Fueled by FaithSample

Day 7 - Faith allows us to receive wisdom from God.

Today, we are going to discuss the way faith serves as the key to receiving wisdom from God. Knowledge is good, but what good is it to know something without a way to make use of it? Wisdom is similar to knowledge but not as similar as most people think. In addition to knowing things, wisdom requires that we make sound judgments, based on sound reasoning, based on experience, and a solid understanding of how things work. I could know everything, but that knowledge would be useless if I did not have wisdom to apply my knowledge to my life.

Where can we get wisdom? There are many ways to gain wisdom, but why toil for wisdom when God gives it to those who ask Him? Let us see what the Bible tells us about how we can gain wisdom:

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. [James 1:5-8, ESV]

In short, James 1:5-8 tells us that if we lack wisdom, we should ask God. When we ask God, we can expect that God will honor our prayers and that God will grant us the wisdom that we have asked Him for. However, we must ask in faith if we wish to receive the wisdom that we seek.

God is the source of all wisdom, and His wisdom is what we must seek. Wisdom from God is (according to James 3:17) “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere”. I encourage you to memorize James 3:17. That verse will serve you very well in discerning when wisdom comes from God. If you cannot memorize the verse (I struggle to keep James 3:17 in order whenever I recite it), at least memorize the first part of the verse: “wisdom from above is first pure”.

On the other hand, there is wisdom that is demonic and earthly. According to James 3:14-15, such demonic wisdom can be identified by the way it creates bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in our hearts. I find that it is easy to determine when wisdom does not come from God by taking James 3:17 and flipping it:

Wisdom that does not come from God is impure, belligerent, abrasive, unreasonable, merciless, biased, and insincere. In addition, wisdom that is not from God will not produce good fruits.

REFLECTION:

1. Have you ever received wisdom from God?
2. How can you practice determining whether or not wisdom comes from God?
3. Have you ever prayed for wisdom?