Living Wisely

How do you live? Are you living day-to-day? Are you living by a five-year plan? Do you live unwisely? Do you live as a wise person? Are you living somewhere in between? Do you make the most of the time given to you? Are you willing to make a change in your life?

Living our lives in today’s culture is challenging. We are inundated with things that vie for our attention. Watching videos or playing video games are a major distraction for young folks. Some of our jobs demand more of our time. And, of course, we want to spend time with family.

How are we to determine how to spend our limited time wisely? It is a daily decision. It requires us to set priorities and stick to them. At the same time, we must be flexible for that rare emergency that pops up. It is a balancing act that requires all our faculties to maintain it. We must decide what to attend to from all the things seeking our attention.

The challenge of it all can wear us down. We can become overwhelmed, downtrodden, depressed, and ready throw our hands up in air giving up. When we are feeling that way, we need to turn to God in prayer. We need to pour our hearts out to him and ask for him to guide us. This is the wise way to prioritize and live our lives.

In addition to seeking God’s guidance, we are to make the most of our time. Seek the most efficient way of accomplishing a task. Look for opportunities to accomplish more than one task at a time. Evil continues to try to trip us up. Yet, that has been the case for thousands of years. We are not facing anything new; it just comes in different forms. Leaning on God to make wise decisions it what will help us live wisely.

I pray we all seek to live our lives wisely. I pray we set priorities for our lives. I pray each one of us will look for opportunities to make the most of our time, efficiently completing tasks. Seek to live wisely. Set priorities. Ask for God’s guidance. Look for efficiencies. Lean on God.

Ephesians 5:15-16 Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.

Fear of the Lord

What is wisdom to you? How would you define it? Do you desire to be wise? Grasping for wisdom can feel like grasping to hold onto mist. We see it. We can move in it. But we can not hold onto it. It seems to continually escape our grasp. Why is that?

Too often, we equate wisdom with knowledge. In our world of continual inventions and discoveries, we feel as though there is always something new to learn. But wisdom isn’t all about knowledge. Wisdom is not knowing the most but properly applying the knowledge we have.

In our passage today, we are told that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The phrase “fear of the Lord” can be translated as reverence or piety. In other words, if we place God first in our lives, we are taking the first step toward gaining wisdom. What does that mean and what does it look like?

It is not merely attending worship services, though that is important. It is not merely attending Bible studies, though that is important as well. It is going to God and trusting him with all our decisions. It means that we ask God to help us understand our current situation and how we are to maneuver our way through it.

Trusting God rather than our own understanding will increase our wisdom. Giving God the credit is also key to our gaining wisdom. The more we lean on him and give him the credit for his blessing of wisdom, the more he is pleased. As we gain wisdom and understanding, we will praise him more because we gain a better understanding of who he is.

I pray we all are pious before God, giving him the reverence he is due. I pray we lean on and trust God in all situations. I pray each one of us will seek wisdom and understanding from God. Revere God. Be pious before God. Lean on God. Trust God. Seek wisdom from God. Seek understanding from God.

Psalm 111:10

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; 

all those who practice it have a good understanding. 

His praise endures forever.

Praise God in Community

Do you praise God? How often do you praise him? Is it only when he has blessed you with something you wanted? Do you praise him with your whole heart? Are you willing to praise him in the company of others? Will you praise him in public?

Praising God can be a challenge for us. Sometimes, we simply attend worship services and stoically stumble our way through them. Other times, our hearts are lifted to heights we never thought we could reach. We may experience tears of pure joy.

Praising God is different for each of us and often different every time. It may the hymns we sing that lifts our hearts and brings us to tears. It may be a Scripture read that touches us deep inside. It may be the message the pastor delivers that causes us to think, remember, or see how our praises can be more heartfelt or better lifted to God.

We may experience an even greater level of praise when we worship with others. Praising God can be contagious. Singing along with hundreds of people can fill our soul in a way that we cannot fully explain. Praising God with a group of people is one of the key ways for us to praise him. We are meant to be in community, especially among other believers.

When we allow ourselves to let go of our inhibitions, we can praise God with our whole heart. When we no longer fear what others may think, we can unleash our souls to praise God the way we were designed to. We can praise God as he would have us praise him.

