Asking God for Wisdom

For almost 12 years now, I have worked with church leaders, pastors, boards, and staff, as they have sought to work through difficult issues in their churches. I have been in such situations myself over 25 years of service in the ministry of leadership as a board member and board chairman.

Early on, I came to appreciate the text of James 1:5 which reads, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him” (ESV).

So often, those of us having the responsibility to lead and to address issues for a group of people find ourselves in a place where we are unsure of what is going to be the next best step toward appropriate resolution. We go to prayer, asking God to supply the wisdom that we lack feeling somewhat secure in the promise that, not only will God graciously supply what we are asking for, but will also do so generously and without criticism for having asked.

For a number of years, I succumbed to the error of stopping at the end of that verse rather than allowing the text to complete the thought. Here’s the next three verses:

When I finally understood God’s promise came with the conditions in verses 6-8, it suddenly made sense. If I doubt God, I should not expect Him to provide the wisdom I am asking for. If I ask while doubting whether I will follow the wisdom that God provides or perhaps will follow the wisdom of the world, or worse, my own wisdom, His promise to provide me with His wisdom is nullified. My duplicity toward God makes me double-minded (literally, double-souled) and a double-souled person has no valid expectation that he or she will receive anything from the Lord.

I imagine that almost every church leader will find themselves asking God for wisdom at some point during their leadership journey. Understanding what it means for our team to make that ask is something to talk about. Here are some ideas to get that conversation started. [1]

• Discuss times when you or your team asked God to supply needed wisdom. What was the situation? What was the outcome? What did God supply? Was there double-mindedness within the team?
• How does a person or team combat the inclination be to double-minded, to shop around in our minds until we find the “wisdom” we want to follow? How can we couple our asking God for wisdom with the courage to follow it, whatever it happens to be?
• When we ask God for wisdom, how do we expect him to provide it? Is it a group sense of peace? Is it contained in the advice of one or more counsellors? Is it a finger writing on the plaster of the wall? Is it in a specific scripture we had not yet though of? What would God need to do for us to believe that a wisdom idea came from Him? What does wisdom from God look like?
• If one person of a leadership team says that God gave him/her the answer, upon what basis might we believe it? Do we expect the answer to be given to all members of the group, or might we expect Him to give it to one? How should we “test the spirits?”
• What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the receipt of God’s wisdom? How can we be sure that it is from God rather than from last night’s bad pizza?

As a church leader, I love these verses from James and the impact they have had on my life. I have especially been moved by sincere prayers of our leadership team for wisdom when made in the context of our commitment to be obedient in doing what we discern God is leading us to do. That is my prayer to for church leaders – that when we ask for God to provide us with wisdom on a matter that we concurrently commit ourselves to obey him, whatever His answer might be. That man, and that team, can expect God to provide the wisdom requested. And that’s something to talk about.

Let us know if we can help and how your conversation goes. Contact Bob Osborne by e-mail at bob.osborne@efca.org. 

This is one of a series of articles intended to facilitate and guide church leaders’ conversations about significant issues that often are not talked about among pastors, boards, and church leadership teams. Visit the EFCA West website to see prior Something to Talk About articles.