Wisdom Matters

According to Proverbs 3:5 we are called to trust in the Lord with all of our hearts. And the only way to fully trust God is to “not lean on our own understanding.” But it’s difficult to lean on a God we cannot see when there are so many places in this world we can see.

The psalmist understood our need for God and our struggle to trust him. Psalm 34:8 teaches us to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” God is patient with us, not wanting us to stumble. God knows there are very few people who are able to fully trust him. So, the psalmist suggested we “taste and see that the Lord is good.” How do we do that? We learn the value of taking “refuge in him.” God blesses us when we run to him for help instead of trusting in lesser things.

When we trust God, we find him trustworthy. When we understand the eternal nature of God’s promises, we learn not to trust them as promises for this life. Learning to trust God is an acquired skill for most of us; it’s part of our sanctification process. 

When we trust in God’s nature, we can trust his promises. When we trust in God’s word, we can trust that his teaching is truth. When we trust in God’s love, we can trust in God’s discipline. When we take refuge in God, he blesses our choice with his presence, power, and plan. 

We all probably learned about wasabi or Tabasco sauce the hard way! We aren’t supposed to take a big gulp of coffee until we know how hot it is. Most of us nibbled at a few things before we came to trust we wanted the whole thing. The psalmist taught us to sample the greatness of God. When we learn how amazing our God is, we will learn to run to him as our refuge.

Living with wisdom is a path to God’s blessings. Taste and see that God’s wisdom will support and prosper your life. Taste and see that wisdom transcends logic or opinion. Experience God’s perfection and you will learn to run to him as your Lord, Savior, and mighty fortress. The more you learn to love each moment with God, the more often you will seek him as your refuge. God can lavish his blessings on those who learn to run to his Presence with complete trust. Taste and see—and experience that truth.

Most of us can remember times when the experiences of life caused confusion, doubts, and anger and likely caused our faith to falter. No one gets through life without visiting the refiner’s fire several times. 

Understanding why good people suffer is difficult. Most people have asked Job’s same questions of God at some point: “Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them” (Job 21:7–9). Why do God’s children suffer at times while the bad guys seem to succeed? 

Every generation has struggled to understand God and his sovereignty. If we were in charge of things, the good guys would win and evil would be stopped. God is all powerful and all knowing. Therefore, God could stop horrible things from hurting us. So, why doesn’t he?

We think like good, yet imperfect people. God cannot be anything less than perfect—at all times. We make the best choices we can, as often as we can. God can only make perfect decisions. We use our free wills in good ways most of the time. God honors our free will all of the time. As a result, this world will always be imperfect.

No one will ever fully obey or understand God, this side of heaven. Our faith will be challenged, and it might even falter because of the world’s inequities. That’s why James encouraged his readers to remember we are “blessed” when we remain “steadfast under trial.” Those are tough blessings to achieve, but they have eternal value.

One day, some of the blessings we are most grateful for will have come from times of trial because we remained steadfast in our faith. Every challenge, disappointment, and heartache can be an opportunity to stand firm and trust the perfection of God. Our reward is a heavenly crown. Living with wisdom is a path to God’s blessings. Living with wisdom isn’t having a perfect understanding of God’s ways; it’s about accepting and trusting that his ways are perfect, even when we can’t understand. 

In Scripture, a “good tree” is one that bears fruit. According to Jeremiah, a “blessed tree” is one planted by water, protected from the challenges of this world, and that does not cease to bear fruit. The prophet Jeremiah points to a spiritual truth worth pondering: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.” 

It’s so important to read Jeremiah’s words from a first-century perspective. We go to a grocery store and get frustrated if the produce department runs out of the fruit we want. Jeremiah’s readers depended on the strength of a tree to get their fruit. That fruit was never certain—unless the tree was planted by water. 

Believing airplanes can fly is one level of trust; boarding a plane is a whole other level. I remember the small plane I took from Mexico to Cuba, which may have been held together with duct tape in a few places! It was one thing to trust the jet that flew us to Mexico, but it took total trust in God for me to fasten my seatbelt. We were there to serve him, and he was our most important pilot.

If we want to bear the fruit of God’s Spirit—his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—we must depend on the water and roots of our faith. We must draw on God’s wisdom to produce the fruit of God’s Spirit. 

As a friend often said, “We are called to be fruit inspectors.” The fruit is good or it is thrown away. Where have you planted your life? Whose wisdom are you choosing to consume? It’s not hard to tell. Simply inspect the fruit of your life and you’ll know.

Living with wisdom is a path to God’s blessings. When the path leads us to the water’s edge, we can plant ourselves there. A life rooted in God’s wisdom will naturally produce fruit in keeping with God’s Spirit. His blessings will be evident to us and to those around us.

