Wisdom hath builded her mansion

One of the easiest things to forget is that God is God.  It is in His nature to be God.  He does it without trying.

We forget because we're not God.  Out of habit, training, or perspective, we see God as massive enhancements to us.  And so begins, regardless of slope, a pattern that we spend the rest of our days either reckoning or hastening.  In addition, the only knowledge of God we have is what He gave us.  This means that we necessarily have an incomplete view of God.  That's okay - we can't handle all of God; but, we can handle what He has shown comprises Himself.

Today's five-minute moment focuses on this fact - wisdom is acting like God would in your situation.  Or, as God would have us act in our situation.  And without God's guidance, this is impossible.  So he leaves us clues.

As I mentioned in my last post, I challenged you to identify the wisest person you know.  I asked you to do this to help you recognize by what standard you evaluate wisdom.  Why did you pick that person?  Are they rich?  Are they happy?  Knowing by what standard you evaluate wisdom will help you recognize whether your own standard is reliable and how far your standard is from God's guidance.

Let's test how well you chose your person:

1. Does the person fear the Lord?

2. Is the person humble?

3. Are the fruit of the spirit ever present with the person?

As service is the manner in which Christ revealed and modeled his walk, may I thus suggest today's challenge:

Pray that God would reveal in what way you might be of service to your selected wise person.

What does wisdom look like?

This is one of those questions which appear to have no answer.
I believe this is because, unless two people read the same book, they are likely to answer the question differently. And I believe this different reflects more about what that person values (and defines as 'common sense') than anything else.

So what does wisdom look like?

Men and women, the world over and for many years, have sought her guidance, her arms, and certainly her attention. One could even argue that it is wisdom, not knowledge, that men of education often seek - and are misled into believing that the sane perspective they seek is found in textbooks of equally confused and often well-intentioned brilliance.

I will follow this post with some discussion of this topic - but I would be blessed if you, faithful reader, could ask yourself one thing:

What one person that you personally know best embodies wisdom?

How will this year differ from the last?

Two weeks ago Christmas commanded the attention of millions.
One week ago the New Year with resolutions commanding the attention of millions.
Today - not so much.

It has been said that, other than the books you read and the people you know, we don't change all that much.

I would argue this to be the case but would have used two slightly different words: wisdom and relationships. Thus, the phrase above can be said to focus upon:

The amount of wisdom a person possesses

The nature and character of the relationships in which a person finds themselves engaged.

Do YOU have a resource for Wisdom?
Have you chosen relationships that edify?

I believe ...
     if we don't actively seek wisdom,
          the wisdom we DO have slowly drains away.
     if we don't actively seek relationships that build up our relationship to Christ Jesus
          all other relationships can draw us away from Christ Jesus.

Let this year be the year that you grow and flourish!

Seek Wisdom!
Seek edifying relationships!