2007-12-07
Good Morning Fellow Believers,
I am led to continue to delve into the comparisons between MT 6: 24-34, Christ's Sermon on the Mount words about God and possessions, and PR 31: 10-31, the ideal person [originally said of a wife, but actually in today's world applicable to anyone male or female, married or single]. One can see the emerging picture of Christ's promises and the Father's will for us here. You'll remember that originally, mammon meant the passive, "wealth entrusted to another's possession," but through common usage, was changed to mean the active, "that in which trust is placed." So far, the Holy Spirit shows us these qualities from PR 31: 10-17, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet: valuable [aleph]; trustworthy [beit]; righteous [gimmel]; industrious [dalet]; values family [hay]; organized [vav]; decides wisely, prioritizing the Kingdom of God first [zayin]; hard worker and strong [chet]. Now, let's look at PR 31: 18, "She knows the value of everything she makes and works late into the night." This is the verse for the Hebrew letter tet.
Wisdom is God's gift to those whose heart's are open to the applications of His teaching in ways which please Him. It's necessary first to take two preliminary steps before arriving at wisdom. The first one is acquiring knowledge, the raw data, normally from a combination of education and life's experience. This knowledge can be about any subject and can appeal to either one's physical body, intellect, emotions, and/or spiritual life. Assuming a child is not mentally challenged, the acquisition of this knowledge begins the moment a child is born and carries on throughout his life. God has His will concerning it, expressed in PR 3: 5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know. Remember the Lord in everything you do, and He will show you the right way." King Solomon was given superior knowledge, as we see in 1 K 4: 29, 32, 34, "God gave Solomon unusual wisdom and insight, and knowledge too great to be measured...He composed three thousand proverbs and more than a thousand songs...Kings all over the world heard of his wisdom and sent people to listen to him." How can we miss God being at the origin of all this knowledge and the Giver of it all? DT 29: 29 is a verse to which Les Feldick, a wonderful Bible teacher, led me. "There are some things that the Lord our God has kept secret; but He has revealed His Law, and we and our descendants are to obey it forever." I love PR 14: 8 for its comment on prudent knowledge. "Why is a clever person wise? Because he knows what to do. Why is a stupid person foolish? Because he only thinks he knows." The person in PR 31: 18 has enough raw data to know the value of things in the sense of mammon and in every other way. This leads him to being diligent in his approach to living out his values.
The second step is understanding. What good is raw data, if one doesn't understand the relationships between various data and what they mean? Asked another way, what good does it do for us to know that there is a loving, wise, just, and compassionate God, if we have no relationship with Him? When we are able to put together the things we learn in order and see the relationships between them, we can achieve understanding that wasn't possible before doing that. This too, comes from God. PS 36: 9, "You are the Source of all life, and because of Your light we see the light." Understanding the knowledge God gives us can make a difference to our very salvation, as we see when Daniel is given the vision of the future. DN 12:10, Many people will not be purified. Those who are wicked will not understand but will go on being wicked; only those who are wise will understand." 1 COR 2: 14 explains why some people refuse to come to faith, even when told it's the only way to be saved. Gaining understanding is the first step in going from spiritual milk to meat, something God urges us to do in 1 COR 3: 1-3 and HE 5: 13-14. People rejecting God's principles concerning mammon certainly lack understanding.
Wisdom is the ability to apply the understanding that God has given us in ways which please God and further our sanctification. A wise person knows there are things which God knows that he will never know while still on earth [IS 55: 8-9]. PS 119: 104-105 sheds light on this important trait, which our ideal person has with regard to mammon and all other things. "I gain wisdom from Your laws, and so I hate all bad conduct. Your word is a lamp unto my feet, a light for my path." True believers know their wisdom doesn't come from themselves or any other man. It comes from God alone, through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. 1 COR 2:16, "As the Scripture [IS 40: 13] says, 'Who knows the mind of the Lord? Who is able to give him advice?' We, however, have the mind of Christ." With regard to mammon or anything else in our lives, we should utter this prayer from PHIL 1: 9-10, "I pray that your love will keep on growing more and more, together with true knowledge and perfect judgment, so that you will be able to choose what is best. Then you will be free from all impurity and blame on the Day of Christ."
PRAYER: O Lord, we come with heads bowed in all humility to express our acknowledgement that You are indeed the Source of all knowledge, understanding, and wisdom that we have in our lives. Furthermore, we acknowledge that Your wisdom is far superior to anything ours will ever be. PS 139: 17-18, "O God, how difficult I find Your thoughts, how many of them there are! If I counted them there would be more than the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with You." We accept IS 55: 8-9, Your words to us about Your thoughts. "'My thoughts,' says the Lord, 'are not like yours, and My ways are different from yours. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are My ways and thoughts above yours.'" Every day, we are brought to decisions regarding our material things. We must decide to budget money, assess the value of things, make prioritizing decisions with the use of our time, and work to make choices that will benefit our families, while at the same time living according to the principles of Your word. These things don't come easily to us, but You have told us that if we will seek You out, You will give us the guidance and direction we need by the Holy Spirit. We thank and praise You for being so generous as to cause Him to dwell within us once we came to faith. JER 29: 11-13 reveals Your promise to us. "I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you not to bring disaster, plans to give you the future for which you hope. Then you will call to Me. You will come and pray to Me, and I will answer you. You will seek Me, and you will find Me because you will seek Me with all your heart." We can't fully express how grateful we are that You are here for us and that You are willing to share Your wisdom with us. Dearest Abba, please give us hearts open to Your direction and the strength of character to be diligent about carrying it out. Your will in any area, including that of managing our mammon matters. We offer You our love, worship, loyalty, hearts open to the Holy Spirit, praise, and eternal thanks. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
Next week, we will look at PR 31: 19-20, which are represented by the Hebrew letters, yod and kaf. We'll see how our ideal person helps himself and is at the same time, generous to the needy. Even when we are true believers, there are times when we take what God gives us for granted or we ignore it altogether. That's human nature and surely the opposite of what the Spirit wants us to do [GA 5: 16-17]. The only way I know to avoid doing this is to get in the habit of looking at what God is giving us every day. That takes practice. We should never forget the great sacrifice that He made for us. While we were still His enemies, He led His only Son to go to the cross, so that we could be saved. The very faith we have in Christ is a gift God gave us. That faith saves us from certain spiritual death-that permanent and unthinkable fate for those who reject Him. What God wants in the area of dealing with our material things, as in all other areas, is for us to produce the fruits of the Spirit. Remember GA 5: 22-23? "But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. There is no law against things such as these." It's His gift that we can now choose to produce the fruits of the Spirit, a choice we never had before the Atonement [RO 6: 6]. Thus, Dear Readers, I pray that each of us will be encouraged to seek whatever wisdom God is willing to give us, and that this wisdom will lead us to be diligent about the management of our material things and care of our families. Because of Him, we can have wisdom in deciding our attitudes and behavior. Praise be to the Lord Jesus!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn Johnson