“Listen carefully to my words. Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body.”
Proverbs 4:20-22 (NLT) You can’t just hear something and become wiser; you’ve got to remember it. And you can’t just remember it; you’ve got to reinforce it. Because if you don’t remember and reinforce it, you end up having to learn the same lesson over and over. The Bible says this about wisdom in Proverbs 22:17-18: “Listen, and I will teach you what the wise have said. Study their teachings, and you will be glad if you remember them and can quote them” (GNT). Notice the four verbs in that sentence: listen, study, remember, quote. Those are marks of wisdom. People say, “I can’t remember anything!” Oh, yes you can. You remember what’s important to you. You remember what you love. You remember what matters to you. For instance, you might say, “I can’t memorize the Bible.” But you remember baseball or football statistics from the last season. You can quote lyrics to popular songs or every step to a favorite recipe. You remember what’s important to you. The Bible says, “Listen carefully to my words. Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body” (Proverbs 4:20-22 NLT). When you develop a passion for God’s Word, the truth becomes important to you. You will remember it, rehearse it, reinforce it, and review it. Then, it can change your life.
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“Spend time with the wise and you will become wise, but the friends of fools will suffer.”
Proverbs 13:20 (NCV) If you want to be wise, invite wise people into your life. You don’t need a lot of friends. You don’t need to be popular. You just need a few good friends who build you up, not tear you down—who are wise, not fools. If you hang around with fools, that’s what you become. But if you spend time with wise people, you’ll grow wiser. It’s like the old saying: “If you want to soar with the eagles, you can’t run with the turkeys.” People grow best in community. You can’t grow to spiritual maturity by yourself. You could become a monk and move to the top of a mountain and spend your life in silence and reading books. You would grow in knowledge, but you wouldn’t grow in wisdom. Why? Because wisdom is all about love. Wisdom shows up primarily in relationships. That’s why a lot of people have academic degrees, but their marriages are falling apart. They’re educated, but they’re not wise. The Bible says in Proverbs 13:20, “Spend time with the wise and you will become wise, but the friends of fools will suffer” (NCV). If a friend stands on the edge of a stage, and he's trying to pull you up while you’re trying to pull him down, which is easier to do? It’s always easier for somebody to pull you down than pull you up. People who pull you down are not your true friends. Real friends pull you up. They encourage you in your pursuit of godly wisdom by offering their own. Do you have anybody in your life who is sharing their wisdom on a regular basis? You need that kind of encouragement in your life if you want to be a wise person. “If any of you need wisdom, you should ask God, and it will be given to you. God is generous and won't correct you for asking. But when you ask for something, you must have faith and not doubt. Anyone who doubts is like an ocean wave tossed around in a storm.”
James 1:5-6 (CEV) Are you going through a rough time right now? You’re not alone! People all over the world are feeling the effects of the pandemic, and it’s taken a toll on our mental, physical, and emotional health. There are many uncertainties and questions about how to move on with our lives in this ongoing crisis. Everybody’s struggling. The Bible tells us exactly what we should do when we don’t know what to do and we’re feeling the pressure to do the right thing. “If any of you need wisdom, you should ask God, and it will be given to you. God is generous and won’t correct you for asking. But when you ask for something, you must have faith and not doubt. Anyone who doubts is like an ocean wave tossed around in a storm” (James 1:5-6 CEV). God isn’t holding back wisdom. He gives wisdom to anybody who asks for it. Have you asked God to give you wisdom on how to handle the pandemic? Have you asked him for wisdom on what to do about your job, your future, your kids, your health, or whatever you’re struggling with? God gives wisdom to anybody who asks for it. King Solomon, one of the richest and most successful men who ever lived, had everything he needed and everything you could possibly want in life. But he still asked God for wisdom. He knew that riches and power and comfort meant nothing if he couldn’t make wise decisions. He wanted to honor God—who gave him everything he had—and so he asked for wisdom to know what to do and how to do it. Wisdom helps you learn from any trouble you’re experiencing. It helps you to know what to do and how to move forward in a way that pleases God. He uses every challenge to develop you, not defeat you. It may seem like the world is spinning out of control and circumstances keep changing day-by-day. Your stress, your fear, and your worry may be at an all-time high. But now more than ever is the time to ask “what,” instead of “why.” Ask God what he wants you to learn from this time of crisis and what he wants you to do. He has promised to give you his wisdom in generous portions. “Commit yourself to instruction; listen carefully to words of knowledge.”
