Wisdom!

 The wisest man who ever lived, Solomon, did not ask God for riches and land. When God asked him what he wanted, Solomon asked for wisdom to rule God’s people. This seems to be something that is greatly lacking in our contemporary culture. To begin our thought we went to the words of Solomon:

"The beginning of wisdom is: Get [skillful and godly] wisdom [it is preeminent]! And with all your acquiring, get understanding [actively seek spiritual discernment, mature comprehension, and logical interpretation]. Proverbs 4:7 (AMP)

Here we see that Solomon recognized wisdom as being essential for life and living. And following wisdom, there should be understanding. The Amplified makes it clear for us what is involved with understanding – spiritual discernment, mature comprehension, and logical interpretation. While we may say we understand the trauma that our nation is currently experiencing, do we have real spiritual discernment? Can we get beyond the emotion and the rhetoric and discern the real issues that are promoting the current state of unbridled actions? Can we set aside our personal reactions and with maturity, look objectively at the various scenarios at play and try to determine a course of action that will get to the root of the pain? That will help to bring true repentance, unbiased reconciliation, and genuine peace? Can we step aside from our personal biases and logically dissect the conflicting ideologies to determine realistic actions that will heal and build, not hurt and destroy?

There was another man in the Bible who spoke of wisdom and it is to his words that we turn for a possible solution:’

⁵ If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. ⁶ But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷ Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. ⁸ Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do. James 1:5-7 (NLT)

God desires to give us wisdom  even more than we want to receive it. Yet, we cannot ask God for wisdom and the latest  fashionable group at the same time. God will not share HIs glory with another. If we want to really have wisdom from Him, it can’t be mixed with God and something else. You may wonder how will God know? If that is something that you think, it’s time to recognize that you still don’t know who God is. God knows the "thoughts and intents of our hearts". He is never surprised at us, because He is the only One who really knows us. When we really get serious about inviting God into our heart, our conversations, our intimate emotions, our prayers, and certainly our actions, then we must put aside all that we are and surrender to the will of God. If we do that marvelous things happen. 

Recognizing the value of reflecting on the word of God, we are going to look at some more words of wisdom from James this week on tomorrow.

Maria