Tag: wisdom from above

Starting Over


For those of you who have followed this blog in the past, “Hello again.” Life has been quite hectic for the past few months, so I hadn’t been checking the blog very regularly. When I did- imagine my alarm to find that it had been removed. Apparently, I had missed a renewal payment and discovered that not only was it not functioning, but also that restoring it was not possible and the only real option was starting over. In order to return credibility to my name on internet searches, (it is alarming to find your name mentioned with warnings as a possible source of malicious internet activity) I’m trying to start over.

This whole process of starting over has gotten me thinking. It is a new year, and that would seem to be an appropriate time to begin again in many areas of my life. Sigh…but it’s not easy. Restarting the blog is easy by comparison even though I am technologically incompetent. Words like “adventurous, spontaneous, rash”, left my vocabulary as descriptions of myself with about the birth of my first child.

The greatest new beginning is our salvation, 2 Corinthians 9:7 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” God is the only one who can give us a genuinely new start and even though we are forgiven and He is merciful, He doesn’t always choose to deliver us from the earthly consequences of our wrong choices whether they were sinful or not.

Here are some points I am trying to learn:

  1. Acknowledge what went wrong the first time. Something vital was ignored, neglected, destroyed by myself or in conjunction with someone else. Even if I was completely innocent, which is rarely the case, if it is no longer fixable it’s time to stop crying over it like Samuel did Saul- go anoint the new direction and start over (1 Samuel 16:1).
  2. The second is like unto the first. Letting go of failure-refusing, if God has forgiven me, to keep on flogging myself. (1 John 3:20)
  3. Forgiveness of others which includes letting God weed out the bitterness. God has to pull this one, I’m not strong enough.  Forgetting is not always possible but, when it all comes flooding back if God can enable me to see the other person through His eyes- I cannot help but feel compassion. How does God see that person?
  4. Moving forward into an unknown future with a renewed commitment to God that trusts Him enough to risk relationships even if that trust is violated. The older I get, the more I realize that in this sinful, fallen world -hurt is inevitable! Either I curl up and crawl away to hide, or I have to trust the NEVER-FAILING love of God, allow Him to deliver justice on my behalf, and trust that He WILL make ALL things work together for my good. If I cannot do that, I will withdraw and avoid people the rest of my life- cause they just mean sometimes! *
  5. I must admit- I cannot do it all! I don’t think that I ever really thought I could…I was just so busy trying to that I never stopped to admit it wasn’t working. I am not able to do every job at the church, be on call 24-7, be made-up, fixed up and show up for every need I encounter. It isn’t even a matter of compassion fatigue anymore, although I have been there, it is simply physical fatigue at this point. I have to sleep right, eat right, and know my limitations, or it (meaning me) is just going to hurt. Besides, since when was God only able to use me? If I do it all, others will never get a chance to step into the place God has for them. I don’t want Him to have to move me out of the way.
  6. Last but not least. If I am going to start over, I’m going to need somebody smarter than me. Not just the helpline tech guys I have been harassing for a week, poor things. The older I get, the more I realize how flawed I am. “I need someone older and wiser telling me what to do” now as much as I did when I was 16 and not listening anyway. But I also know that EVERY other human’s reasoning can be as convoluted as mine! It is only the wisdom from above that is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” James 3:17. I want to listen to that voice!

Starting over can be a process that as my granddaughter says, “It takes 2-ever”. 2-ever or 4-ever, change is never easy. But I know that He who began the good work in me doesn’t have to start over because He has never stopped and He never will. (Philippians 1:6)

*Please do not stay in an abusive situation. You can work on forgiveness and learn to trust God much better from a safe place!

Are there any wise among you?

Are there any wise among you?

Is anyone else already fed up with the US political candidates? Please join me in a groan of despair. Some of the candidates seem to be intelligent within their particular areas of expertise, but overall are still lacking in wisdom. Perhaps their knowledge would be better used in some other field than as the leader of the nation.

C.S. Lewis states the following, “Holy wisdom is not clear and thin like water, but thick and dark like blood.”
So what is this holy wisdom? The book of James says that we can ask for it.

James 1: 5, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

Later James gives a description of what this sort of wisdom does, and does not, look like.

James 3:13, “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

So no matter how smart you may think you are, if you are full of bitter jealousy, selfish ambition, boastful and are “false to the truth”; you are not wise. These negative characteristics are practically the calling card for some of the current political candidates…

Holy Wisdom has pure motives                

Is peaceable                     

Gentle

Reasonable

Full of mercy and good fruits

Impartial

Sincere

Results in a harvest of righteousness

So, to the current field of candidates, “Are there any wise among you?”

Perhaps we shouldn’t expect “holy” wisdom from them.  I could agree with that statement, if so many of them were not claiming to be Bible believing Christians! That means that even if wisdom doesn’t come naturally to them, they should at least know that they can ASK God for it, RIGHT?

I know, it is not my job to cast condemnation on anyone, so now that I am at risk of being judged by the same measure that I have used, let me take a step back.

I know that personally I need to be asking God for wisdom every day that I live. So when I pray and ask God for wisdom how does He go about giving it liberally and without scolding (reproach)?

What I find fascinating in scripture is the personification even anthropomorphic (often feminine) way that wisdom is represented. Such as, the father speaking to his son in Proverbs 4:7-9.

“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,
and whatever you get, get insight.
Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;
she will honor you if you embrace her.
She will place on your head a graceful garland;
she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”

But I find Proverbs 8:27-31, the most fascinating of all. Wisdom is speaking,

When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him, like a master workman,
and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.

In all my very limited understanding, the only being involved in creation was God. The Triune fellowship that is God seems to have had wisdom as the master workman. We know that Christ is represented as responsible for creation.  Colossians 1:16, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”

Whether the “Wisdom” represented in Proverbs 8 is Christ or merely a personification of a facet of His nature, I think it is safe to assume they are closely related.

1 Corinthians 1:30-31 says, “… you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

The only way for any of us to become wise is through a deeper and more profound connection to Jesus Christ who came to represent to us the wisdom of God. The result of that will be, not boasting in ourselves but boasting in the Lord.