“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”
—James 1:5
“Ask God.” How does this command sit with your soul? Honestly? How it really sits with your soul is determined by your reaction to the next phrase, “ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach.” Is this how you think of God? Generous, benevolent, giving, big-hearted, bounteous, free-handed, liberal, lavishly kind, munificent. Munificent is a word rarely used because it is rarely displayed—by man. Munificent means characterized by or displaying great generosity, giving more than is usual or necessary. But with God, do you feel all those adjectives are too few and too small? Do you believe His munificence to be constant and unavoidable? Do you sense the truth of Newton’s lyric?
Thou art coming to a King,
large petitions with thee bring,
for his grace and pow’r are such,
none can ever ask too much.
Or, do you believe the serpent’s crafty lie? “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1). Satan’s craft was to plant the thought of God as holding back. Do you think God powerful and wise, but perhaps reserved, cautious, or even miserly, stingy, tight. You may say “No,” but do you ask? Do you think of the Father as rich in grace and overflowing in love, eager to give? How do you think of His commands? Do you think they constrain or liberate? We serve a God who said “Yes” to a forrest and “No” to a tree. “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16–17). This is our God. A God who liberally says “Yes” to life, and whose every “No” is a no to that which is death or not good for us.
Do not doubt the Father’s liberality and munificence! Jesus teaches us, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:7–11). James will soon go on to tell us, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (1:17).
Look around you! Oh how lavishly our Lord gives, not only to believers, but to His enemies. Oh but look to the gospel! He has given you His Son. He has given you the Holy Spirit. Paul asks, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). Look at His giving of Christ and the Spirit and know He does not change.
Ask! Ask knowing of whom you ask—God, God who gives generously to all. God who in Christ is your Father. God who as your Father gives generously and gives without reproach. God gives without making you feel guilty about the asking. He delights in your asking. He delights in the giving. Ask knowing he does not scold, upbraid, insult, or reprimand those who ask. He may rebuke sinful requests. In which case He still gives better than you ask. He may so “No” to good requests in order to give us something better, and yes, it may be a peculiar better. But He will never reproach such a righteous request as this.
Ask! Ask James tells us, and “it will be given.” Not “it might be given;” but “it will be given.” Thomas Manton comments, “He bringeth an encouragement not only from the nature of God, but the promise of God. It is an encouragement in prayer, when we consider there is not only bounty in God, but bounty engaged by promise. What good will the general report do without a particular invitation? There is a rich King giveth freely; ay! but he giveth at pleasure; no, he hath promised to give to thee.”
No Other Boast 