“If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.” James 1:5-8 The Message
Continuing our theme of prayer, I think praying for parking spaces as a way to indicate our utter reliance on the Lord is okay, but I know for sure that praying for wisdom is an absolute essential of the Christian life. How many situations will confront you today with the opportunity to make a choice? How many circumstance changes will force you into a position of either despairing or resting? We need wisdom every moment of our day. Listen to what Eugene Peterson says in his introduction to James:
“…Christian churches are not, as a rule, model communities of good behavior. They are, rather, places where human misbehavior is brought out in the open, faced, and dealt with.
The letter of James shows one of the church’s early pastors skillfully going about his work of confronting, diagnosing, and dealing with areas of misbelief and misbehavior that had turned up in congregations committed to his care. Deep and living wisdom is on display here, wisdom both rare and essential. Wisdom is not primarily knowing the truth, although it certainly includes that; it is skill in living. For, what good is a truth if we don’t know how to live it? What good is an intention if we can’t sustain it?
According to church tradition, James carried the nickname “Old Camel Knees” because of thick calluses built up on his knees from many years of determined prayer. The prayer is foundational to the wisdom. Prayer is always foundational to wisdom.” Eugene Peterson, Conversations
