THE PURSUIT OF WISDOM

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Today I am talking about wisdom – the pursuit of wisdom. The Word wisdom can be defined as the quality of having experience, knowledge and discernment. Wisdom is not necessarily intelligence. The Bible defines wisdom as the Knowledge and the fear of God, and the keeping of His commandments (; ). According to Scripture, the wise man is the man who fears God and keeps His commandments, and the foolish man is one who hears God’s word and does not do it (). Biblical wisdom focuses on practical living in obedience to God’s revealed will.

Wisdom and Experience

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is very rooted in experience-based wisdom. David was a man full of the wisdom from above – the wisdom of God. As a King, he was a man after God’s heart. He feared God and kept His commandments. In this Psalm he sets forth for us the wisdom which he obtained by following after God’s heart and keeping His commandments.

Action Points of Godly Wisdom

i. Do not worry because of evil doers.

ii. Trust in the Lord

iii. Delight in the Lord

iv. Commit your ways to the Lord

v. Rest in the Lord

vi. Cease from anger

vii. Honour God ()

viii. Put God’s Kingdom first ()

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Every time we make a choice, it is followed by consequences. What a man/woman sows that he/she will reap ().

i. Evil doers shall be cut off (Fool)

ii. Those who wait on God shall inherit the earth (Wise)

iii. The evil of the wicked shall destroy him (Fool)

iv. The Lord will uphold the righteous (Wise)

v. The righteous shall not be forsaken (Wise, )

vi. The righteous keeps the commandments of the Lord (Wise, )

vii. The Danger of Laziness ().

viii. The danger of being tight-fisted ().

Examples of Foolishness and Godly Wisdom

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This is a classic example of two choices, one based on God’s point of view and the other, on human point of view.

See problems from God’s point of view

If the children of Israel believed the word of God, if they were wise, they all would have chosen to go and conquer the Promised Land, because God had already promised to give it to them. But majority of them saw the land from the human point of view. They saw that it was a fruitful land, a land flowing with milk and honey. But they saw, and exaggerated difficulties. They saw the sons of Anak, the giants of the land. For example, Og the king of Bashan was one of them. His bed was 14 feet long and six feet wide. Not only that, they were great in number. They lived at the top of the mountain. This was a big problem. The bigger problem was that they were looking through human eyes.

Godly wisdom demands that we see problems from God’s point of view.

Seeing time from God’s point of view

What is the biggest problem you can think of in your life? What are those things that you consider to the most important in your life? What is it that you have right now as number one on your agenda? One million years from now, will it still be important?

Wisdom sees not what is important now, but what is important from God’s perspective. God does not look at time but looks at eternity.

Moses was faced with a decision – to stay in Egypt as a prince and enjoy all benefits of the palace, or to join his own people who were slaves in Egypt and suffer the reproach of Christ for a season (). He chose the reproach of Christ! Wonderful.

How do you choose?

You must also see possession from God’s point of view (; )

In the eyes of the world, the Church in Smyrna was poor, but in God’s eyes they were rich. The Laodicean Church saw their earthly possession as sign of actualisation. They thought they had arrived. But Jesus quickly revealed their spiritual poverty!

Believers should see problems or possessions or time from God’s point of view. This is godly wisdom. This kind of wisdom comes from above (). We can see quickly that Godly wisdom is different from so called worldly wisdom.

Consequences of Choice

Consequences of Choice

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Every time we make a choice, it is followed by consequences. What a man/woman sows that he/she will reap (). Consider the following outcomes of choice.

i. Evil doers shall be cut off (Fool)

ii. Those who wait on God shall inherit the earth (Wise)

iii. The evil of the wicked shall destroy him (Fool)

iv. The Lord will uphold the righteous (Wise)

v. The righteous shall not be forsaken (Wise, )

vi. The righteous keeps the commandments of the Lord (Wise, )

vii. The Danger of Laziness ().

viii. The danger of being tight-fisted ().

Let us always make the right choice every time in life. The right choice will result in multiplied blessings from God. Wrong choices will alway lead to bitter disappointment. Don’t wait until it is too late. Don’t play around until it is too late.

Students, don’t play with your time. It will only lead to mediocrity or outright failure. Don’t be fooled when the world is hailing you and telling you that you have the right to do what you like; you have the right to study or not study. You have the right to choose what consider to be right for you without regard to anyone else. When you fail; when you are hit with disaster, the world will consign you to the rubbish bin. But pursue wisdom from God and God will elevate you to a place of honour in life and in eternity.