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Heavenly Wisdom Part 8

<Read Part 7

Lastly, Heavenly Wisdom is sincere, that is without hypocrisy.  This is one of the “firm” aspects of Heavenly Wisdom, a reality check: do I live what I say I believe? Do I live what I say others should do?

The word “sincere” in the Greek means “without wax.” In NT times, if a dishonest potter had a pot crack when it was fired, he would be tempted to fill the crack with wax and cover it with glazing so the customer could not see it. However, when something hot was poured into the pot, the wax would melt and the contents would be spilled.

We are not to fill the cracks in our character with wax (deception of self and others) but we are to be transparent before God in confession. And where necessary be transparent with others about our weaknesses, temptations and sins. Then we are to fill those cracks with Scripture, memorizing and meditating on applicable Truth, so we can obey in the power of the Spirit: be honest when it’s our tendancy to lie; be patient when we want to explode; be kind when we want to strike out.

As a well-known philosopher in the Middle East said, “Either be what you appear to be or look like what you are.”  Good advice.

> Read Part 9

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Psalm 62:5-8

Be with us today, Lord, help us to be wise and godly, to think truth, to put on the armor of God and to obey what we know to be right. May we have joy in Jesus and choose to let go, hold on and rise above. I praise you for all that you are doing, all that you are going to do.

I praise you also for your wonderful Word and the power of it in our lives. Psalm 62:5-8 is such a helpful passage

Psa 62:5  “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;” [This is a command, in contrast to verse 1 where the same truth is given as a statement “My soul finds rest in God alone,” telling us where rest is possible. In verse 5  we are called upon to make a choice to find our rest in You, Lord. We need to turn away from what we naturally pursue for rest: getting what we want, resolution of situations and tensions, positive reactions of people, removal of conflict. The fact is that any of these solutions can be fleeting and superficial, while finding our rest in you is a solution that is long, deep, powerful and eternal. Help us to willfully, volitionally find our rest in you, alone.]

“my hope comes from him.” [Again, this statement is a bit different from verse 1 (“my salvation comes from him”). Here is the offer of hope, the possibility of receiving what we desire. We need to turn from the desire, to the One who can give it.  As it says in Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself also in the Lord and He will give you the desire of your heart.”  You are to be the focus of our affections, then You can give us good things, knowing that they will not become idols.

You are giving us great responsibility and possibility here, Lord. Romans 15:13 clarifies this:  “May the God of hope give you all joy and peace as you trust in Him (there is our part, trusting, finding our rest in Him), so that your lives may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” As we trust, the power of the Spirit comes; as we find our rest in you, Lord, then you pour out all kinds of blessings in our lives.]

Psa 62:6  “He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.” [This is an exact copy of verse 2, repetition of the truth of where real security lies, and if I seek refuge there, I will not be shaken, no matter  how traumatic the events.]

Psa 62:7  “My salvation and my honor depend on God;” [We so naturally seek our salvation in our own efforts, and our honor from the opinions of others. However, both of these actually depend not on us or others, but on God. He has provided salvation for eternity, and for every day. He is the One who has given us honor, making us children of the Creator of the Universe, giving us special work, granting us undeserved membership in the Kingdom of light.  What else could we desire? Yet we tend to seek salvation and honor elsewhere. Forgive us, Lord, help us to seek salvation and honor only from you.]
“he is my mighty rock, my refuge.” [The unshakable, unassailable, unconquerable God is the One to be trusted. When all else seems to fall apart, He is there, unchanging, reliable, good, wise and trustable.]

Psa 62:8  “Trust in him at all times, O people;” [There is that command again: “Trust!”  When we trust we can rest. And this is possible all the time. You are sufficient, Lord, you are faithful, you are absolutely trustable.]

“pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” [It is right, good and necessary to tell you all our fears, desires, feelings and thoughts. Then we can fill our hearts with Truth and Faith. Then we are safe in your refuge. You will never reject us for being honest with you—you know all about us already—and you are delighted when we are open, transparent and truthful with you. You desire to be our refuge, you call us to yourself, and in you we are safe.]

Help us, Lord God, to trust in you more and more, to find our rest, our refuge, our salvation, our safety, our joy in you. You are worthy of trust, you are worthy of praise, you are worthy of worship. May my life give you honor and glory today as I trust in you alone.