I pray we all praise God. I pray we praise him with our whole heart. I pray each one of us will unleash our souls and eliminate our inhibitions to praise God as he desires us to praise him. Praise God. Lift your heart to him. Praise God with your whole heart. Praise him in community.

Psalm 111:1

Praise the Lord! 

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, 

in the company of the upright, in the congregation.

Pray to Imitate Christ

Do you seek to be like Christ? Do you long to be the person He wants you to be? How do you go about that? Do you work hard at fixing yourself? Do you spend time praying, asking God to make the changes in you that he desires?

We can say we want to be like Christ all we want. We may even want it. But unless we pursue it with all our heart, we simply won’t get there. One way in which we can pursue it with our heart is to go to God in prayer.

Our prayers are a reflection of our beliefs, behavior, and thoughts. On the opposite of that, our prayers can influence our beliefs, behavior and thoughts. Ever think about that? Those things are in a symbiotic relationship. Each one has an effect on the other.

As we pray that God works in our lives and open ourselves up to him, we can change. The changes are not merely intellectual. They are physical. They become visible in our behavior. They become verbal in our speech. As we experience those changes in our speech and behavior, our beliefs change as well. Why? We are experiencing God.

For several verses above today’s passage, the Apostle Paul tells us what negative to let go and what positive to replace it with. We can use his instructions as a guide to pray. Pray that God works in your life to replace the negatives with positives so that you may imitate Christ.

I pray we all desire to imitate Christ. I pray we use Paul’s instructions as a guide for our prayers. I pray each one of us will that God change us into the person he wants us to be so we may shine the light of Jesus to everyone we meet. Desire to imitate Christ. Pray according to Paul’s instructions. Pray that God changes you. Shine the light of Jesus.

Ephesians 5:1-2 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Please the Holy Spirit

Do you like to grieve? Of course not! Do you like to experience sorrow? What about being depressed? Or maybe exasperation? Do you want to be the reason for someone else experiencing any of these feelings? Have you thought you might be?

We don’t like to feel sad or down in the dumps. We don’t want to be depressed or exasperated. We most certainly do not like grieving. Yet, we may cause others to experience these feelings. We absolutely cause the Holy Spirit to grieve when we are disobedient to God.

The Apostle Paul lists several ways in which we grieve the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 4:25-31. The list includes being false, sinning in anger, stealing, speaking evil or lying, being bitter or rotten, wrath, wrangling, slander, and malice. That is quite a list! Do we think when we act or speak in these ways that we are grieving the Holy Spirit?

Imagine the Holy Spirit when we are disobedient. He is grieving. He is sad, feeling frustrated at our behavior or speech. He lives in us to guide us, and we are ignoring him. We may think the Holy Spirit does not experience those feelings since he is spirit. Yet, we know God experiences feelings and the Holy Spirit is God. So, why wouldn’t he experience those feelings?

Can we keep ourselves from bad behavior and filthy speech on our own? No. This is why we need to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us. We need to be in sync with him. We need to be able to hear his voice, feel his nudging’s, and follow his guidance. When we do, those bad behaviors and talking will be replaced with truth, peace, good works, building one another up, kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness. In other words, we will be obedient to God.

I pray we all seek to be in sync with the Holy Spirit. I pray we listen for his guidance. I pray each one of us will follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance and be obedient to God, pleasing the Holy Spirit. Be in sync with the Holy Spirit. Hear his guidance. Follow his guidance. Be obedient to God. Please the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.

Wisdom and Truth

Do you ascribe to the truth? How much falseness are you willing to accept or let slide? Do you spread false information? Do you put on a false personality? Are you supporting false stances? Would you prefer to know the truth? Do you do your best to speak the truth?

Falseness is all around us. It is not just in the make believe of television shows. It shows up in our workplaces, schools, politics, and even in our churches. Why? We are human. We make mistakes. We are tempted. We fail to do proper research. We like juicy rumors.

One of the biggest contributors to falseness is the fact that people like to talk too much. The writer of proverbs states, “Even fools who keep silent are considered wise” (Proverbs 17:28) and “The mind of the wise makes their speech judicious, and adds persuasiveness to their lips” (Proverbs 16:23). The wisdom of these proverbs can be restated as: Talk less and listen more.

