The Wisdom of God..Craig Denison Ministries

 The Wisdom of God

Craig Denison Ministries

Weekly Overview:

This week we’ll spend time simply stirring up our affections for God. God has designed us to see him, to know his character and to let the truth of his goodness lead us into deeper relationship with him. Augustine wrote, “Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.” In seeing God for who he is, our hearts are naturally stirred to find rest in his goodness. May your heart be stirred at the revelation of God’s wonderful character.

Scripture:“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” James 1:5

Devotional:

Your heavenly Father is perfectly wise. Everything he does is perfect. Every thought and idea he has is filled with complete wisdom. What’s more, through the Holy Spirit you have access to that wisdom. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” Your God loves you so much that he’s just waiting to bestow on you his vast wisdom. He never wants you to suffer from a lack of knowledge. So often, we are taught that God only reveals to us what we absolutely have to know right before we need to know it. But that’s not the truth of Scripture. James 1:5 proves that. Your God gives his wisdom “generously!”

Not only is the wisdom of God given to you generously if you ask, but it also has with it incredible attributes. James 3:17 says, “The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” The wisdom of God will do incredible things for your life. With it comes the very nature of God. James 3:17 could just as easily have said that God is “pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” So when you receive the wisdom God bestows upon you, you are receiving many of the attributes of God himself.

The wisdom of God is unlike any other way of thinking you’ll find. 1 Corinthians 3:18-20 says, “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness,’ and again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.’” Jesus taught us in Matthew 10:39, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” The path he is guiding you to is the way out of the stress that worldly ambition and success will assuredly cause. He’s guiding you to a life of abundant peace. When you forgo the wisdom of this world for his, you will undoubtedly appear more foolish to some. But you will have found a way of living free from the burdens of the world. God’s wisdom leads you to a life truly hidden with Christ, lost in the sea of his love and mercy.

Ask God for his wisdom today. Read his word with the guidance of the Spirit. God is waiting patiently to reveal everything you have the desire to seek out. Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” Ask him for his wisdom today, and live the abundant life God has planned for you.

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on the amazing qualities of the God’s wisdom. Let meditation stir up within you a desire to think like God.

“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” James 3:17

2. Where in your life do you need God’s wisdom? Maybe you need to know how to see yourself. Maybe you have a situation in which you could really use some guidance. Think about the areas in your life in which you need God’s help.

3. Ask God for his wisdom. Have faith in response to his word that he gives wisdom generously, and receive and implement anything he shows you.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”James 1:5

The wisdom of God won’t do much for you if you don’t choose to implement God’s thinking over the world’s. If you continuously work for the favor of man and worldly success in light of what you know to be God’s truth, you will continue to experience the consequences of a life lived foolishly. God’s word must be implemented to produce fruit. You have to choose to live in light of your position in Christ for transcendent peace to become the norm in your life. God gives wisdom to you freely when you ask. The question before you today is simply whether or not you will choose to trust God and implement it.           

Extended Reading: 1 Corinthians 3

Stringing the Pearls of Your Beautiful Story..BETH MOORE

 Stringing the Pearls of Your Beautiful Story

BETH MOORE 

“… the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:45-46 (NKJV)

The most precious keepsake in my jewelry drawer is a string of my mother’s pearls. They were a gift to her from my father in the second decade of their marriage.

Imagining her wide-eyed, opening a fancy box and finding a string of real pearls inside, always makes me smile. For one thing, it was the only piece of jewelry she owned, besides a humble wedding ring, that wasn’t costume jewelry. For a second thing, my parents had a rocky marriage, and I cherish hints of happy seasons.

The clasp on the necklace is old and weak, so I’m too afraid to wear the pearls. Still, I hold them often, rolling them with my fingertips, and think of my mom. And her mom. And my daughters. And my daughter’s daughters. All of us women who’ve longed to find beautiful lives even after fairy tales proved fraudulent.

The pearls are yellowed now, perhaps from age, but I smile as I wonder if a blend of cigarette smoke, cologne and Clairol hair color might have contributed. Life has a way of rubbing off on our pearls, doesn’t it?

