Messages with tag - Wisdom

A person can study philosophy and the minutia of ideas and still come up with only two ways of thinking; God’s way or the world’s way. Proverbs contrasts these as the way of the foolish and the way of the wise. Facts, reason and experience may fill 95% of your brain, but the 5% containing God’s revelation is the means of interpreting the 95% which can, if practiced, produce skillful living through wise choices. God doesn’t entice us to sin. He does test us, in prosperity or adversity, to give us opportunities to make decisions that allow us to grow. See the lessons in our passage on wisdom, taught as a father teaches his son, emphasizing choices. If you feel you lack wisdom, ask God for it. He wants us to have it.

Proverbs, written primarily by Solomon but with other contributors, is a book of instruction, wisdom and poetry. We will study the meaning of Proverbs from the mind of the author, in historical context, and not through the erroneous wanderings of our own imaginations. Gifted by God with wisdom, and by the Holy Spirit with the preservation of these words, in the end, Solomon failed miserably. What ingredient do we add to knowledge and wisdom to obtain obedience and eternal value? Is wisdom the immediate gratification we get when we study this book? What is wisdom? Do knowledge and wisdom guarantee smooth sailing in life?

How do we find God's will? Does God always have a specific will for each detail of our life, or, for the issues that don't involve morality or biblical commands? Or is the test of decision making more often related to the process of how we make the decision, than the specific decision itself? In this lesson Pastor Dean continues to answer these and other questions related to knowing God's will and making wise decisions.

What treasure are you seeking? Scripture tells us that spiritual assets and riches already exist in the believer's life. But how can we know that is true? How can we have that assurance?

In this lesson we learn these riches are activated as we learn God's Word, creating confidence and the ability to apply the Word to real life situations. We acquire wisdom, a skillful execution of the knowledge we have. We learn the true meaning of Paul's reference to "mystery" and how it is related to the new entity - the body of Christ. We learn that all (not some) treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ and are ours. Here's the formula for our growth process: understanding = knowledge = wisdom.

So what is bringing the most meaning and significance to your own personal life?

Paul expresses four purposes for his prayers in these verses. The first two are related in an important way. The first purpose is that we might be filled with the knowledge of His will. The second is to walk worthy of the Lord. However, these are related in that we are to be filled with the knowledge of His will so that we may walk worthy. The knowledge of God's will is not an end in itself. It is related to the application of that will to our thinking and living. This is expressed through two key terms: wisdom and understanding. These words are often described in terms of the Greek connotation. However, Paul and the other apostles would not have thought of them in the Greek cultural sense, but in terms of the Hebrew meaning in the Old Testament. In this lesson we learn what the biblical or divine viewpoint of wisdom and understanding is.