All this and wisdom, too?

What's wIsDoM got to do with it?    

Listen along here:  https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/1f0e2df6/all-this-love-...

When you are reading, do the words ever seem to come alive - like get sorta animated right before your eyes?1 Yes? Me too. No? Sorry, I will pray for you. ;)

As I was reading Paul's perfect prayer in verses 9 through 11 of Philippians 1, bells of familiarity started going off in my head. Hmmm, Paul prayed for those he loved so much that they would have more love in their lives which would then produce knowledge and discernment and the ability to choose the "excellent".  

Remember Paul's words? 

"And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ . . . ." 

Let's think about this - more of God's love in our lives should produce knowledge, discernment and the ability to choose the 'excellent'... It appears that Lady Love has just met Lady Wisdom.    

What is wisdom? 

Well first, wisdom comes from God. It includes:

>understanding - what is true, right, lasting

>discretion - the ability to decide responsibly

>prudence - wise in handling practical matters, exercising good judgment, common sense, careful about one's conduct

>discernment - keen insight

>knowledge - the body of wise teaching

>action - in exercising discretion, prudence, or discernment. 

It may surprise you to see 'action' linked with wisdom, but what good is any of the above qualities of wisdom, if once you see things clearly, you fail to exercise it? Wisdom must therefore impact our actions.

Hmmm ... why yes, there is quite a connection between love that comes from God and the wisdom of God. We read in Proverbs, 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.'2   And from the apostle John, 'Dear friends, let us love one another, for LOVE COMES FROM GOD. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.'3

The connection of love and wisdom is unmistakable. The reason? Both emanate from God. Truly, Love and Wisdom are founded in the heart of God. 

Our Lord's half-brother, James, told us that if we ask God for wisdom, he will give it to us.4  You and I can and ought to ask God daily for his wisdom so that we will be discerning, prudent, etc. as we live and move and have our being.

Do not miss the opportunity, privilege and discipline of starting each day in prayer. Set apart an area of quiet, and talk with your Father. If Jesus made this a priority, oh, how much more do you and I need to do it? Include praise, asking for forgiveness for sin--the things you said or didn't that you oughtn't, and the things you ought have said or done that you failed to do, and then begin your requests by asking God for wisdom, that you may have understanding, knowledge, discretion, discernment, prudence and the presence of mind to execute them! 

Ask God to grow his love in your life ... that you may choose what is excellent. You see, fully developed love never travels alone. It is accompanied by all the other virtues. It functions in beautiful cooperation with full knowledge and keen discernment.5   How good, how right! Some say love is blind...bah! Love is not blind; love is perceptive, and when it meets wisdom, it gives the heart and mind the ability to separate not only good from bad, but also, the important from the unimportant, the urgent thing from the true priority.

A prayer: Dear Father, I pray for my friends around the world who are reading (or listening to) this right this moment ... in Pakistan, India, the U.K., Israel, and Uganda. I pray, Lord God, that you would grow their love for you exponentially, in such a way that it cannot help but flow over into the lives of others. I pray that you would cause them to turn to you, the Author of Wisdom, and ask, that they may receive! And having received the wisdom from above that is pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere,6 they might bring honor to you from their lives. Amen.

Seek wisdom, "Speak, O Lord" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH1Wn4fTiBs

Christine

PastorWoman.net

Philippians, #7

1 Hebrews 4.12 

2 Proverbs 9.10

3 1 John 4.7 

4 James 1.5 

5 William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Exposition of Philippians

6 James 3.17