A New Day

By: Pastor Johnie Akers  

James 1:5, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”  Imagine if you will, you are traveling along a narrow, isolated road in an unfamiliar area.  It’s late at night.  It’s raining heavily.  You have encountered no homes or businesses.  Your cell phone has no signal.  You have no flashlight or umbrella. You have encountered no other vehicles on the road.  Suddenly, one of your tires has a blowout.  After pulling to the shoulder of the road, you scurry to the trunk and retrieve your jack and spare tire.  The rain continues to pour down.  You jack up your car, remove the damaged tire, and place the lug nuts in the corresponding hub cap.  As you slide on the spare tire, you reach for the lug nuts, which you have placed in the hubcap.  The rain obliterates your vision temporarily.  You accidentally bump the hubcap from the shoulder of the road over the parallel steep embankment into the darkness.  You have no way to see over the embankment to locate the lug nuts.  What do you do? (I will pause and allow you to think it over.)  The answer is quite simple—you merely take one lug nut from the three remaining tires on your car and use them to secure the spare tire.  Then, you will be able to continue your journey.  It’s quite a brainteaser.  But once you become enlightened, you find the solution not to be complex after all.  We encounter perplexing issues in our lives each day.  Frankly, if you’re like me, you don’t have all of the answers.  But notice our Scripture lesson today.  James reminds us that if we ever encounter situations that are beyond our ability to solve, we can rely upon the Lord to give us the wisdom, that is, the insight—the reason or judgment—to be able to find the answer to the problem at hand.  You may never have been in a predicament as I have shared, but perhaps you are facing something far worse than a flat tire and lost lug nuts.  If so, ask the Lord today for the wisdom you need to solve the dilemma.  You will find Him to be a faithful and wise guide, who can lead you from whatever perplexing problem you may face, into the answer that will bring you into a bright new day.