Wisdom Matters

The word of God is his voice. When we worship God in spirit and truth we are ushered into his holy presence. When we want the presence of Christ to dwell in our hearts and minds we seek his word. 

I love to have my sons and their families return home for the weekend. Even in the early morning quiet, while everyone is asleep, I am aware of their presence. I don’t have to see them to think about them. I know I can expect to see them come down the stairs and join me. That is the picture that comes to mind when I think of the word dwell. I enjoy the texts and phone calls, but it isn’t the same as those days when they “live” in my house.  

Paul encouraged the early church to allow the word of Christ to dwell among them as their source of teaching, encouragement, instruction, correction, and joy-filled worship and praise.  

Our Bibles are so much more than information. God’s word is our inspiration to live with thankfulness in our hearts to God.

Joshua had a key role in the history of Israel. He would lead God’s people into the promised land. Joshua had been by Moses’ side assisting him. After Moses died, the Lord came to Joshua and told him to prepare to lead his people across the Jordan and into the land of their enemies. 

Then the Lord told Joshua how to do the impossible task before him. He said, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night.” Allowing the words of God to remain in his thoughts would enable Joshua to walk carefully in obedience to God. Filling his life with God’s word would fill his life with God’s voice. 

And Joshua was “prosperous” and experienced “good success.” The Lord’s admonition to Joshua remains our direction today. Just as it was for Joshua, God’s word is our strength, our direction, and our comfort because his word is the Lord’s voice in our lives. 

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly and it will make your way prosperous. Success is walking with his voice and his presence as you meditate on his word.

Evangelism is never a wrong priority, but it can sometimes be considered a wrong practice. It's difficult to share our faith when people think of it as imposing our ideas on others. Yet, their opinion imposes their ideas on us. 

Paul had a good way of taking the complicated and making it clear. He taught Christians that the most important point is not whether an idea is considered popular or even appropriate. Instead, we should be asking, “Is it true?” 

Paul said if we want to speak the truth with our neighbor, we first need to put away falsehood. We are all members of the fallen human race. There have always been different opinions of God, but those opinions about God have never altered his preeminence. He is above the thoughts and ideas of men. 

We shouldn’t be surprised that evangelism is seen as an imposition by some. Evangelism assumes Christians have biblical truth that our neighbors need to hear. Evangelism assumes that our neighbor who doesn’t believe God’s word needs to believe. That is a confident, even arrogant, position to take in our culture. And the truth is, Jesus told his disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19, emphasis added). 

Evangelism can be complicated in our culture today, which is all the more reason to understand that God’s truth is compelling. A lot of “falsehood” is taught as truth. It’s up to the disciples of Christ to “put away falsehood” and speak the truth. 

The Lord gives wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. He gives us the truth and love we need and calls us to give his gifts to others. We have neighbors who need the Lord. Let’s love our neighbors as we love ourselves because, truthfully, that’s what Jesus taught us to do.

What are the “spiritual truths” that only a spiritual person can understand? 

Sometimes Christians forget that they are “spiritual” beings. We are “born again” when we make Jesus the Lord and Savior of our lives. That is a spiritual truth only a spiritual person can understand. The Apostle Paul told the church in Corinth that his words to them weren’t his best ideas. Rather, they were the perfect ideas the Holy Spirit had taught him. 

Faith isn’t just our belief; it's our experience. We interpret God’s truth through God’s Holy Spirit. Who would we be and how would we think if the Spirit of Christ had not entered our lives? Christians often see things differently than non-Christians. Our opinions and values can be very different at times. We should expect that, according to Paul. How can someone without the Spirit of Christ think his thoughts? 

We know the Bible is truth because we have been given the spiritual insight and experience to know that. We know God because we have experienced his presence in our lives. The Bible isn’t “human wisdom” because it was inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. We know the truth because the Spirit within confirms and agrees with God’s word. 

Paul’s words should provide the grace we need for those who argue with biblical truth. Spiritual truth is for those who are spiritual, those who are led by the Spirit of Christ. We should never judge or blame a lost person for having a “lost” opinion. We might have held the same point of view if Jesus hadn’t changed our hearts and minds with his truth. 

