May 29, 2026
Friday, May 29
When I was a kid, I loved going barefoot (I still do, actually). But where I lived, out in the country, there were grassburrs everywhere, and I was constantly getting one of these razor-sharp, infernal death-balls stuck in my bare feet. My Grandma told me that if I walked on gravel, my feet would get so tough, no grassburr could penetrate them. After that, I made a point of walking everyday on the gravel road outside my house with no shoes on. It worked. The soles of my feet became rawhide-tough.
This week, in James 1:2-12, we’ve seen there are reasons to rejoice even in things that hurt. Our pain, brief and momentary as it is, produces grit in us, and that helps us become more like Christ. But James goes on to give us two more instructions for survival when we suffer:
Pray for wisdom. In v. 5, James switches from commanding us to rejoice in suffering to promising that God will give wisdom to anyone who asks for it. That seems like a random shift, but it’s not. James knows that when we’re suffering, our instinct is to pray for the pain to end. That’s not wrong. But we can’t stop there. We should also pray for wisdom in our time of suffering. Why? Because wisdom is the ability to make good decisions. Another way to say it is that wisdom is the ability to see things as they really are, the way God sees them.
As children, we were taught that if our clothes caught fire, we were supposed to stop, drop and roll. Why was this scenario—that most of us would never experience, thank God--hammered into us? Because adults knew that when a person’s flesh is burning, their instinct is to run, which only makes the problem worse. In the same way, when we experience unexpected pain, we tend to panic. We make terrible decisions. We lash out at the people who love us most, the people who are trying to help us. We miss what God is trying to do in our lives. James says that we should pray for wisdom to do the opposite of what our flesh desires. And he promises we will have it.
The prosperity gospel promises we can have boatloads of money and perfect health. The Word of God says we can have wisdom any time we need it. Who are you going to believe?
“Lord, you know what I need, far more than I do. So when I am in pain, and crying out to you for healing and restoration, I pray that your Spirit would remind me also to pray for wisdom, that I would see the situation as you do, and make the right decisions. In fact, Lord, teach me wisdom every day. In your name, amen.”
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Conroe
More from Pastor Jeff at his website: jeffbergerwriting.com
