight that sort of paint the picture of what it's like without the wisdom.
Doubt and Double-Mindedness
00:15:45
Speaker
So let's look at that. Let's say verse 6 is going to tell us an analogy for missing out on wisdom. An analogy for missing out on wisdom. Let's say somebody's trying to do life without God.
00:16:01
Speaker
without asking him for wisdom, what is their life gonna be like? Well, here's what he says, James is writing, old camel knees says this, "'For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea "'that's driven and tossed by the wind.'" You see, this analogy comes from nature, doesn't it?
00:16:23
Speaker
It offers us this marine example. James grew up not that far from the Sea of Galilee. And so James and Jesus, his half-brother, you know there they were ah being raised. I'm sure they went over to the sea sometimes so and they would work there or fish there or something like that.
00:16:43
Speaker
But you know Jesus, um whenever he was a man and it began to call together the disciples, he took a boat ride with the disciples on the Sea of Galilee one time.
00:16:56
Speaker
And some waves started coming into the boat. I mean, these were big waves. These were whoppers. And so they were coming over into the boat and the disciples woke Jesus up. And I believe what they said.
00:17:09
Speaker
was the most hurtful words that ever came out of the disciples' mouth. Have you ever thought about that? You know, have you ever said something you thought, oh, I shouldn't have said that.
00:17:20
Speaker
That was a zinger. I didn't really mean it. Well, I don't know if they meant it or what, but here's what they said to Jesus when they woke him up. Storm is there. They're in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. The waves are coming in the boat, and they say to him in Mark 4, 38, "'Teacher, do you not care?' that we are perishing.
00:17:41
Speaker
Ooh, boy, if Jesus would have wanted to, he could have run a long way on scolding them over saying he doesn't care that they're perishing. That's the whole reason he left glory.
00:17:52
Speaker
That's the whole reason he left the Father's presence to come down here to this broken world was because he cared that we are perishing spiritually. So whenever he calms the storm, he stood up in the boat, says, peace be still.
00:18:08
Speaker
The storm, the wind, the waves, all of that stopped. And he says, why are you so afraid? And he asked him another question. Why have you still no faith?
00:18:20
Speaker
Oh my goodness. He's in the boat with them. If their faith should have ever been at the highest point ever, it should have been at that moment. But it wasn't. They let the circumstances, they let the wind and the waves throw them off center, and there they were.
00:18:38
Speaker
And so that's what really the life is like of somebody who is being so tossed and turned and so forth by the waves and the circumstances of life.
00:18:51
Speaker
But also want you to see that there is something that we could do Verse seven brings this up. That's like an assumption that blocks wisdom. Let's say that you would like to have wisdom.
00:19:04
Speaker
Let's say that you're going to ask for wisdom. But let's say that just like he's talking the context of these verses, especially going down into verse seven, the context is this man that's asking for wisdom,
00:19:19
Speaker
Well, he's making a huge assumption. Let's see what that assumption is. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.
00:19:32
Speaker
You see, the doubter makes a foolish assumption about God and his ways. He assumes that God honors asking without faith.
00:19:43
Speaker
In other words, this person thinks, it doesn't matter whether I really trust God, whether I believe you know that God cares, that I pray. It doesn't matter about that.
00:19:54
Speaker
But it does matter. You know, Abraham was promised a son and God told him, you're going to have a son through your wife, Sarah. But you know what?
00:20:05
Speaker
There were some points there where he was not sure that was going to happen. But Romans 4 verses 16 through 21 is such a great, you know, ah picture of where Abraham went with his faith.
00:20:20
Speaker
He went in the direction of trusting God. He went in the direction of saying, I'm not going to assume anything. I'm going to trust God that what he said he wants to do, he's able to do it.
00:20:35
Speaker
And so you know what? God worked in a powerful way. Well, let me give you the last ah principle that's found here in James 1, verses 5 through 8. It's found in the last verse.
00:20:47
Speaker
It says, he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Remember our context here on the double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
00:20:59
Speaker
He's a doubting man. He doesn't really, he's not a believer. He's an unbeliever. This guy's not trusting God. He doesn't believe God's even out there. And so what we saw already was the illustration of doubt.
00:21:14
Speaker
You want to hang around doubt? Well, he says, you know, get ready because you're going to be like a cork with all these maverick waves that are coming in life. And they're going to push you wherever they want. You're going to be pushed around all your life.
00:21:28
Speaker
But then the frustration is you're not going to receive anything that God would like to give if you would just humble yourself and ask him. Say, God, and I really need your wisdom.
00:21:40
Speaker
I've been trying to so second guess and to know what's best and instead of just asking you. So I'm going to stop, Lord. I'm going stop that. I'm so frustrated. I don't know what to do.
00:21:51
Speaker
So I'm going to come back and i'm going to ask you. But let's say someone still refuses to do that. Well, they're gonna step into verse eight. And verse eight tells us not just the illustration of doubt and the frustration of doubt, but it tells us the complication of doubt.
00:22:08
Speaker
You know why doubt is so complicating? It's so complicating because God made us to know that he's out there, he to know that you know he's given us so much evidence all around us through creation.
00:22:22
Speaker
But now we have the scriptures. We have the transformed lives of other people that he's placed in our lives. But if we're not going to believe him, then you know what's going to be happening?
00:22:32
Speaker
We're going to have a civil war going on within us. Civil war within the mind, ah civil war within the soul. And what this word means when it says double-minded man, it means two-minded, can't make up your mind.
00:22:48
Speaker
But it also, in the Greek, it actually means double-souled. So in other words, this is something that goes way down deep. way down deep, this person is not convinced that there is a God.
