⁴And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. ⁵But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Patience, endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, perseverance—these are the various translations (synonyms) of the underlying Greek word for “endurance.” Trials test our faith and produce all of the above. The test proves the genuineness of our faith. That genuineness toughens us up to the trials of life. And God wants to work all that out in us to perfection! James develops this as a major theme in his book, for suffering and trials are a universal theme of life— we live in a broken world. And as Christians, the broken life experience is compounded by the persecution we encounter for our faith. Our faith is out of step with a broken, sinful world—and this adds to our difficulties.

God is not unaware of this and so, through James, He encourages us to rise above our suffering as we aim for perfection. There is no wiggle room for indulging ourselves with a victim mentality. We must take hold of our response to our trials. This, as we saw earlier, begins with “counting it joy” when we are faced with trials, because we believe God is at work through those trials to strengthen us, to fully equip us for whatever our broken world throws at us.

Now God doesn’t command us to rejoice without also giving us wisdom as we face our trials. This isn’t blind resignation or an emotional detachment that ignores or minimizes the realities of our difficulties. This is teaching for the most difficult, even extreme, suffering we experience. If faith in Christ cannot see us through even the worst circumstances, then we have no hope in the world. But now we add to our faith the wisdom God gives us; but we must do it by faith.

This wisdom comes by asking; God doesn’t give it to us unless we seek it from Him. Sometimes we suffer for explainable reasons. But extreme difficulties defy rational explanation. By seeking God’s wisdom, we believe God will “generously and without reproach” give us the wisdom we need. “Why?” is a good and acceptable question when asked expectantly. Our faith teaches us to be patient for God’s answer—that is the nature of endurance and patience. God holds the prerogative for setting the timeframe for our learning wisdom, but He will give it. Wisdom tells us that there is a reason, a purpose, even though we might not know it at the present time. Our foundational wisdom is that we believe He will give more wisdom, at the right time.

Lord, I patiently await wisdom from You to add to what You have already given.