Proverbs 23:12 (NLT) Your journey of lifelong learning starts with a choice. It’s a choice only you can make. It’s an incredibly important decision that’ll impact your entire life. The Bible says, “Commit yourself to instruction; listen carefully to words of knowledge” (Proverbs 23:12 NLT). I made this commitment to keep learning when I was 15 years old. I began saying that I would learn as much as I could. For many years I read at least a book a day. Books open the door to every subject imaginable! Your education doesn’t stop when you graduate. I’ve actually heard people say, “I’m glad I’ve finished my education so now I can start my career.” Tell that one to God, and he’ll laugh. God has so much more he wants to teach you. Your education should never end. Learning isn’t just a stage of life. It is your life! God wants you to learn something new every day. So don’t stop—ever. Start working on learning a new skill this year. God wants you to grow. You should be and can be different and better a year from now than you are today. It’s in your best interest to do so. Lifelong learning will make you a better leader, a better parent, a better spouse, and a better friend. It’ll make you more effective in your job. It brings both success and profit. The Bible says, “If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success” (Ecclesiastes 10:10 NIV). If you’ve got an ax with a dull blade and you’re chopping wood, it’ll take a lot more energy to do the job. If your ax is sharp (which represents skill in this verse), then it doesn’t take as much effort. The Bible is saying to work smarter, not necessarily harder. You’re never wasting time when you’re sharpening your ax. “The Good News shows how God makes people right with himself” (Romans 1:17 NCV).
Righteousness is a big word in the Bible. It’s used hundreds of times. The Bible says that God loves righteousness and that God is righteous. It says that one day God is going to judge the world in righteousness. Psalm 23 says that God leads us in the paths of righteousness. So what in the world does this word mean? I once looked it up in a theological dictionary, and its definition went on for 27 pages! But I’ll boil it down to two things: Righteousness is a relationship and a lifestyle. Righteousness simply means being right with God. Romans 1:17 says, “The Good News shows how God makes people right with himself” (NCV). The Good News is that God made us right with himself through Jesus’ death as a payment for our sins. Because of Jesus’ death, we can have a personal relationship with God. Righteousness is also a lifestyle. It means living right as God intends. The Bible says in 1 John 2:29, “All who practice righteousness are God’s true children” (The Message). So why should you care about being right with God? Because it’s the only way to live, and it’s the only way to heaven. When you are disconnected from God, you’re not really living; you just exist. Most people in the world aren’t really fully alive. They just exist, trying to make it to the weekend. But to be disconnected from your Creator who made you for a purpose is nonsense. Life is not about the acquisition of things or the achievement of goals. Life is about getting to know God—the one who loves you and made you for a purpose. You’re not really living until you’re right with God and have a relationship with him. Righteousness is also the way you get to heaven. God created heaven as a place for his children whom he loves, and he wants you to be with him forever. He wants you to be in heaven, but he’s not going to force you to go to heaven. You can choose to be disconnected from God here on earth, but when your life on earth is done, you will not have a second chance to choose where you spend eternity. You can’t blame God, because he gives you the choice right now to have a relationship with him. He wants you to choose to love him! And when you do, you will be made right with him. It will change your life—here on earth and for eternity! “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere” (James 3:17 NIV).
Have you ever met someone who is always arguing and looking for a fight? There's a story about one guy who was so argumentative he would only eat food that disagreed with him. Wise people work at maintaining harmony. James 3:17 says that true wisdom is peace-loving. If you’re wise, you don’t antagonize people’s anger. The Bible also says in Proverbs 20:3, “Any fool can start arguments; the honorable thing is to stay out of them” (GNT). You can only avoid arguments when you know what leads to them in the first place. Here are three causes of arguments:
If you want to be wise in your relationships, don’t antagonize others’ anger. “A wise man controls his temper. He knows that anger causes mistakes” (Proverbs 14:29 |
AuthorTaken from Daily Hope by Rick Warren. Categories
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