From Pastor Ben
Trivia:
It's Monday, so I'll make today's trivia question an easy one. Here goes: What pink liquid medicine can treat an upset stomach? Is it Pepto-Bismol or Robitussin. Make one choice.
Challenge:
Ecclesiastes 7:23,24:
"I have always tried my best to let wisdom guide my thoughts and actions. I said to myself, 'I am determined to be wise.' But it didn’t work. Wisdom is always distant and difficult to find."
Here we are faced with the constant challenge in life, "To be guided by wisdom in our ways." This is the ultimate challenge for us to face.
From this warning we are faced with this truth: Just desiring wisdom is not enough, for even though we work hard to achieve it, or even desire to live wisely throughout our lives, without God instilling His wisdom we will fall short of achieving this feat. In fact, wisdom as spoken of in verse 24 is inaccessible by human effort.
Job after going through his days of suffering speaks of the necessities of attaining wisdom. Listen to his final conclusion in Job 28:23-28:
"23 God alone understands the way to wisdom; He knows where it can be found,
24 for He looks throughout the whole earth and sees everything under the heavens.
25 He decided how hard the winds should blow and how much rain should fall.
26 He made the laws for the rain and laid out a path for the lightning.
27 Then he saw wisdom and evaluated it. He set it in place and examined it thoroughly.
28 And this is what He says to all humanity: ‘The fear of the Lord is true wisdom; to forsake evil is real understanding."
Here are the words of true wisdom that Job shares with us after going through desperate times and then coming through all of these struggles. He spoke intimately with God when all other people of the earth rejected his inquiry. Then God reminded him of the only source of spiritual wisdom. It all flows from following Him and His ways.
Job tells of the only hope for long lasting enlightenment, walking in His ways. He then pointed out the extent of God's wisdom, He knows all things, everywhere, He controls the wind, rain, lightening, as well as, everything past, present and future. It is with the scope of His knowledge, that we can rest in His wisdom.
SO GO WITH GOD my dear one for then and only then can we rest in His wisdom. To the extent that we delve into His words, and that we rest in His care, then fellowship in His ways will He bring to us the enlightenment in His wisdom. Or as my Dad would say, "The way up is down." The way to wise living is walking through His truth. There is no other way.
Pepto too