Monday, March 28, 2011

Wisdom to Put Things Together

Contributed by:
Becky Johnson
women's life director

From the earliest of ages, my 17 year old son has always loved to take things apart. Any gadget or appliance in our house that no longer worked reached the same fate in EJ’s hands…it was taken apart to see what it contained. We even made trips to vacuum cleaner stores to salvage disposed vacuums so that he could take them apart piece by piece. Now, at the age of 17 and through the training he’s receiving, he’s learning how to put things back together and to make things work again. My son is no longer little but growing up…he’s maturing.

The Big Idea from the message that Ron shared with us this past weekend was, “Knowledge enables us to take things apart but wisdom enables us to put things together.” From experience, I’ve found this to be so true. When I have relied on the world for answers, things just seem to fall apart. Just ask any member of my family and they’ll tell you how mom has fallen apart at times and how mom’s reactions have contributed greatly to situations deteriorating into fallen apart messes! The world can sometimes seem to make more sense or to be easier, but in reality it isn’t true. The world’s answers only lead to chaos, difficulty and are much harder in the long run.

But when I’ve looked to God for answers, it enables me to keep things much more put together. Again, just ask any member of my family and they could tell you of times we’ve followed God’s wisdom and life was much sweeter. It might have even seemed counter-cultural at the time but we learned that God’s ways are always better. Ron gave a great definition of wisdom as “intentionally applying God’s Truth to my everyday life.” My heart’s desire is for my everyday life to be full of God’s Truth…to be peace-loving, to bear fruit and be full of mercy (James 3:17). So this week, when my family and I don’t see eye to eye, I’m going to look to God for answers. When I’m running late and become frustrated with others on the road, I’m going to look to God for answers. When life isn’t going the way I planned, I’m going to look to God for answers. Wisdom is intentionally applying God’s Truth to my everyday life. Let’s live everyday life this week with a little wisdom from God!

Something to think about:

  1. When life gets hard, do I turn to the world for answers or to God?
  2. Am I finding ways to know God’s Truth so that I can apply it to my everyday life?
  3. Ron mentioned several ways to gain wisdom:
  • Reverence
  • Christ
  • Scripture
  • Prayer
  • People
  • How can these become more influential in my life in order for me to gain godly wisdom?

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