James 1:5 (NLT)
5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will
give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.
Here is something in answer to every discouraging turn of
the mind, when we go to God, under a sense of our own weakness and folly, to
ask for wisdom. He to whom we are sent, we are sure, has it to give: and he is
of a giving disposition, inclined to bestow this upon those who ask. Nor is
there any fear of his favours being limited to some in this case, so as to
exclude others, or any humble petitioning soul; for he gives to all men.
[Matthew Henry Commentary]
In his book The Many Faces of Evil, author John Feinberg
tells the story of when his wife, Pat, was diagnosed with Huntington's Chorea—a
genetically-transmitted disease that causes deterioration in the brain, thus
causing deterioration of physical and psychological abilities. John and Pat
were not only concerned about the future of her health, but the health of their
children. If one parent has the gene that causes Huntington's, children of that
parent have a 50-50 chance of suffering from the same disease. What was also
troubling to John was that they had no warning that Huntington's was a
possibility for Pat—and they should have been warned. Soon after the diagnosis,
they requested a copy of Pat's mother's medical chart to see if there was any
family history of the disease, and Pat's mother had suffered from Huntington's
unbeknownst to the family. Feinberg was angry, realizing this diagnosis came
five years before he met his wife. It could have altered everything! But
Feinberg writes of his realization that the hidden knowledge was a gift of
grace from God:
For twenty years that information had been there, and at
any time we could have found it out. Why, then, did God not give it to us until
1987?
As I wrestled with that question, I began to see his love
and concern for us. God kept it hidden because he wanted me to marry Pat, who
is a wonderful wife. My life would be impoverished without her, and I would
have missed the blessings of being married to her had I known earlier.
God wanted our three sons to be born. Each is a blessing
and a treasure, but we would have missed that had we known earlier. And God
knew that we needed to be in a community of brothers and sisters in Christ at
church and at the seminary who would love us and care for us at this darkest
hour.
And so he withheld that information, not because he
accidentally overlooked giving it to us, and not because he is an uncaring God
who delights in seeing his children suffer. He withheld it as a sign of his
great care for us. There is never a good time to receive such news, but God
knew that this was exactly the right time. [John S. Feinberg, The Many Faces of
Evil (Crossway Books, 2004), pp. 464-465]
We often wrestle with the issues we face in our life. The
Lord is faithful in seeing us through to an answer. He provides us wisdom to
see our life for what it is. John Feinberg was distraught over the diagnosis of
his wife, but God showed him the beautiful blessings John would have missed out
on had things been any different.
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