Growing in wisdom

Ephesians 1:17 “… that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him …”

How much of what we own or store in our lives do we actually need and how much of what we suppose is of benefit actually works against our predestined call upon our lives? A catastrophic shift in our understanding needs to happen if we are to see clearly. When we examine the life of Christ we see that “faith toward God” His Father was first and foremost in every one of his deliberations. In fact when he could no longer rely on his hope in Him we see an anxious emotion materialize for the first time ever in our Saviour’s life and that sentiment has been recorded in the gospels to drive a point home that we need to pay careful attention to; our dependency on our God must become paramount in every area of our lives if we are to show the fruits of wisdom to others who are still blinded by their sin and seek God’s truth for their lives.  

Life in general has been designed for society to take their eyes from the only true God and to redirect them onto themselves and others who are seen in order to feed their drives and passions. Everything we are involved with screams independence! Wisdom flies another banner and it reads, “Dependency in our God”! Faith demands our undivided attention at all times. This is the lesson that needs to captivate our lives; Faith in our Saviour and in His finished work on the cross then helps us to understand what is of importance and what we should disregard as trickery from our adversary the devil. It helps drive us into a right relationship with our heavenly Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Things like a fancy house and stylish clothes or the latest car is no longer high on our agendas; in fact we see them for what they are, which is nothing more than basic necessity to sustain our bodies for survival. If we take it any further than that we have been fooled into believing a lie and there is much for us still to learn as the wisdom of the call of God in our lives still eludes us.

Independence drives people for more whilst dependency upon our God cries my God shall provide whatever I need. The shift in what I want and what I actually need will then become apparent. It builds us up in our faith towards God. Did you know that the first building block in a believers life is; “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.” (Hebrews 6:1) – I suppose all who claim to be Christian understand their need for God in their lives. Therefore the challenge I put out there is it is time to start living in faith towards God and not as a people who hedge their bets with one foot in the world and the other in heaven. We must learn to live as those who have made this truth our reality; “"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”” (Matthew 6:19-24)

Is anxiety a sin? I surmise that fear if allowed to take root in our lives could eventually become so consuming that it would eventually result in unbelief.

Coming back to my earlier point about Christ’s dependency upon his Heavenly Father, it was so secure that when the time came for him to pay for our sins it left a void in him that caused him to cry out in angst; “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"” (Mark 15:34) - This had never happened before and while God judged him on our behalf, for our sin, yes for my sin! Who can actually uncover the depths of this episode in our Saviours life with any authority? All I will say is what the text allows and that is that he paid for sinners, He took the penalty of others. I hope we understand the depths of God’s love and the measures He has taken to secure our salvation. It is mind blowing! And when I hear people say ridiculous things like “if God is love, why…?” all it really confirms is their lack of understanding whilst highlighting their foolishness. Our God is love personified and He has proved it, not that He needed to but He has, Christ felt His own Fathers judgement for my sin and it caused Him to feel the pain of separation so that we would never have to. Wow! Praise the Lord Jesus’ name now and forever more, Amen and Amen!

Let me leave you with this beautiful encouragement, Paul the Apostle was a man who suffered tremendously for the sake of the gospel but I beseech you to allow these honeyed words to wash over your soul; “For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” (2Corinthians 4:6-10)

Signing off

Tyrone