You’re Not Lacking Options… You’re Lacking Wisdom

April 27th, 2026
by Thomas Cheevers

“Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him.” - James 1:5

Let’s be honest… You’re not short on options. You’ve got ideas. You’ve got opinions. You’ve probably already played out multiple scenarios in your head. You’ve thought through what could happen. What might work. What feels right. And if we’re really honest… You’ve already leaned in a direction.

Because this is where James steps in and says something that cuts right through all of that: You lack wisdom. Not might lack it. Not occasionally struggle with it. Right now… you lack it.

And that’s hard to hear. Because everything in our world has trained us to believe the opposite.

“Trust yourself.”
“Follow your heart.”
“Do what feels right.”

That sounds empowering. Until you realize something…

You can feel completely confident and still be completely wrong.
You can have all the information and still choose poorly.
You can think something through and still walk straight into regret.

That matters. Because wisdom… biblically… is not the same thing as intelligence. It’s not insight. It’s not experience. It’s not your ability to analyze a situation. Wisdom is seeing life the way God sees it… and walking accordingly. And you don’t naturally have that.

That’s not meant to insult you. That’s meant to locate you. Because if you don’t realize you lack wisdom… you’ll never go get it. And that’s the tension. We don’t feel like we lack wisdom. We feel like we lack clarity. We say things like:

“I need more time.”
“I need more information.”
“I need to think about it more.”

But underneath all of that… the real issue is this: You’re trying to solve something you were never meant to solve on your own. And here’s where this gets real… Think about what you’re currently facing. Not in theory. Right now.

That decision that keeps circling your mind. That conversation you know you need to have.
That direction you’re trying to figure out.

God’s Word steps into that exact moment and says: You don’t have the wisdom needed to navigate this on your own. And if we’re honest… that stings a little. Because we don’t like feeling insufficient. We don’t like feeling dependent. We don’t like admitting: “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

So instead… we do what we’ve always done.

We push forward.
We think harder.
We analyze more.
We try to figure it out.

And then… somewhere along the way… we bring God in. But that’s backwards. Wisdom is not the result of your process. It’s the result of your dependence. That’s the shift. And that’s where everything starts to change.

Because now the question isn’t: “What’s the best decision I can come up with?” The question becomes: “Have I actually gone to God for wisdom?” And most of us… if we’re honest… We haven’t. Not really. We’ve thought about it. We’ve worried about it. We’ve processed it. But we haven’t actually stopped and said: “God… I don’t have what I need here.”
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That’s the starting point of wisdom. Not confidence. Not clarity. Dependence.

Reflection Question
What decision are you currently trying to figure out on your own instead of bringing honestly before God?

You don’t lack options… you lack wisdom.

Prayer
God, if I’m honest… I’ve been trying to figure things out on my own. I’ve been leaning on my thinking, my instincts, my perspective. And I see it now… I don’t have the wisdom I need. So I’m coming to You. Not with answers, but with need. Teach me what it means to depend on You. Show me where I’ve been trusting myself. And lead me in truth. Amen.