His Grace in Giving Wisdom

I entered eighth grade with much trepidation about pre-algebra.  Rumors abounded about how hard the class would be; after all, it involved math with letters. What in the world?  I had always loved math, but I thought that this class might just change my feelings about the subject.

Almost intuitively, I started praying each night that the Lord would open my mind to understand the next day's lesson.  I prayed this every night throughout the year, and the Lord faithfully provided the wisdom and understanding that I needed for each new lesson.  I finished the year with my love for math still intact.

Yet, when I got to trigonometry as a junior in high school, I didn't receive the warnings.  And it didn't occur to me to pray when day after day my brain couldn't grasp how to do computations with sine, cosine, and tangent.  Thankfully, that class didn't count towards my GPA because trig and I remain enemies to this day.

The other day, as I was telling a friend about my pre-algebra prayers, she remarked, "That was wise beyond your years." 

I hadn't thought about those prayers until that conversation.  And I began to think about all the things I've gone through since my math days when it would have been helpful to pray in advance for wisdom.  I often prayed that the Lord would help me to do well, but I seemed to lack the insight (or wisdom) to pray for wisdom.  On many occasions, I was guilty of thinking that I had what it took mentally to get the task done; I just thought I just needed the Lord's help to help me regurgitate what I had studied.  Oh how prideful those thoughts and actions were!

My challenge now is to get back into that eighth-grade pre-algebra prayer mode.  I want to be intentional about seeking wisdom from the Lord for every aspect of my life.  And the good thing is that His Word promises that if we ask for wisdom and believe He will give it, He will.  I have nothing to lose, except my pride, and I'm ready to let that go. 

"If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.  But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts I like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind." James 1:5-6