Being Wise in an Unwise World: Guard Duty

Can you think of a message that your Mom or Dad constantly drilled into you growing up?  For example: You can be or do anything you set your mind to; or make something of your life; or don’t let others define who you are; or never settle. Maybe your parents were exceptionally competitive and the message was win at any cost or only losers lose. Remember the song “Que Sera Sera”? That mother passed down to her child: whatever will be will be.  2 Peter 2:14 talks about some “having a heart trained in greed.”  We can only imagine what was pounded into them growing up. Obviously, not all messages pounded into us make us better people.  

Being Wise in an Unwise World: Blessing of Being Wise

Proverbs 16:16     How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen above silver.

Proverbs 3:14,15   For her profit is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fine gold. She is more precious than jewels; and nothing you desire compares with her. 

 

I wish we believed that.  If we did, it would radically change our priorities and pursuits. It would change our very definition of what we understand being blessed truly means.

Being Wise in an Unwise World: Always the Wisest Response

Take a moment and think of one person for whom you want the absolute best – best for and best from.  It is ok if that person is yourself. That is a good thing, and a key aspect of loving others as we love ourselves. We need to love ourselves enough to want best for and from ourselves. When God invited Solomon to ask for anything, and he asked for wisdom, he asked for the best for himself, and thus others.   Of the 31 chapters in the Book of Proverbs, seventeen of those attributed to Solomon, are specifically directed to “my son.”  He wanted best for and from him.  God has preserved these proverbs for over 3000 years because as our Father, He wants best for and from us as well.  Best for is always wisdom, and best from is always a wise response. 

Being Wise in an Unwise World: Investing in Wisdom

If you were to ask someone, anyone, everyone: “Would you like to be wise?” I can’t imagine them saying, “No.”  The desire to be wise is part of our created DNA.  In the perfect Garden of Eden, Eve was drawn into the forbidden because Satan tapped into her desire to be wise. “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate.” _{Gen. 3:6} The desire to be wise comes from God, and being wise – being characterized by wisdom – is a Spirit-enabled and empowered process. But we have to want it. We have to ask for it. We have to pursue it. And we have to apply it.

Being Wise in an Unwise World: What Unwise Looks Like

 

We like options – lots of options!  That is especially true when it comes to wisdom. We want to debate which variance is better. Pick and choose what we deem to be the perfect fit for us.  This is so prevalent that we call this bent of being picky and prioritizing our preference as being wise.  The more advantageous our choice proves to be, the wiser we deem ourselves to be. Our human/horizontal (---) definition of what it means to be wise is simply: to be right.  All it takes is someone to affirm that we or they are “right” and we crown them as “wise.” 

Being Wise in an Unwise World: What Wise Looks Like

We live in a world desperately in need of true wisdom. Always have, always will, but now more than ever.  We are prolific in information and means of knowing stuff, but woefully lacking in wisdom and truly wise men and women.  We don’t even know what being wise means.  It doesn’t mean being intelligent or having an abundance of knowledge.  It doesn’t mean having all the answers, know what works or what to do, nor measured by the world’s definition of success.  And it isn’t even an acute common sense, which is also woefully lacking.  All of these are the definition of being wise according to the dictionary. This matters because having a wrong definition can actually deprive us of wisdom and being wise.  What wise really looks like needs to be defined by God.  His wisdom fills the pages of our Bible, especially the Book of Proverbs. This series will be anchored in this Book of Wisdom.  

Having a Shepherd

Read Psalm 23

There is something wonderfully comforting in this most cherished of all Psalms. However, for someone who knows what it means to be a shepherd, the truth that ”the Lord is my Shepherd” is even more precious and powerful.  Isaiah 40:11 tells us “Like a shepherd He [God] will tend His flock.” David knew that everything he did for his little flock, God faithfully did for him (and continually does for us).

Can’t = Won’t

Read Deuteronomy 1:19-36

Under the leadership of Moses, God led the people of Israel to the land He promised to give them.   Getting there hadn’t been easy, but by the grace of God, they had arrived.  However, up close it looked bigger and scarier than it sounded. Faith gave way to fear; trust crumbled under trepidation. They wanted to know exactly what to expect and a detailed map as to where to go from here.