Need Wisdom?

James 1:5

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

⁵ If any of you need wisdom, you should ask God, and it will be given to you. God is generous and won’t correct you for asking.

For years I have told my students that this is indeed the students’ memory verse. Here’s why I believe that this is a special promise to students.

Ph.D. students at the University of Iowa in my day had to take three comprehensive exams over three different fields of their discipline before they could start doing their research. A student has two chances to pass each exam. If she fails any one of them twice, she is automatically eliminated from the program. Since the exams are comprehensive, the examiner can ask any question in the field: Nothing would be regarded as an unfair question. I felt a tremendous amount of stress as I approached each exam. At stake were four years of undergraduate and two or three years of graduate preparation.

In my preparation for each comprehensive, I obtained the exams from the previous ten years. For each previous exam I would find a quiet desk in the library, spread the exam and paper in front of me, and time myself for exactly three hours while I answered the questions on the examination. When the three hours were up, I would research until I had found all the answers for the questions. Then I would test myself on the next exam. I chose to do comprehensives over Topology, Algebra, and Analysis. I did the first two in the autumn of 1972 and passed them comfortably.

In the following spring I took the Analysis exam. It had seven questions, and I was instructed to answer five of them. I had three hours to complete them. After two-and-a-half hours, I had answered only three questions and couldn’t answer any more. I knew I had failed the exam. Gloomily I turned it in and went and sat down and prayed and claimed the promise in James 1:5. Suddenly it dawned on me that I knew how to answer a fourth question. Since I hadn’t left the room, the examiner let me work on that question. The question had been phrased in a tricky way so that it appeared far more difficult than it really was.

I passed the exam on the four questions I had answered. I had a friend who answered only three questions, and he failed the exam. When he retook the exam the next fall, it was a very difficult exam, and no one passed. I would not have passed it either! My friend had to leave the program and never did get his degree.

To this day, I believe that God fulfilled this promise that day.

Thank You, Lord, for promising us wisdom and then so graciously fulfilling it.