Dear friend,
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.
Doubting has a way of making a person feel disqualified from asking for anything else, as though the not-knowing itself is the offense. I want to put James in front of you this morning. He tells his readers that if anyone lacks wisdom, they should ask God, who gives generously without finding fault, but then he adds that the one who asks must ask in faith, without wavering like a wave tossed by the wind. I used to think that second half canceled the first, that the giving was conditional on some steady confidence I could never quite produce. I read it differently now. I think the asking itself is the faith he means, not a feeling underneath it that has to hold still first. The waves do not have to stop for the boat to be worth launching. I have asked God for wisdom in years I could not have told you what I believed on a given Tuesday, and I was not turned away for the asking. What is the question underneath your doubting that you have not let yourself say out loud yet?
A prayer
God, You already know what she cannot yet put into words. Give her wisdom generously, as You have promised, and do not let her doubting convince her she must qualify herself before she comes to You. Amen.