00:23:00
Speaker
He's not convinced that if there is one, he certainly doesn't answer prayer. And so it's going to be complicated hanging around doubt because you're going to constantly be, one day you're going to go this way and the next day you're going to go this way.
00:23:14
Speaker
And one year you're going to say, hey, i intend I attended Easter service and I believe God could do anything. And then you hit a few trials and you say, oh, well, maybe that was just for Easter.
00:23:25
Speaker
And then you come back at Christmas and you say, oh, that's great. I believe that if God could have his son come down here and be born a baby, you know, and all this, if then, you know, it's back to Easter again.
00:23:36
Speaker
It's back and forth. I think you get my drift, right? The complication of doubt is you're going to have a civil war going on within your own mind.
Trusting God's Wisdom Over Worldly Teachings
00:23:45
Speaker
But there's also this other factor, the instability in all of life? You see, i believe doubt causes disorganization in a life.
00:23:56
Speaker
Disorganization. He says you know that you'll be a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. So he's unstable because he just can't get a handle on this.
00:24:09
Speaker
A little bit later in James, in James 4, verse 8, he's going to use double-minded again. Listen for it as I read that verse. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.
00:24:22
Speaker
Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. You know, a lot of the Greek scholars believe it's possible that James, he made the word up.
00:24:33
Speaker
He just took a couple of Greek words and married them, joined them together and said, that's what you're going to be like, a double-souled person. You're going to be like a double-minded man. You're going to be so unstable in all your ways. You're going to be so disorganized.
00:24:49
Speaker
But what we need to do is cry out to God. Even Job knew this. Don't you know the story of Job? it's ah It's a hard story to read. If you've never read it, I recommend you read the book of Job.
00:25:01
Speaker
He's probably got times that were far worse than what you're going through or what I'm going through. But Job 12, 13, something he was convinced. He said, wisdom the belongs to God alone.
00:25:16
Speaker
You know, I think one of the things that happens in in our lives, we have to learn, okay, am I going let circumstances cause me to let go or am i going to and or to hold on? Or am I going to let the circumstances cause me to let go and surrender my life to God?
00:25:37
Speaker
You know, I've made several trips down to Ethiopia in Africa. On one of those trips, I learned something about how monkeys are caught across the continent of Africa.
00:25:48
Speaker
One of the ways they catch a monkey is they take a gourd. You know what a gourd is? At the bottom of the gourd, there's a swollen cavity, but it goes up and you kind of have like the handle of the gourd, the top of the gourd is sort of restricted, it's more narrow.
00:26:03
Speaker
And so you got a narrow entrance into a big cavity. And so what they do is they cut off the the the top of the gourd, but not completely. They leave that restricted area because that's gonna be important in getting the monkey.
00:26:18
Speaker
Because then they put rice down in the bottom of the gourd, and then they drive a stake into the bottom of the gourd and tie it to a chain or a cord or rope, and they tie the rope to trunk of a tree, or they wrap the chain around the trunk of a tree, and then they go and hide in the bush with their nets, and they wait.
00:26:40
Speaker
till the monkey comes along. You know what that monkey does? He reaches that little hand down into the gourd and he feels all that rice down there. And he said, oh boy, this is going to be good.
00:26:52
Speaker
But then when he goes to pull his little fist out, he can't get his fist out because the the gourd is narrowed. And so the only way for him to pull his hand out, he's going to have to let go of the rice.
00:27:07
Speaker
But you know what? Whenever he hears those those guys, those men that are waiting in the bush, when he hears them coming with their nets, he panics. He is a double-minded monkey.
00:27:20
Speaker
He can't make up his mind. So he doesn't know, am I going to try to hang on to this rice and get away, or am I going to let go of the rice and then for sure I'll get away?
00:27:31
Speaker
You know what he decides? Every single time he says, I'm not letting go of the rice. I've got it in my little hand, and I'm going to hang on to it for the rest of my life. Well, that's that's his plan anyway.
00:27:44
Speaker
I think we know what happens. Yep, he can't get loose of the gourd because the gourd is wrapped around a tree by a chain. And so the men come with the net and they have themselves a double-minded monkey.
00:27:57
Speaker
Well, listen, we are definitely more advanced than monkeys. And so God made us to be men and women, boys and girls, and he gives us wisdom if we will only ask for it.
00:28:11
Speaker
But in order to ask for God's wisdom, it may require that you have to let go of some things the world, the flesh, the devil has been teaching you. Are you willing to let go and say, God, i want to trust your wisdom.
00:28:27
Speaker
I'm going to let go of what I've been trying to do, and I'm going to trust you to take me in the direction of your will and your plan for my life. I think James 1, verses 5 through 8 could be what you're missing in your
Closing Prayer and Blessing
00:28:42
Speaker
life. You're missing wisdom.
00:28:44
Speaker
Let's pray for it together. Oh, God, would you please help my friends that are listening? I know that some of them may be going through some very difficult times, but in their hardship, the hardship may be the ship or the vessel that you're going to use to get them to the next stage of growth.
00:29:03
Speaker
And so rather than trying to pray that hardship away, they need to say, Lord, give me wisdom so I'll know what you want me to learn at this particular stage in my life.
00:29:16
Speaker
So Lord, please help them. I pray you would give my friends wisdom. If they will ask you, ah believe you'll do it. And so bless them. Thank you so much that we got to look into your timeless word today.
00:29:27
Speaker
It always speaks. In Jesus' mighty name we pray, amen. Well, listen, you have a blessed week. Remember, the wisdom is found in Jesus Christ.
00:29:38
Speaker
All right. God bless.
00:29:52
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.