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Psalm 86:15

Praise you, my heavenly Father, for your steady, unwavering love and goodness. I am so much the opposite: my emotions are up and down, my sense of achievement and worth waver, my happiness with myself fluctuates with what I perceive to be success or failure, and my feelings change with how people interact with me, even with how well I sleep and even with my dreams. But you, Lord God, have made yourself my Rock, my Protector, my Fortress, my Forgiver, my Cleanser and my Father.

I praise you for the whole-hearted, deep and full acceptance you have given me in Christ. I thank you for the gracious correction, the loving help, the continual support from your glorious riches, for your constant presence, protection and provision.

In you I am forgiven, in you I am transformed, in you I am on the upward journey to heaven, in you I have worth and meaning and unfailing love.

Lord Jesus, as I consider what I am in myself–a selfish, proud, weak, unstable, lustful, lazy, impatient, unbelieving rebel—and considering what I deserve—rejection, punishment, suffering, failure, death and eternal separation from you—I am more and more amazed at your unending, rich, power love for me. You are too good to be true, too wonderful to be real, you are beyond human conception.  Yet, your love is real, demonstrated at the culmination of history, the cross, and then repeated affirmed in my life each day.

You, O God, are the One to trusted and loved, glorified and lifted up. I praise you for the beauty of your Character as shown in Psa 86:15  “…you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”

You lean over the side of heaven and in compassion follow carefully every aspect of my life, preparing each day in detail, providing protection, chastening, guiding and blessing. In compassion you also take me through difficulties to break, shape and transform. You are wholehearted and full orbed in your compassion.

You are gracious: kind and good in your dealings with me. You are also richly generous, pouring out upon me blessing after blessing. You have given me health, strength, the ability to see, hear, walk, talk, you have given me a fine family, good friends, meaningful work, constant protection and many belongings. I lack nothing because you are my Shepherd.

You are slow to anger: deeply patient, graciously patient, perfectly patient and therefore persistent with me. I so often fail, especially in my thought life and in my motives, in each sin grieving you, giving you pain. Yet you do not respond in anger, but instead kindly correct me over and over. You start with very small alerts and if I don’t respond, slowly work your way up to larger rebukes, patiently giving me chance after chance to see, confess and repent of one sin after another. I praise you for your great, rich, comforting, healing patience.

You are abounding in love: you are an overflowing spring of love with an endless stream of goodness that pours out of your rich person, for you are agape love itself. Praise you that your love is unstoppable by my failures and sin, that your love flows deeply, widely, powerfully, forever. It evokes from me an answering love, a desire to do what is pleasing to your heart. Your love transforms, cleanses, equips and leads us on, consistently, abundantly, graciously.

You are abounding in faithfulness: you are perfect, unchanging, unwaveringly consistent. You are faithful to your Character, to your Word, to your wisdom to your promises, to your plan. We can trust you wholly, wholeheartedly, totally and eternally. You are faithful when we are not; you are faithful when it costs you. You are faithful forever.

Glory be to you, Lord God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You are totally worthy of worship, of honor, of exaltation. I bow before you in awe, I rise up to obey in praise and thanksgiving. May you be lifted up, glorified and honored in my life today in my motives, thoughts, words and deeds.

 

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Heavenly Wisdom Part 7

<Read Part 6

Heavenly wisdom is impartial. This means that in my dealing with others, I must not play favorites. It is so easy to do this, especially as a leader. There are always those who are hardworking, cooperative, non-confrontational and helpful. It is easy to favor these people who are pleasant to us. And there are also always those who are unlikable, perhaps prickly or uncooperative, and it’s so natural to quietly shove them off to the side. But this is not heavenly wisdom.

Two commands that expand on this come to mind. First, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  (Matt 22:39) I should be impartially as gracious to my neighbor as I am to myself. That’s a pretty high standard!

The second command, “Do to others what you want them to do to you,” (Matt. 7:12) is as rigorously demanding. If I want others to be considerate, I must be. If I want them to be gracious and understanding, so must I. If I want them to be forgiving, so must I. If I want them to treat me with respect and justness, I must do the same to them–first. And if I am to confront others where they need it, I must be willing to accept confrontation from them.

