Thursday, April 18, 2024

THE ONLY SOURCE OF LEGITIMATE WISDOM

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

James 1:5-8

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I think most people want to be wise in the decisions they make and the associated actions related to those decisions. Live long enough and we come to understand the consequences of foolishness, some being more severe than others. This has been true for the ages from generation to generation ranging all the way back to the dawn of mankind and biblical times.

We know that the matter of living in wisdom was valued and important in biblical times because the scriptures talk about the matter extensively. A quick word search of the Bible will show that there are 219 references to wisdom in the scriptures, 169 of which are found in the Old Testament. It’s there that we find Solomon, the son of David, who ascends to the throne of Israel and when offered anything by God, simply chose wisdom so he could rule the people properly (2 Chronicles 1:7-12). And after God grants what Solomon asked for, here’s what the scriptures said about him:

God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than anyone else, including Ethan the Ezrahite—wiser than Heman, Kalkol and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame spread to all the surrounding nations. 1 Kings 4:29-31

Thankfully, Solomon didn’t keep all the wisdom to himself. Instead, the scriptures tell us he “spoke three thousand proverbs” (1 Kings 4:32), many of which are found in the beloved Book of Proverbs found immediately after the Psalms in the Bible.

Through the story of Solomon, we find the way to obtaining legitimate wisdom in our lives as well and also discover a real life representation of our verses for today as we continue to study the letter of James. Look at his words to the Hebrew Christians found in chapter 1, verses 5 through 8:

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. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

Solomon saw that he lacked the wisdom to do what God called him to do, lead the nation of Israel and its people. And so he asked God for wisdom and God gave it to him in abundance. As long as Solomon remained connected to the Lord, believing in Him with unwavering faith while seeking His counsel on every matter, he could be assured he would do the right and righteous thing, no matter the circumstances. God would make sure of it.

The same gift of wisdom from God is available for us today. All we need to do is to place our full trust in Him to provide everything that we need in life to carry out His will properly and He will grant it for He and He alone is our only legitimate source of wisdom. Solomon put it like this:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

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