If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

James 1:5-6

Here’s what I learn from this.

There’s a danger in trying to wedge the Bible into our current beliefs, instead of just letting the Bible speak. I get that we all do that to an extent, but there’s a difference in having a firm understanding of our faith and having a faith that is still developing and trying to figure out what it stands for.

When you know what you believe, it’s easier to go into the Bible and see how it all makes sense. Like I know Jesus is God’s Son, so it’s easy for me to look through the Old Testament and see where He is mentioned. I’m not wedging my beliefs into the Old Testament. I know it, so it just jumps out at me.

It’s okay to “know.”

I think sometimes we have this idea that we should never say we “know” something because that means we are arrogant and refuse to learn, or that we refuse to see that we might be wrong, etc. No no no. We can “know” God’s Word. We can “know” our faith is true. That’s not arrogance; that’s confidence in Scripture (Eph 4:5).

On the other hand, if I don’t have a clear understanding of what I believe (if I don’t know), then I would be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.

It’s fine to question and to seek and certainly to grow, but at some point you have to be settled in your faith to the point where you can defend it, and not just believe a hodgepodge of different ideas and teachings. We can know that we know that we know that we know Him.

And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

1 John 2:3