Why it’s good to choose action and look for understanding to follow

By Dean Collins

Sometimes we need insight to get us unstuck. But sometimes we just need to change our actions, and then understanding will follow.

I remember as a graduate student studying different approaches to therapy. There are several, and many are named for a particular therapist or doctor who researched or discovered this particular technique. Freud, for example, was big on insight. If we dig around long enough and deep enough, he believed we would find the root of our issues and in time we would see behaviors change. Other approaches focused on first changing the current problem or destructive behavior. You might later have clearer thinking and insight, but the crisis of the moment would be solved. These examples are oversimplified and there are dozens of approaches to psychological wellbeing.

As budding therapists we were encouraged to choose a framework and hone our understanding and techniques accordingly. I decided to choose the approach I believed matched the client. Maybe James had a similar approach in his practical little letter to early Christians who had been displaced, discouraged, and even persecuted.

Gaining wisdom

James introduced the importance of gaining wisdom in chapter 1 as he addressed the various trials and difficulties his readers were experiencing. Asking for wisdom from God would help believers understand that there is purpose in their suffering. A good and faithful God will always be good and faithful. Trusting him to help us gain understanding and endurance will result in his purposes being achieved in our lives. According to James we should never doubt that God has a plan and a purpose for us. We can and should ask without doubting for wisdom to understand his purpose and how to get through our circumstances.

When we get to chapter 3, James again brings up wisdom. But this time it seems James is now more focused on our behaviors. According to James we can identify the wise person not by how much insight or knowledge they possess, but rather by how they live. Our conduct must demonstrate the meekness of wisdom; that is, we treat others the way God would treat them.

James simplified our choices. We can either behave the way God does or we can copy the world’s wisdom, but each choice yields a dramatically different outcome. The world’s solutions result in jealousy and selfishness, while God’s solutions are peaceable, gentle, open to reason, impartial, sincere, and filled with mercy and good fruit.

Pursuing God

As James continues in chapter 4 he writes if we follow the world’s wisdom, we’ll end up fighting with each other. One need only read today’s news, political solutions, and social media feeds to see that the world is filled with people who are in it for themselves. Our passions and our pride constantly interfere with the discovery of proper and Godly wisdom. James says we don’t have what we ask for from God because we ask with poor motives. We want to be right. We want to be in control. We want our needs met first so we can do what we want.

James calls us to repentance as a pathway to discovering wisdom. Repent of sampling all the world’s opinions, options, and solutions and choose to first and always humbly seek God. The wisdom we desire that both gives us understanding and changes our behaviors comes when we pursue God more than his solutions. Jesus himself said it this way: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added.” Pure pursuit of God will always result in receiving what we need.

I’m thinking that while I desire and will pray for wisdom as James has told us to do, I will focus more on first pursuing God’s presence. I believe this is the way to discover the wisdom I need that will bring behavior that reflects his life in me.

Your time with God’s Word
‭‭James‬ ‭3:13-18‬; ‭4:1-12; Matthew‬ ‭6:33‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Photo by @ Langston on Unsplash