I used to love to try a new roller coaster because it was impossible to know all the twists and turns ahead. Roller coasters are a fun diversion but not a place we can stay. They’ve stopped mid-ride, stranding the riders. No doubt, all of them were more than anxious to get off!

Our spiritual lives can sometimes land us on a roller coaster. This world hands us situations we couldn’t have anticipated, yet we have no choice but to take the ride. Sometimes, although rarely, the ride seems to stop and strand us in a difficult place. 

How do we live with God’s continued blessing in a world that can impose unwanted circumstances?

Paul told the Philippians, “You have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” The key to a life of consistent blessing is consistent obedience, regardless of our inconsistent circumstances.

Walking the high road was probably easier for the Philippians when Paul was with them, holding them accountable with his presence and teaching. He wrote the letter of Philippians while under house arrest in Rome. He couldn’t be with them, but he wanted them to live as if he were. He wanted them to continue in their obedience to God whether he was with them or not. He wanted them to be consistently faithful, even when his imprisonment had created doubts and problems.

Paul taught them how to stay on the path of blessing. He reminded them, “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Their Source of blessing wasn’t the presence of Paul or the certainty of circumstances in this world; it was the power of God at work in their lives. 

Living with wisdom is a path to God’s blessings. Our path may include a few rides on a roller coaster, but if we will wisely remain obedient, even in the difficult places, we will be able to remain consistently on God’s path of blessing. 

The peace of God is one of our most significant spiritual blessings. Lacking God’s peace is one of our most crucial spiritual warnings. Why is that?

Paul told the Philippian church that the peace of God “surpasses all understanding.” God’s peace is unique and it is a gift. We don’t work for God’s peace; we ask for it. God’s peace isn’t found; it is received. 

God’s peace is given for a reason. According to Paul, it will “guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” God’s peace connects our minds to the mind of Christ. His peace guards our hearts with the priorities and passions of Jesus. 

We will sense God’s peace regardless of our circumstances. We can know and accept God’s will even when it is not our own. God’s peace surpasses human understanding because it is a miraculous consequence of walking in the wisdom of God.

Wisdom will lead you in the direction of God’s immeasurable, unsurpassed peace. The peace of God is one of our greatest blessings, and lacking that peace is one of our most important warnings. 

God’s peace stands guard over our hearts and minds. Living with wisdom is a path to God’s blessings. One of his most significant blessings is the peace that surpasses all understanding. Does his peace surround you right now? That answer will direct your next steps along or toward God’s path of blessing.

I’ve often wondered why the Bible doesn’t tell us very much about heaven. We know it is a place where “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain” (Revelation 21:4). We know we will see the Lord “face to face.” We know that people will not be “male or female” and our ethnic differences won’t be an issue. We will never have darkness, sin, or Satan to contend with. Those things alone would make it perfection, yet we know there is much more.

Our greatest blessings on earth will not compare to the blessings in the “heavenly places” Paul talked about. Yet, each of us seeks and wants God’s blessings now, for our days on earth, in addition to those we know we can hope for eternally.

According to Paul, our greatest blessings will be eternal, but we can live with that hope today. Sometimes we forget to enjoy our greatest blessings because we consider them to be available only in the heavenly places.

Paul told the church in Ephesus that they had already been blessed by God in Christ with every spiritual blessing. Those blessings will be received in heaven, but they already belong to us. There hasn’t been one day since our salvation when we’ve lived without our greatest blessing. 

Quite simply, since the day we placed our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, God chose us as his child. We can live every day of our earthly lives with the knowledge that we will stand before God “holy and blameless” because of Jesus. God established that plan even before he created the world.

Our greatest blessings are because of our new name. We are the adopted brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, God’s Son. The mansions, the banquets, and the other blessings of heaven are real and guaranteed.

We don’t know much about heaven, but we know enough to look forward to living there. Living with wisdom is a path to God’s blessings. Knowing that our path on earth ends at the gate of heaven is the best reason to live as wisely as we can. His greatest blessings will always be our God-given and guaranteed promises.

One of our most important spiritual blessings is the understanding that we can do nothing for God, but we can do anything through God. That’s a difficult statement to comprehend because we think from an earthly perspective.

Our world is transactional. We pay a certain amount of money and expect to receive what we paid for. We work hard and expect to earn a paycheck. The ways of God are not transactional because God’s ways transcend this world.

God doesn’t need us, but he knows we need him. God chooses to use our lives because it’s what is best for us now and eternally. God doesn’t need our money, but he knows we need to give our money away in order to live our best life now and in heaven. God doesn’t need our praise, but he understands that our praise will cause us to comprehend his sovereignty. We can do nothing for God because he is already able to do everything perfectly.

God is unlimited, yet he often chooses to limit himself to our free will. God cannot bless our choices unless we have a choice.