The Lord gives wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, and God applies his truth to our lives through his Holy Spirit. Every day, God’s Spirit authors his thoughts in your heart and mind. We need only discern the spiritual thoughts from our own.

We have all misjudged people at times, and other times God has provided us with his wise discernment. The Bible tells us not to “judge others,” and then the Apostle John tells us to “judge with right judgment.” What appears to be a contradiction is actually an important distinction. 

In Scripture, judging someone or something from a human perspective is different from discerning with God’s wisdom. Human beings make judgment calls every day. Some of those calls turn out well and others don’t.

Discernment is born from the wisdom of God; it's a gift given to those who ask for it. “Right judgment” is God’s perspective. 

We limit God in our lives when we assume we know what is true. We often judge based on what “appears” to be true or wise. Jonah’s judgment was based on the appearance of truth rather than the perfection of God’s call. Humanly, we all would have booked passage on that ship! Yet, Jonah’s judgment landed him in the belly of the fish until he was able to discern the truth of God in his life. 

No committee of Hebrew people would have crossed the Red Sea with walls of water on each side. Joshua was on the committee to decide whether or not they should enter the promised land, and he and Caleb lost the vote. He and Caleb were also the only members of the committee who ever did enter. Later, Joshua led the people to march around Jericho. By all appearances, that wouldn't have been a great military strategy. John the Baptist pointed to his carpenter cousin as the promised Messiah. 

Just a brief look at biblical history should tell us that we should never judge a situation or person with limited, human judgment. Right judgment is God’s. 

That’s why the Lord gives wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. We don’t have his discernment, his “right judgment,” until we ask for it and choose to receive it.

God provides the things we are most likely to “enjoy.” That one thought puts everything we own in a different light. God intends for us to enjoy our lives. We shouldn’t be surprised when we are tempted to want more than we really need. Too many possessions complicate our lives and rob us of our ability to enjoy what God wants for us. 

Paul described “the uncertainty of riches.” We buy cars that eventually need repairs. We buy homes that eventually need some remodeling. We buy clothes that go out of style, wear out, or no longer fit. The “stuff” we hope to accumulate in this world is often the source of momentary enjoyment. 

God’s word defines the blessings that will bring us the most enjoyment. God “richly provides” us with his joy, his forgiveness, his wisdom, his provision, his healing, and his understanding. There is a tranquility that comes with growing older. Most older people like to enjoy what they have as much or more than they enjoy getting something new. Maybe that is what is meant by the phrase “wisdom comes with age.” 

If we were to point to the things in our lives we know God has “richly provided,” we would probably realize that those things are the most important and enjoyable blessings we can name. We don’t “set our hopes” on things that are temporary or only last a moment. Our hopes are set on things with higher, long-lasting value. 

The Lord gives us wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Those gifts are provided by God so that we will enjoy them and allow them to give his perspective for everything else we might possess.

It has been said that the key to Psalm 23 is in the first few words, “The Lord is my shepherd.” The promises of the psalm belong to those who have chosen to make God their shepherd. 

When the Lord is our shepherd, we know we are safe. He goes ahead of us to “lead us” to a place where he can “restore our souls.” He walks with us so that he can “comfort us” and guide us to stay on, or return to, his right path. He walks behind us so that his “goodness and mercy” will follow us “all the days of our lives.” 

Those who make the Lord their shepherd are never without his care and his love. One day, our shepherd will tell us our journey is finished and we have arrived at the kingdom of God. There, we will “dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” 

One of the best moments of every vacation happens when we arrive home and open our front door. As Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home.” Our earthly lives are “road trips” full of interesting and important things to see and do. Our earthly lives have one central purpose: we are on our way Home. 

Not everything on our journey will be “green pastures.” We sometimes walk through those valleys the psalm describes. Whatever our circumstances might be along the way, we know we are being cared for, guided, and kept safe. One day we will arrive Home, and we will be safely Home forever. God’s house is the promise for every person who chooses to make the Lord their “shepherd.” 

The Lord gives wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to those who will say, “The Lord is my shepherd. He is everything I want.”

