Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Wisdom Comes From God

I can remember in days gone by being a teacher for Vacation Bible school. I had an entire class of third graders for one week and one week only. With eyes to see and ears to hear, these dear children I was entrusted with sang songs of joy and words of wisdom as they shouted gleefully to the Lord. I gazed at each innocent expression with a tender smile on my face, remembering how my childhood also had been so innocent and full of splendor. WOW! How adulthood sure seems to redesign our thinking and leave us empty and often dissatisfied.

My class sang, “Wisdom comes from God”, (Proverbs 2:6) and sang it with full assurance that what we spoke was plain ‘ol truth. Listening to our songs and words we sang made me realize, as we proceed along life’s hidden highway, how quaint of us to think for a moment, that we could ever do anything worthwhile on our own. We are so very limited in the capacity our brain’s have to rationalize or ignore, create or design. What ever makes us think as mere humans, we don’t need the wisdom from our Creator?

Wisdom is defined in many concordances, as the understanding that comes from God. Men such as Luke, James, and Solomon knew the benefits of wisdom. Luke 2:52 tells us, “Jesus grew in wisdom, stature and favor with God.” James encourages us, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, Who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to them”, James 1:5. Solomon shares several thoughts of having wisdom. He begins to tell us in Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” In Proverbs 2:10 he says, “Wisdom will enter our hearts, and knowledge will be pleasant to our souls.” Wisdom and knowledge are coupled together quite often and with great results. Proverbs 3:13 reminds us, “Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding”, and in Proverbs 3:19 & 20, Solomon says, “By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding He set the heaven’s in place; by His knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew.” And we believe at any given time we can accomplish what tasks are set before us without the divine help of a being Who created the entire earth and all that is in it? What foolish minds we truly can have.

Proverbs 4:7 tells us that, “Wisdom is the principle thing and to get it.” It leads you in the right path (Prov. 4:11), it is better than rubies (prov. 8:11), and best of all, Prov. 9:10, says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Wisdom comes from God, that is the whole truth and nothing but the truth. If we are to have knowledge and understanding ,we must get wisdom.

I think of wisdom as being words of wealth, initiating the knowledge of God, sound advice, deliverer of understanding, opening the gates of heaven, and manifesting in our daily walk.
Wisdom cries out amongst the city gates, she raises her voice in the open squares, (Prov. 1:20). We must listen, we must ask, and get it now! Wisdom is what we need, understanding is what we receive, and knowledge is our reward. The choice is yours.

By Denise Spooner Copyright 2008