I’ve spent the last year or so looking back over my life. A common inclination of those who reach that famous age benchmark of 65 suggests — wrongly, I believe — that it’s all downhill from here. But I savor life and relationships more than ever and find myself more secure and at deeper peace.

The words of Scripture are so dear to me after all the years of looking to God through them that I often can’t read my Bible without tears welling up. My soul still teems with life and purpose, but let’s admit I’m at a fine age for praying Psalm 90:12: “… teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom” (NKJV).

As I looked back over the past year, I drew a timeline from my birthdate to the present. I placed bold dots where the most life-shaping events or seasons of my journey took place — whether positive or negative — and labeled them. Until now, I’d been reluctant to take a sequential look back because, in my thinking, it had all been such a jumbled mess. Too much pain and failure. Too much sin and defeat. Too many tears and regrets.

But an uncanny thing became clear to me: how often something wonderfully providential came next to something wildly painful. So many hard things have happened, but goodness and mercy have indeed followed me all the days of my life. (Psalm 23:6)

That timeline became a string to me, and those dots became pearls. I realized that each element — bad or good — had caused the “one pearl of great price,” as God’s Kingdom is called in Matthew 13:46, to increase in value to me.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13:45-46)

Have you, like me, needed Jesus so badly?

Looking back, was He there for you, even if you see Him only in hindsight?

Did those life-shaping things ultimately increase, in your eyes, the surpassing value of the one thing no one can take from you?

Then, lo and behold, you did find a beautiful life, one that will only increase in worth with time and trust. Faith is the clasp on your string of pearls. Faith in Christ and His power to redeem your life will keep those pearls from getting lost.

Lord, grant me eyes to see that my life is not the sum of a thousand random fragments. Long before I knew You, You knew me. Help me to recognize the pearls that have only made You more valuable to me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

The Missionary Question..Dr. Charles Stanley

 The Missionary Question

Dr. Charles Stanley

Romans 10:11-15

At every missions conference hosted by my church, I give God the same message I've been repeating since my early 20s: "I'm available, Lord. I'll go to foreign fields if you say so." Until He tells me to pack my bags, I'm going to keep on sending others to work among unbelievers in distant and even remote lands.

Paul asked a series of rhetorical questions in Romans 10 that can be summed up like this: How will the world hear about Jesus if you do nothing? God uses Christians to spread the word that His salvation plan is available to all. He put us in families and communities and nations so we will mingle and share what we know. But some believers are called to carry the gospel farther than others. Those who stay behind are to offer prayer and resources for those who travel. 

If you're shaking your head and thinking, Mission work isn't where my heart is, I have news for you: Every believer is called to missions as either a goer or a sender. That call comes in dramatic ways for some, but for most of us, it is simply a biblical principle to be followed (Matt. 28:19). What's missing for those who don't have a "heart" for such work is passion. Christians who share and go and send are often excited about God's message for unbelievers—and it's possible for you to become more enthusiastic too.

I challenge you to ask the Lord, "Am I open to going anywhere You send me?" Our roots in a community should be sunk only as deep as God wills. If you aren't called to go, then choose to be a sender. Offer your prayers, your money, and anything else that will help to put others on the mission field.

Is Rumination Good or Bad?..Meg Bucher

 Is Rumination Good or Bad?

By Meg Bucher

“Be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most out of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.” Ephesians 5:15-17 NLT

3 am. Again. I snapped out of a restful sleep to lie awake thinking …Re-runs were beginning to take up too much real estate in my mind. 

The Bible tells us to keep a tight reign on our thought life, lest we follow it down rabbit holes which can leave us stuck in a moment we can’t get out of. Yet, we are not supposed to live thoughtlessly. Rumination, another word for overthinking, can be good or bad … or good and bad.

Rumination is “the act of pondering or musing on something; the act or process of chewing the cud, as cows, deer, and some other animals do.” Animals with multiple stomachs literally return pieces of food to their mouths to re-chew a second time. To “chew the cud” means to rethink something. “In a sense,” William Hwang Psy.D. explains,“when we are going over past events in our minds, again and again, we are behaving like our fellow ‘ruminants’ in the animal world.”

