When the believer goes through trials they particularly need wisdom to know how to understand what is happening to them and how to respond (v5). A right response to trials is needed to help us grow and mature through them.

Wisdom is about properly navigating through life and James encourages us to pray for wisdom because God is a very generous giver to His children (v5b). God is not a tight-fisted God but a loving God who wants us to have wisdom so we can pray for it with great expectancy.

In praying for wisdom their needs to be no doubt that God will answer (v6). To doubt literally means to be double-minded (v8). The problem as we pray is that we’re maybe not single-minded enough to desire God’s will to be done in our lives. The problem with gaining wisdom is not one of the mind (intelligence) but rather one of the heart (willingness to obey).

Are you maybe being tossed around in your Christian life by trials and many other things because you’re not single-minded enough in serving Christ? If believers are to grow up we must be single-minded in our devotion to Christ and desire to know Him better. We must not be distracted from this path.