Another passage that gives us a glimpse at this truth is in James 2:3,4

“If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”

There is no room here for playing sides, cultivating favorites or avoiding confrontations with those close to us when it is needed. Heavenly wisdom deals even handedly, treating each person with grace, courage and respect, caring enough to confront when necessary.

Read Part 8 >

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Thoughts On Psalm 31:7,8

Psalm 31:7  “I will be glad and rejoice in your love,” [Your love is enough for joy, O God. You, Lord, are love itself. You, heavenly Father showed your love in sending Jesus; you, Lord Jesus, showed your love in suffering immeasurably to save your enemies; you, Holy Spirit, show your love in working here in this sinful world to bring the elect to faith and to mature them in Truth. Your love is great, powerful, wise, endless, enduring and wonderful. To know you is enough for joy, to be your child is enough for praise.”

“for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul.” [You see all, O Lord God, for you are omnipresent. You know all for you are omniscient. You see and understand the difficulties of my life, my disturbed soul, my anguished heart and you are at work bringing the fruit of peace and righteousness as I respond to your guidance and grace.

31:8  “You have not handed me over to the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place.” [Praise you, Lord Jesus, my Savior, my Redeemer, my Protector, you brought me out into a spacious place bccause you delighted in me—against all reason, all odds, all facts, you delight in me, at first as your enemy, now as your rebellious son, your uncooperative child.

I praise you that your love is not dependent on my performance, but upon your unchanging, rock solid Character of holiness, purity, love, wisdom and mercy that triumphs over justice. To you be endless glory and honor, Lord Jesus, for your great work of salvation.

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Heavenly Wisdom Part 6

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Heavenly wisdom is full of mercy and good fruit. This is its fifth quality.  On a human level it is so natural for leaders to hang on to control, to say no, to micro manage, to please and exalt self.  Heavenly wisdom, on the other hand, looks for ways to say yes, to be kind, to help others be successful, even if it costs me.

Heavenly wisdom if full of goodness, bearing the four fruits of the Word: the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22,23), the fruit lips giving praise to God (Heb 13:15), the fruit of good works (Titus 3:14 KJV) and the fruit of souls won to Christ (Prov. 11:30).  Whichever fruit is needed, the one with heavenly wisdom will bring it out.

It is a pleasure to be around one with such wisdom. Knowing that he or she is merciful and full of good fruit, it is easy to accept direction, correction or confrontation, for these are done in grace, mercy and kindness.

I must ask myself periodically, “Am I full of mercy? Am I as merciful with others as I’d like them to be with me?  And what kind of fruit am I giving to others? In their relationship with me do they find love, joy and peace, patience kindness and goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?

I pray that God will constantly work in me so these aspects of heavenly wisdom will flow continually from me to others.

Read Part 7 >

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Heavenly Wisdom Part 5

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Fourth, Wisdom is “submissive.”  Other translations say, “gentle.”  Strongs says the Greek word can mean “mild, moderate, patient.” The idea is that we are gracious and approachable, willing to listen to what others have to say, giving serious consideration to their input. This encourages others to talk with us, seeing us as safe, gentle, moderate, patient. They know they will be heard and their ideas considered.

It also implies that if they have a better idea than I do, that I would give up preference for my own solution and go with theirs. For me this happened often during the first year of my marriage. It was humiliating to see that my wife had a better idea than I did about 80% of the time! But by swallowing my pride and accepting her idea, complimenting her on it and going with it made our marriage better, our ministry better and my leadership better!

It is pretty obvious why this quality of submissiveness/gentleness comes after being “sweetly reasonable.” Gentleness and submissiveness to better ideas will naturally flow out of sweet reasonableness.

The opposite of this is when I try to draw my self-worth and significance from being right and in charge.  With this attitude, the point of life is to reach my goals. And I will use others to get there, trying to get others to be submissive but not consider this quality at all for myself.

Yes, wisdom is first of all pure, then peace loving, sweetly reasonable and then submissive/gentle. These make life full of grace and good fruit instead of competition and strife. None of these preclude hard work, moving towards goals and achieving, but they make the process entirely other, they make it, well, heavenly.