Synonyms to the word rumination include reflection, meditation, anticipation, consideration, contemplation, hope, intuition, logic, rationalization, speculation, study, understanding, and realizing. Some good habits, others bad, and still others could be either or a mix of both. “Psychologists have suggested that rumination is actually a type of emotional avoidance with regard to our experiences,” William Hwang Psy.D. explains,  “In focusing our attention on thinking about content of experiences, we often avoid making contact with the emotions these experiences inspire. In turn, avoidance of emotions leads to a lack of emotional processing. Just like with food, we need to properly process and digest our emotions, or else we have bigger problems down the line.”

Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “be careful how you live.” Proverbs 12:25 says, “Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up.” We have the power to flip worried thoughts into encouraging words. When we do, ruminating on what we have to be thankful for in life, and how good God is …those are productive ruminations. 

Intersecting Faith and Life:

“I am worn out from sobbing. All night I flood my bed with weeping, drenching it with my tears.” Psalm 6:6 NLT

God meets us in tear-filled seasons. His compassion meets our flood, and He gently leads us back to healed and whole again. God, in His mercy, will grow us through it. The better version of our selves will eventually emerge from the sogginess to relate to the Psalmist’s words above. 

Good rumination is good. Bad rumination is not helpful. “When we start to get lost in those considerations and contemplations, when we allow an abundance of uncertainties to ‘move in’ to our minds, we become filled with doubt or dread about what has happened, what we wish would happen, or what might happen,” Catiana N.K. wrote in her article titled, “What does the Bible say about Overthinking?”“that’s when we find ourselves moving from helpful thinking to hurtful overthinking.” To determine what’s helpful and what’s hurtful, we can filter our thoughts through the Word of God. Psalm 94:19 says, 

“When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.” Psalm 94:19 NLT

God has given us the power, through Christ Jesus, to be victorious ruminators.

Further Reading: 

• Philippians 4:6
• Matthew 6:27
• Matthew 6:34
• Philippians 4:8

Special Note: There are some things we cannot fix on our own, and should not feel ashamed of. Reach out for the help God provides through counselors and medical professionals if you are crippled by bad rumination. I promise, you are not alone!

Crawling by Faith..Lia Martin

 Crawling by Faith (Hebrews 11:1)

By: Lia Martin

Today’s Bible verse is Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Have you read the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11? It honors a diverse list of ordinary people who pleased God.

By what amazing feat did they please the Creator of heaven and earth?

By faith.

While reading through this list today in Hebrews 11, I was reminded his Word is alive. Because somehow, if you’re drawn to it, God will speak truth in your soul. He knows better than we do, the reason we find ourselves in front of specific passages…whether it’s in your Bible, on your podcast, even on YouTube.

Searching his Word isn’t always because we’re Christians doing our daily task or eager to bask in its blessing. Often, opening the Bible, or queuing up that study, can be a slow and painful admittance that you’ve nowhere else to turn. You’ve forgotten that God sees, or that He cares.

Maybe you’ve lost something, or someone, or a sense of belonging.

This past year I’ve often found myself lost…in fear, sadness, and loneliness. Maybe you’ve felt some of this, too. In a world teetering through high-tech, low-touch distancing, we want to run and hide from a master plan that’s outside of our control. Because as we fill agendas, and do right (or so we think), we’re often ambushed by the reality that nothing is certain—other than God.

And thank God for that.

Because when betrayal, deception, or rejection whips through your best-laid plans, there is always something worth holding on to by faith: the abiding, everlasting presence of God.

It doesn’t matter if you can’t run toward God, or even walk by faith. You can crawl by faith. Breathe your next breath by faith. Hope by faith. Even in the darkest of times.

2 Corinthians 5:7 tells us, "For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

When reading through the biblical heroes who walked by faith, it became apparent to me that today, I can only crawl. Or lay. My faith has days when my feet are knocked out from under me.