A unique quality of Scripture is found in the promise God made to the prophet Isaiah. Every week, preachers and teachers study and prepare in order to present God’s word to others. The focus of those lessons should be a biblical passage because those are the only words God has promised to bless. 

God told Isaiah that his word, the words that come directly from God, don't return to him “empty.” God’s words accomplish his purpose and plan. The success of a sermon or lesson isn’t found in how powerful or eloquent the presenter can be. Instead, success should be measured by whether or not God’s word accomplished the purpose God intended. The only words God has promised to bless and use are his own. 

There is a unique power in using the actual words of a biblical passage. A teacher or preacher will always make a mistake or two. But, when God’s word is sent out, preached, and taught, it does not “return empty.” 

When you shared or read God’s word today, you and others experienced his inspired perfection. When our words are his, our words have power and authority. Every word of Scripture exists for a reason, and God promises that he will use them to accomplish his purpose, in our lives and in the lives of those we are called to teach and influence. 

The Lord gives wisdom, knowledge, and understanding so that we can speak his word, for his good purpose.

We can add depth to our knowledge of God if we learn to study Scripture in light of what it meant to the people who first received these words.

Remember: those who lived during the days of the Old Testament didn’t have our scientific advances. But they knew that when the heart ceased to beat, a life had ended. They understood that in times of intense emotion or effort, the heart would beat more rapidly. And they believed the heart meant the center of life itself, with all of its emotions and motivations. 

When the psalmist wrote “unite my heart to fear your name,” he was praying that his life would be driven and motivated by his faith in our powerful and holy Creator. He wanted to know the ways of the Lord so that he could walk in God’s truth. 

That should be our goal for Bible study as well. It isn’t about simply learning the words of Scripture and their meaning. Bible study should unite our hearts and minds with God. When the truth of Scripture lives at the center of our lives, our hearts are united with God’s because we “fear” his name. To fear God is to live with reverent awe of who he is and all he is. 

When we know the ways of God, we can choose his ways instead of our own. When our hearts “fear” God, we want him to be our King. When our hearts are united with God, we will live with his thoughts, his love, and his motives. 

The Lord gives wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Those blessings live in our hearts and motivate our actions. God is the source of all things, and he has given us everything we need to unite our hearts to his—now and forever.

The Apostle John was an elderly man when he wrote the letter of 1 John. The first-century Christian church was established and growing by this time. The success the church was experiencing attracted some to be involved in the congregation for reasons other than the faith. 

John wrote his letter to encourage the members to remember why the church was sacred and important and why the church should be protected from people who were trying to alter the original apostolic message for the sake of personal profit. There have always been people who disagreed with God’s truth and therefore tried to exchange his words and ideas for their own. 

The elderly John spoke to his beloved congregation, referring to them as “dear children” because some were young in age and many were “spiritually” young—beginners in the Christian faith. John told them the Christian faith wasn’t simply a philosophy of people’s words or ideas. Christians were empowered by God’s Spirit and called to love one another with actions and the truth. 

Our faith isn’t simply what we think or say is true. Our faith is the power of truth witnessed through our actions. 

The Lord gives wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. His children live differently as a result.

We don’t always want to hear the truth, but we usually want to know we have it. 

Sometimes God’s truth interferes with what we want to believe and often what others want us to believe.

God’s truth can separate us from the opinions of others. That can be especially tough when those “others” are people we love. 

How then does knowing the truth of God set us free? 

Jesus spoke those words and we know they are true even when they don’t feel like the truth. The truth sets us free. How? 

—We are free to believe God’s word over the world’s opinions.

—We are free to choose faith over fame.

—We are free to define success according to God’s standards.

—We are free to forgive the unforgivable.

—We are free to claim our own forgiveness through Christ.

—We are free to live with confidence in our eternal home.

—We are free to choose Christ and live by his Spirit.

—We are free to choose joy and peace, even amid fear and troubles.

We don’t always choose to walk in the truth we have, but God made certain his truth could always be taught and learned. God wanted us to know how to live free from our sins. 

The Lord gives wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. We have those blessings of truth, and his words will set us free, now and eternally.