Skip to main content

Wisdom

             If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. (James 1:5)

Wisdom, Direction, Attitude. Those have been my automatic prayer requests for years. I suspect wisdom is on many people’s lists. Technically, if I had wisdom, there would be no question of my direction or my attitude. It’s all about wisdom.

The first problem is that God doesn’t answer my prayer. I don’t open a book (even the Bible!) and put my finger on some wisdom. No light shines. No note descends from Heaven on a fishhook. I don’t have flashes of insight with which to impress someone. Life just goes on, disappointed because God doesn’t answer my prayers.

And as life goes on, I find that I’ve learned a thing or two. I respond differently and it works. I realize that, while God can certainly teach us in a flash of insight, He tends to teach over time. The gift of wisdom isn’t generally magical. While our awareness may come suddenly, wisdom is not built in seconds. It accumulates over decades.

Another problem with the way I tend to seek wisdom is a lack of specificity or need. I want wisdom, period. Is there a specific question, need, or situation? No, I just want wisdom. If I faced a decision with options and asked for wisdom, God could and probably would have an answer to give me, but the only real answer to “Give me wisdom” without a specific issue is “OK, here’s life. Live it.”  It’s still an answer. It’s a great answer. Just not the answer I wanted.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more