John 3:18 (KJV)
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Christianity Today is in chaos mode. With the recent announcement of Erik Petrik as the new editor in chief, they've now gone through 6 editor in chiefs in the last 7 years.
Despite having more than $22M in annual revenue, and despite multiple rounds of layoffs in 2025, they just laid off 40% of their editorial team and 20% of their overall staff- with some layoffs triggering further resignations.
Turning On the Lights! Tues, Oct 13, 2026 We Open Joel 1 and Talk About the Day of the Lord Past, Present, and Future... https://t.co/Yn5ssKlr65 via @YouTube
Sometimes we ask God for wisdom and imagine the answer will come mainly through clarity, study, or a sudden sense of direction. Then the trial comes. Something breaks, something delays, something hurts, and we begin wondering why the answer to our prayer feels nothing like wisdom. James brings those things together more closely than we often do.
“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (James 1:2–3). Then only a few verses later he says, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God” (James 1:5). Wisdom is often formed while faith is being tested. God teaches us things in suffering that comfort alone would never have forced us to learn.
Trials expose us. They show us how quickly we panic, how much we depend on circumstances, how deeply pride still lives in us, and how often we trust our own understanding. Then God begins teaching us to see differently. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). Real wisdom starts when we stop treating ourselves as sufficient and learn again who God is.
That does not mean every hardship should be simplistically explained as, “I asked for wisdom, so God sent this exact trial.” We should be more careful than that. But Scripture is clear that God uses affliction to mature His people. “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes” (Psalm 119:71). Some truths become much heavier after we have lived through the place where we had no strength left but His.
Looking back, many of us discover that the season we begged God to remove became the place where He taught us patience, discernment, humility, dependence, and a clearer knowledge of His character. The lesson was costly because shallow wisdom would not have carried us very far.
So when we ask God for wisdom, we should be prepared for Him to teach us in ways we would never have chosen for ourselves. He may answer through Scripture, counsel, correction, waiting, disappointment, or suffering. And when the lesson finally settles into the heart, we often realize that He was answering the prayer long before we understood what He was doing.