> Read Part 6 >

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Heavenly Wisdom Part 4

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The next, the third quality of heavenly wisdom listed in James 3:17 is “considerate.”  This means thinking of others, of how my actions impact them. But the Greek word used here has even more “oomph” to it than “considerate.” It can also be translated as “being sweetly reasonable.”  That goes beyond just thinking of others to proactively bringing a warm, positive and equipping attitude into the situation.

How often has the Holy Spirit  had to ask me, “Are you being sweetly reasonable here?” And my response is usually, “Well, no, I’m not!” I’m often considerate in action, but not in spirit; and that can be felt by those around me.

However, when the sweetness of the Spirit is fueling my interactions, everything rises to a new level. I can reject my natural inclination to say “no” and look at things objectively. Instead of manipulating things to get my way, I can seek ways to empower others, rejecting my secret competitive, jealous thoughts. Because I know the God who is sweetly reasonable with me, I can be sweetly reasonable with others, bringing light and grace in where naturally I would bring grayness and grief.

That term “sweetly reasonable” is a wonderful way to measure our attitude and interactions with others. How are you doing with being sweetly reasonable in life?

Read Part 5 >

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Such Goodness!

Praise you, Lord, for your undeserved goodness to us, daily manifested by multiple minor means that we so easily take for granted: the gifts of sight, speech, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. And in major, majestic, mighty ways: pardon from deserved eternal death, the gift of eternal life, the indwelling of the Spirit, the wonder of your Word, an intimate relationship with you, meaning, guidance and protection in life, help in every circumstance, membership in the Body, abundant grace at all times–there is no end to the flow of your goodness, just as there is no end to learning about your marvelous character, Lord God.

You are the Triune One: the Father who plans, the Son who brings it to pass, the Holy Spirit who finishes it up. You are the perfect person, the perfect partnership, the perfect personality, the perfect planner. You are marvelous in your being, majestic in your judgments, mighty in your redemption and magnificent in your mercy.

To you belongs all affection, all loyalty, all commitment, all awe, all reverence, all obedience, all honor.  For in you there is no flaw, no imperfection, no error, no lack. You are worthy of eternal, complete, wholehearted, total love.

I bow before you, Lord God, I praise you, Heavenly Father, I honor you, Lord Jesus, , I surrender to you, Holy, Spirit. To you be exaltation, magnification, obedience and glory in my life today. Amen.

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Heavenly Wisdom Part 3

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James 3:17 goes on to say, “Heavenly wisdom is…then peace loving….”  It is amazing how often I can do things that are not peace loving: make a negative critical comment, be contrary, not cooperate, be selfish instead of thoughtful, make jokes that derail a conversation or meeting.   It is not our nature to be peace loving, it is our nature to seek our own significance and security.

Think about what these words mean: “peace loving.”  There is a deep desire to have peace, to bring about peace, to nurture peace, even if it is costly to me personally.  It means loving Jesus more than I love my own way, for He is our peace.

Often we are not peace loving because we don’t have peace ourselves. We are unhappy, discontent, angry, complaining and self-centered. We need to establish peace within so we can pursue peace without.

Peace, of course starts with God, with having good, open communication with Him, having no unconfessed sin, being filled with the Spirit. Regular confession, repentance, surrender to Him brings a growing store of peace into our lives.

Then there is peace with ourselves. How often my discontent stems from unhappiness with myself: my mistakes, my failures, lacks and shortcomings. If I don’t face these things, evaluate them biblically, confess them to God, receive His forgiveness—and then forgive myself, I will not have peace.

My discontent with myself has frequently come from unrealistic expectations of myself, looking for perfection, or a least fewer mistakes.  This is part of the natural desire to gain a sense of significance through my performance. But I need to accept the fact that I am human and therefore will make mistakes. I need to, of course, seek to do better, but must also accept that perfection will always elude me, and that my significance does not come from performance, but from God’s love for me. I need to admit my failures, forgive myself as He has forgiven me and move on.

Then there is peace with others. If I am harboring hurt, anger or a desire for revenge, then I am not going to have peace. I am not loving peace. I must have a fresh grasp of my own sinfulness (see my sin in my unforgiving attitude) and forgive others as God has forgiven me.

Having peace with God, with myself and with others will nurture my love for peace, my commitment to be a peace carrier in each situation.  I will have no need to compete, to wrench my significance from others, or to find my security in having control over the situation.

If we love God and love peace,  we can love others.

Read Part 4 >