Wisdom That is Not Self-Serving

I got takeout Chinese food this week and I eagerly opened my fortune cookie to see what pearls of wisdom were in there.  This is what mine said.

I was Ralphie on "A Christmas Story" who infamously said "A Crummy Commercial?".  I paid good money for this Chinese food and this is what I got.  Someone must have run out of good ideas.

A lot of us think that God is too busy running the world that he has run out of time and wisdom. But James says that God gives to us "generously and without reproach" (1:5). In other words we can never ask him for too much wisdom and He never gives it grudgingly. God doesn't say "Oh here comes Dan - he is out of wisdom again" which happens often by the way.

Another interesting thing about this verse is it's placement. It comes right after the end of the verses talking about trials. Trials force us to abandon much thought that we have wisdom. Trials bring us to our "wits end" (Psalm 107:27). It is great to know that God does not leave us in trials but offers us His abundant wisdom.

As my kids got older, it is interesting that they finally got around to asking their mother and I for advice. As they approached the real world, they recognized that we had experiences and wisdom worth asking for. And we got a small glimpse of what it feels like to be God in dispensing wisdom. We were only too glad to help and that was a form of love. God will not leave us lacking.

The Way of Wisdom

Our pastor Joe is teaching a series on wisdom.  This is the second of the series.  Like many of Pastor Joe’s sermons, it is incredibly insightful.  This morning’s title was the Way of Wisdom.  The four points were:

1) Know God – find a way daily to remind yourself of how great God is and how much He has done for you.  Every morning we wake up hungry looking for value.  If we don’t seek God as the source of that value, we will look for it elsewhere.  If you don’t seek that value, you will do foolish things in your own wisdom.

2) Know Yourself – Proverbs 3:5 says to “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”..  Every day you need to deflate yourself and not think too much of yourself.  I can never think too much of myself when the God of the universe had to sacrifice His son to save me.  Yet God thought so much of me that He did just that.  Pastor Joe made reference to this clip from Toy Story which is perfect for this point.

3) Know God’s Word – God provides the handbook, the “database of best practices” that we can use to discover Him and wisdom.

4) Trust God’s Way – Dive into God’s love knowing that He desires the absolute best for you.  Recognize that pain will be an implicit part of the process.  Pain is never thought by our children as positive but they are able to look back and see the benefit it brings.  Pain is part of the process of learning wisdom.