As a body of believers, we depend on one another. Each of us has gifts and talents to support the entire body. Some are powerful comforters. Some are incredible workers. Some are great at organizing. Some are great at seeing the difficulties in a situation and others are able to create solutions to these difficulties. Some have a passion for evangelism, for developing community or for teaching from God’s word. Some have been gifted to lead others into a posture of worship.
And every body of believers needs individuals with spiritual discernment. It needs people of wisdom so that is protected from dangers that threaten to destroy the work of God. These threats come from inside and outside, but God wants us to respond to him with trust – aware of the purpose he has called us to and encouraged as we step out in faith. Wisdom based on a close walk with God is the answer.
My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands. Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding. Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures. Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God. For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest. He is a shield to those who walk with integrity. He guards the paths of the just and protects those who are faithful to him.
Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will find the right way to go. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy. Wise choices will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe.
Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those whose words are twisted. These men turn from the right way to walk down dark paths. They take pleasure in doing wrong, and they enjoy the twisted ways of evil. Their actions are crooked, and their ways are wrong.
Proverbs 2:1-15Proverbs 2:1-15
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
Wisdom and Bad Friends 2 1 My child, you must follow and treasure my teachings and my instructions. 2 Keep in tune with wisdom and think what it means to have common sense. 3 Beg as loud as you can for good common sense. 4 Search for wisdom as you would search for silver or hidden treasure. 5 Then you will understand what it means to respect and to know the Lord God. 6 Ws ; . All wisdom comes from the Lord, and so do common sense and understanding. 7 God gives helpful advice d helpful advice: Or “wisdom.” to everyone who obeys him and protects all of those who live as they should. 8 God sees that justice is done, and he watches over everyone who is faithful to him. 9 With wisdom you will learn what is right and honest and fair. 10 Wisdom will control your mind, and you will be pleased with knowledge. 11 Sound judgment and good sense will watch over you. 12 Wisdom will protect you from evil schemes and from those liars 13 who turned from doing good to live in the darkness. 14 Most of all they enjoy being mean and deceitful. 15 They are dishonest themselves, and all they do is crooked.
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We each have had experiences in life that have made us who we are. Not all of these experiences have made us wiser, though. The unfortunate truth is that many of our experiences have only deepened our inability to hear God’s voice, to respond to the call of wisdom. So what can we do to increase our discernment, our ability to respond with wisdom?
Proverbs tells us to search for it, first of all. That seems simple enough, but we often don’t take the time or effort to build wisdom. We often don’t ask the opinion of others. We often don’t read anything but what we are already familiar and comfortable with. We can be in too big of a hurry to wait on God’s voice. And we have good excuses! We have jobs, kids to look after, ministry needs to attend to and obligations in the community. Searching can be a costly investment, one we are not willing to make, even if we recognize the importance of wisdom. Sadly, our jobs, kids, ministries and communities would have ultimately reaped the benefit of a life that searched for wisdom.
A pattern of conversation with God is essential. Cleverness and wisdom are not the same thing. Cleverness can take advantage of a situation based on a little bit of knowledge and educated guessing. But wisdom requires intimate knowledge of God – what he is doing and who he has revealed himself to be. This knowledge is personal. Wisdom does not just respond to circumstances, but responds to purpose. When our circumstances stack up against us, challenging what we know God has said, wisdom encourages us to step forward in faith.
Familiarity with God’s word and commands is also critical. Wisdom is not just about the most effective way to get something accomplished. It is about the right way to get something done. Acting sinfully, or encouraging sin, in order to accomplish God’s work is madness. Nehemiah was able to avoid sinful behavior that would have discredited him as a leader because he knew God’s voice and his commands.
There are evil forces arrayed against the Church. We need wisdom to hear God’s voice and counter these attacks. We need wisdom and discernment in order to avoid false teaching that would corrupt our relationship with God. We need wisdom to confront sin-producing attitudes and to avoid falling into sinful behavior. We need discernment to detect attempts to deceive the body and stop it from growing and impacting the community and the world.
God wants a community that is guarded by wisdom; the same wisdom that brought all of creation into existence and sustains it each day. So if we ask for wisdom, we can have faith he will respond.
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