Sep. 06, 2026

Wiseness 

Introduction - We Christians are taught to be spiritual, relying on the Spirit of God for our very existence.  Much of our teaching therefore, has been about how to live by faith, through which we rely on God to sovereignly change our earthly circumstances by his power.  This emphasis makes up a very large part of every Christian’s life. So, when we confront problems, we learn to look past the problem, pray like crazy and wait for God to solve it.  Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn’t.  The reason is not a failure in God’s ability, but a lack of understanding on our part.  In an effort to make the gospel enticing to everyone, modern churches teach an almost magical ease about making your life’s problems go away.  Just believe and pray and poof! They’re gone.  “Name it, claim it” became a catchphrase of modern church life.  There certainly are elements of faith life which are absolutely true, but the faith must be balanced by boots on the ground realism.

The counterpart to living by faith would be living by wisdom, or wiseness, a valid English word which I will use frequently throughout this teaching. This valid, necessary mode of living relies on our ability to know how to get something accomplished. Hopefully, this knowledge comes from God and it is residing in our minds. So, God’s wiseness residing in people will result in a victorious outcome when applied to an earthly problem.  Wiseness grows as we learn more about God and His ways.  It does not seem very spiritual, unlike what we have been taught.  For example, I can pray very hard for God to make my breakfast, but I always end up making the oatmeal and eggs myself.  We soon learn that there are responsibilities which we have and responsibilities which He has.  

Wisdom has been accumulated over the years by mankind.  As each generation learns more, the benefits of wisdom are passed on to our children.  This is why we have such wonderful things as electricity, telephones, hot water spigots, and pain pills to name a very few.  Just go back in historic time and you can easily see how important wisdom has been.  

Proverbs 4:5-9  Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding! Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.  Do not abandon her, and she will guard you; Love her, and she will watch over you.  The beginning of wisdom (the principal thing) is: Acquire wisdom;  And with all your possessions, acquire understanding. Prize her, and she will exalt you.  She will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a garland of grace; She will present you with a crown of beauty.” NASB

There is a disturbing current trend among young people in which they cut their parents off from any contact with them or their children.  There are probably many reasons for this, including the fact that all parents are imperfect, make mistakes, and have regrets.  However, the generation that cuts itself off from its elders has a great price to pay to gain wisdom.  God’s wisdom is designed to be transmitted through our elders to the Youngers.  

Ephesians 6:1-3 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a promise), 3SO THAT IT MAY TURN OUT WELL FOR YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH.  NASB

Perhaps you got a late start in God’s kingdom and the early part of your life was spent in worldly pursuits.  Your children didn’t have the best example.  You could think “It’s probably too late” for me to affect my family.  God wants you to know that He has come to save families, not just individuals, and that his concept of how to reward faithfulness is not an earthly one:

Matthew 20:1-16 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace; 4and to those he said, ‘You go into the vineyard also, and whatever is right, I will give you.’ And so they went. 5Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. 6And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he *said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ 7They *said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He *said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 Now when evening came, the owner of the vineyard *said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, starting with the last group to the first.’ 9When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. 10And so when those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. 11When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, 12saying, ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day’s work and the scorching heat.’ 13But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14Take what is yours and go; but I want to give to this last person the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I want with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’ 16So the last shall be first, and the first, last.”  NASB

We know from the parable of the prodigal son that God rewards faithfulness appropriately and without prejudice.  The faithful son shared in the ownership of everything the father had, in that story.  The father who enters the kingdom late in life still has the rich heavenly blessings of family life and life ever after.  His family can be redeemed as completely as someone who followed the Lord from Day 1.  

In this teaching, I am not simply referring to earthly wiseness, but to God’s wiseness.  There are many places on the internet and elsewhere where we can learn supposed facts about life and see them put to use with so-called wisdom.  Knowledge, a word closely related to wisdom, describes the facts which we know about life.  The safest and best knowledge comes from God.  Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil and suffered the rest of their lives for it.  Wisdom gives us the “how to’s” of problem solving, taking knowledge and showing us how to use it to solve earthly problems.  Not all knowledge is from God, or appropriate for us to know just as all knowledge from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil was appropriate for us to know.  Here’s a description of the general characteristics of godly wisdom versus inappropriate worldly wisdom:  

James 3:13-18 Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. 14But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. 15This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. 16For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. 17But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, free of hypocrisy. 18And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.  NASB

Conclusion:  How do we get wisdom?  It comes in the natural course of our walk with God.  He purposely gives us light, simple trials so we can take part in learning through trial and error.  Maybe, rather than relying on a doctor and medicine, our problem can be solved by a change in diet.  I’m forever grateful for the my own personal discovery of the amazing benefits of a high fiber diet by a simple switch in habits. We need to have our noses in godly books and papers, not ungodly junk science.  The Epoch Times newspaper is a wonderful example of a wholesome, useful source of information about things pertaining to life and health.  

Secondly, we should ask for wiseness!  If there was ever a more appropriate explanation for the abundance of unsolved common problems humans face, I don’t know what it would be.  Here it is:

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

James 4:2 …You do not have because you do not ask. NASB

Let’s stop suffering with chronic unsolved diseases and other pesky problems and ask for wisdom from God!

More to come…