In these times, friend, when you’re maybe only able to breathe your way to the truth, rest in the knowledge that even when you don’t know what your longing is…the Spirit intercedes.

You can’t see the Spirit, but you can have confidence, by faith in God’s word, that even your wordless groans are understood. Romans 8:27 reminds you that “the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”

If you want to have faith that is pleasing to God, remind yourself that it all belongs to Him. He is the owner of all of it. You gave it all to Him when you chose Jesus. You can’t make people stay, keep them in their faith, or heal them. That’s his work.

So, release to him all the days, good and bad. He’s given us the will to choose faith over fear, peace over anxiety, and eternal life over the temptations of the world.

His ways are the origin and meaning of life. His ways are why we marvel at the tiniest treasure, or seemingly insignificant moments thrill us. Let me encourage you now, that whether you can run by faith, walk by faith, or only crawl to the source of eternal life…give it all to him again by praying Psalm 51:10—

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Then ask him to give you the confidence in what you hope for, and the assurance about what you cannot see.

A Prayer for Those Who Feel Hopeless..Lynette Kittle

 A Prayer for Those Who Feel Hopeless

By Lynette Kittle

"There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off” - Proverbs 23:18

Sadly life can include disappointments, losses, and heartaches. Because it does, when they happen, it can cause a sense of hopelessness when they seem to affect what we thought was going to be our future. Overnight it can feel like we have no future and all our hopes and dreams have been shattered. Without notice, catastrophic events shut down our daily lives, canceling and changing our plans. Tragedies like 9/11 and the worldwide pandemic stopped transportation and public places in their tracks, limiting our freedom to move freely upon the earth.

For many, hopelessness set in as individuals were separated from friends and family, confined to locations, prevented from traveling to their homes, not knowing when or if they would ever be reunited with loved ones.

Businesses shut down without warning, with owners and staff having no hope of reopening or recovery. What people once thought was their future and security was suddenly closed indefinitely. Even doors to churches were closed and locked. Lately, wars and rumors of wars fill our headlines, along with natural disasters affecting our food sources, fuel supplies, and mobility. Yet, Jesus urged us in Matthew 24:6 not to be alarmed. 

Where Does Our Hope Lie?
Because life’s uncertainties seem on the increase, where can we find hope when what we’ve hoped for and planned seems to be passing away? As Christians, we can turn to God, who is unshakable, unmovable, and everlasting, in whom we can put our future hope and trust in without fear. Still, in an ever-changing world, it may be hard for us to wrap our heads around this truth. We’ve become conditioned to having the rug pulled out from under us at a moment’s notice.

Yet with God, we can have confidence He is for us, knowing He seeks to fulfill the desires of our hearts (Proverbs 37:4) and to give us what we ask (Matthew 7:7) and need. Matthew 6:31-32 assures us of His care. “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.”

Our Mighty Fortress
Although it’s often hard for us to have hope and believe we can depend on God. Psalm 18:2 assures us, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” Even though the earth seems unstable, our hope is in God; as Proverbs 18:10 describes, “The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” 

Let’s pray:

Dear Father,
Today’s world events and uncertainties bring waves of hopelessness into our daily lives. Help me to not look around at the situations and circumstances but to look up where my help comes from (Psalm 121:1). Cause me to fix my eyes upon You (Hebrews 12:2) because You, oh Lord, are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust (Psalm 91:2).

As well, dear Father, strengthen me to put my hope in You and You alone, not in past experiences, the government, or the world. Thank You for assuring me that You will meet all my needs according to the riches of Your glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Help me to remember how Your compassions never fail, Your mercies are new every morning towards me, and Your faithfulness is great (Lamentations 3:22,23).

Fill me, oh God of hope, with all joy and peace as I trust in You. Overflow me with hope by the power of Your Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13). Help me to remember my hope in You does not disappoint and through Your Spirit, You pour out Your love into my heart (Romans 5:5).

Father, strengthen my faith with confidence and my hope in You. Let me rest in Your assurance concerning my future and things unseen, trusting Your faithfulness in my life (Hebrews 11:1).
In Jesus’ name, Amen