February 20, 2014 
James 1:2-8 Easy-to-Read Version
Faith and Wisdom
My brothers and sisters, you will have many kinds of trouble. But this gives you a reason to be very happy. You know that when your faith is tested, you learn to be patient in suffering. If you let that patience work in you, the end result will be good. You will be mature and complete. You will be all that God wants you to be.
Do any of you need wisdom? Ask God for it. He is generous and enjoys giving to everyone. So he will give you wisdom. But when you ask God, you must believe. Don’t doubt him. Whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is blown up and down by the wind. People like that are thinking two different things at the same time. They can never decide what to do. So they should not think they will receive anything from the Lord.
iChristian 
Hi, Steve! I’ve discovered that asking also works for needed knowledge. I had to teach one of my sons about the Pythagorean Theorem (had to look it up so I knew how to say it!) for geometry. I never took geometry, and didn’t understand this at all. My son and I stopped and asked God to show me how to teach this to him.
Within 10-15 minutes, I understood it…taught it to him…and promptly forgot it again! He got an A on that test!
Yesterday was another such day. I upgraded my recording software and am clueless how to use the programs. This is my season to compose music, and I need the skill. I asked the Lord to teach me what I needed to know.
When the customer service rep called to see how things were going, I was in the middle of a big mess with the program. He patched me through to tech services (Sweetwater.com can’t be beat for their service, by the way).
While I was on hold, I poked around in their knowledge base. There I found a link to instructional DVDs for several of my music software programs. They could be purchased for $50 each…or I could watch as many different ones as I wanted for $15.
Yesterday I learned more about my software in a few hours than I have using the programs for months.
Sometimes we have not…because we ask not!
\o/
Tami this is amazing! You’re such an inspiration to me and everyone who has contact with you. Thanks so much for enhancing my post with your amazing experiences with God. Take care, your loving brother. 🙂
I like this translation 😀
Thanks Valerie! I’ve been really enjoying this translation!
I’m really enjoying your Proverbs study! 🙂
Thank you, Steve! It’s been life changing for me already.
Valerie, i’m meditating on a paragraph you wrote at the moment while i’m fasting. It hit me full on and put me on my knees!
“Do you want to be like the “evil man held captive by his own sins who will die from his lack of self-control” or are you going to nail that sin to the cross and rely fully on Jesus to help you overcome it daily?” from ‘Temptation at your door’
I’m tying to shed my grave clothes and live by the spirit, not by the flesh and your words hit hard! Thank you so much for being an amazing minister and feeding my pure spiritual food! God bless you loving sister. 🙂
Wow, Steve, I am truly overwhelmed and humbled that God would use something I wrote to help you have a breakthrough! I find it inspiring anytime someone shares with me what the Lord speaks to them through me. How blessed are we that God partners with us to share His truth right where we’re at?! Praying that He will continue to reveal truths to you as you fight the flesh and let the spirit guide you. Blessings to you, brother and thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing this with me! 🙂
http://jesuschristarmy.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/who-was-cains-wife-was-cains-wife-his-sister/