Light ForwardSample

Know and Act

Discern what is right and act upon it.

This is the battle between what is easy and what is right. Most times, we want to do what is easy, but to "light forward" we must discern what is right and act upon it.

Paul says, "… Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise." Action is the catalyst for wisdom because there is no point in knowing what to do and not doing it. That is the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is knowing what to do, but knowledge itself is useless. The best it can do is to puff you up and make you arrogant. However, wisdom is taking what you know and doing the right thing with what you know.

Imagine someone driving at a hundred kilometers per hour. Then she sees a road sign that says "slow down, sharp bend ahead". That is knowledge; she has seen the sign and interpreted it correctly. But what if she maintains her speed at a hundred kilometers per hour, or even increases the speed? An accident is bound to happen, caused by foolishness. A wise person sees the caution sign and acts accordingly.

With all the information that is available to you today, are you acting accordingly? Or are you, as the saying goes, burying your head in the sand like the ostrich, hoping that nothing is happening around you?

What do you do with what you know? Don’t live like fools. We erroneously think fools are people who do not know anything. But God’s Word shows us that fools know a lot but do not do anything with what they know, and that is what makes them fools. A fool is someone who knows something but does nothing with what he knows. An ignorant person is someone who does not know anything. The person may be ignorant, but the person is not a fool. You can be ignorant in a particular subject, but you are not a fool. However, as soon as you know something about that subject and you act on it, you are wise. But when someone who was previously ignorant, gains knowledge about a subject and still does nothing about it, then that person is a fool.

Do not live like fools but like those who are wise.