We achieve God’s blessings because we choose to abound in every good work. We are sufficient when God is our sufficiency. We accomplish good work when we allow God to work through us. We can do nothing for God, but we can do anything through him.

Our best ideas are not always God-ideas. Our talents and abilities are not the same as our spiritual gifts. We must question the source. Are we motivated by God and talented because of his strength? Are we “self-sufficient,” or are we utterly aware that our sufficiency is all in God?

Living with wisdom is a path to God’s blessings. Wisdom is knowing that our service for God is accomplished through God, not ourselves. Will we wisely allow God to be our sufficiency in the days to come? God doesn’t need us, but we desperately need him if we want to live on his path of blessing.

Most of us could easily fill a page with the many ways God has poured his love into our earthly lives. Our blessings can be seen in the faces of family and friends and in the “stuff” we have been able to buy. We all get sick, but most of the time our health is a blessing. But we also know that every blessing we enjoy on earth is usually temporary. Our health, our finances, and our “stuff” will have a beginning and an end.

James, the half brother of Jesus, spoke of the blessings of our lives that will continue to be our blessings in heaven. He said, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.” Every gift God gives us is perfect and therefore has eternal value.

You might say those “good gifts” are actually “God-gifts.” God-gifts transcend time and are consistently given to every generation. God is unchanging and so are his gifts from above.

God gifted King David with confidence, encouragement, and a keen mind.

God gifted David’s son Solomon with extraordinary wisdom and the riches of this world.

God gifted the apostle Matthew with a fresh start because he followed Jesus.

God gifted Paul with intelligence and the humble confidence needed to stand for the gospel, endure persecution, and write theology that would endure as Scripture. 

God gifted you as well. 

What are the “good gifts from above” that our unchanging God has chosen to be your blessings? How are you using those perfect God-gifts to serve his will and his people? 

Living with wisdom is a path to God’s blessings. It is wise to know your gifts and wisely use them to serve the One who gave you “every” perfect blessing of your life.

Scripture speaks of the blessings of wisdom, comparing the value of wisdom to the value of gold and silver. Wisdom is of the highest value because it is a pathway to

God’s blessings. God’s wisdom enables us to live a life he is able to bless. If you found a buried treasure you were allowed to keep, you would feel both lucky and blessed. We have been given the most valuable treasure in God’s word. We have been given the wisdom we need to store up a treasure that will be eternally ours.

During the month of September, we will consider how to find and walk God’s path of wisdom so that we are able to live a life he can abundantly bless, now and forever.

In John 1:14 the apostle describes Jesus saying, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (NIV). He then says “from his fullness” or his “completeness” we have received one “grace” after another (v. 16).

If we know Jesus, we know how to live a blessed life. Jesus is the perfect example of what it means to be right with God. Moses gave God’s people the law, but Jesus came to give his life for all of us because we would always be unable to keep God’s law. 

When we walk through life with Jesus as our high and holy example, we realize that our salvation is only because of the grace and truth of God revealed in Christ. We will never walk the path of blessing perfectly, but that path is always available to us through the grace and forgiveness Jesus gives. His Holy Spirit stands ready to guide us back to the life God can bless. 

Living with wisdom is a path to God’s blessings. Living with Christ as our gracious guide enables us to find that path each day and humbly return to that path when we lose our way. Jesus often said, “Follow me” (Luke 18:22). Even when that isn’t easy, following him is still God’s will for your life because it is your path of blessing.

Our culture has said that our Christian message is arrogant, narrow, and intolerant. People have pointed out the harm our faith has caused rather than accepting that a lack of faith is the source of the greatest harm. I’ve often said, “Our message requires us to live as the proof that God’s ways are best.”

Proverbs 22:4 says, “The reward for humility and fear of the Lᴏʀᴅ is riches and honor and life.” God cannot reward an arrogant faith because that isn’t a faith that will convince others that God is our King. When we “fear” God, holding him up in our lives with reverent awe, we exalt him and reveal him to those around us. 

The “riches and honor and life” God wants for us may be partially received here on earth but will be fully enjoyed in heaven. We can know this: whatever rewards we might receive on earth are a part of his perfect blessing upon our lives. Some of the finest Christians I know are wealthy because of their blessings, not their incomes. Some of the most effective and influential Christians I know have used their blessings to further God’s message. The common denominator in both the rich and the poor is that their rewards are the result of their humility and fear of the Lord.

You can please God with your life whether you have little or a lot. You can live a life of humility because you understand your existence is because of God. His abundance is our wealth, his love is our security, and his priorities are our purpose. 

Wisdom is pleasing God, and we are working to study and understand that wisdom matters. On this last day of August, at the end of another summer, will you examine your spiritual growth in the area of wisdom? Are you living with the rewards that come from a life of humility and fear of the Lord? 

Wisdom matters, and knowing how to please God provides his wisdom for each day.