The Apostle Paul tells us to put away falsehood. In other words, stop lying, put on a false personality, and speaking half-truths. He says we are to speak the truth to others. Yet, he does not give us license to be rude, crude, or offensive in telling the truth. We are to tell others about the good news of Jesus, but not beat them over the head with the Bible.

When we pair the proverbs with Paul’s teaching, we see that truth and wisdom requires us to be sure we know what we speak is truth, which requires us to verify what we think we know. Not only that, but we are to spend time taking in the information, processing, balancing it against God’s Word, and determine if it is useful to pass along. If it is not useful, why tell someone else? What good is it to you if I tell you a web application contains millions of lines of code written in multiple languages?

Setting aside the falsities all around us and speaking only truth is not simply a good thing to do because Paul tells us to. It is also following the example of Jesus. He spoke truth to tell people about God and to turn their hearts to him. Our goal should be to do the same. It is what we are called to do.

I pray we all set aside falsehood. I pray we speak the truth to others in love. I pray each one of us seek to follow Jesus’ example of speaking what is edifying to others and builds them up. Set aside falsehood. Speak the truth in love. Be wise. Edify others. Build others up.

Ephesians 4:25 So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.

Bread of Life

As we continue Jesus’ explanation to Jewish leadership of who He was, we see Him reiterate the analogy of being the bread of life. He states that whoever believes He is who He says is will have eternal life. Eternal life is not earned but freely given to those who believe.

Jesus goes on to say that whoever eats the bread that comes down from heaven will live forever. Again, He points to eternal life. Yet, He does not mean we will literally eat bread nor are we to be cannibals who eat human flesh. He is speaking figuratively of eating.

What does He mean, then? He means that we are to take in what He says and apply it to our lives. We are to take on His teachings and follow them. We are to continually seek Him. The word disciple means follower. A follower seeks to be just like the person they are following. Just as we absorb physical food into our bodies to nourish us, we are to absorb the teachings of Christ to nourish us.

What does this look like? A person who is joyous in every situation, which is not the same as being happy. They have the joy of Christ in them. It is a person who remains calm in the storm because they know God is in control. It is a person who does not have knee jerk reactions but prays before reacting to a situation, even if just a quick prayer that God guide them. They also continually seek to build their relationship with God so they know they can always count on him and know how he would have them act in any given situation.

I pray we all seek to build our relationship with God. I pray we absorb the teachings of Christ to nourish us. I pray each one of us see Jesus as the bread of life and know He gives us eternal life. Build your relationship with God. Absorb Christ’s teachings. Know Jesus is the bread of life. Know that He gives you eternal life.

John 6:47, 51 Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life…. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Red Letters

Yesterday, we saw that the Jewish leadership were incredulous that Jesus made the claim He came from heaven. They knew His parents, Jospeh and Mary. Jesus responds to their grumblings and mutterings, doing so by quoting the prophets and making an even bolder claim.

The leadership was upset that Jesus had claimed to be the bread of life and that He had come down from heaven. Jesus then makes a bolder claim that He is God. He also lets them know in no uncertain terms that they can only come to Him if the Father sends them to Him.

We find a portion of today’s passage a bit disturbing. Specifically, the statement that only those the Father sends will come to Jesus. We want to believe everyone has the choice to come to Jesus. The truth is, they do. Don’t misunderstand Jesus’ statement. The Father puts in everyone’s heart the desire to find something more than themselves. We must remember Jesus’ parable of the seeds. Some of those seeds are stolen away by Satan.

Those who accept the seed and allow it to grow will come to Jesus. When Jesus quotes the prophets, He claims to be God in the same way He claimed to come from heaven when He stated He was the bread of life. When He says that those who hear will come to Him, He is talking about those who grasp the message, understanding what He has said.

We would do well to read Jesus’ words carefully and think about them. An interesting exercise to do is read only Jesus’ words in the New Testament. If you have a red letter edition, it will be a little easier to find and read them. Doing so provides a different view of Jesus’ teaching, especially if you put yourself in the frame of mind that Jesus is speaking directly to you. Give it a try. It will take less than two hours. Perhaps read His words in one book at a time.

I pray we all seek to understand Jesus’ words. I pray we take time to think about what Jesus says. I pray each one of us will accept God’s invitation, come to Jesus, and learn from Him. Seek to understand Jesus’ words. Accept God’s invitation. Come to Jesus. Learn from Jesus.

John 6:43-45 Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.”

False Rationalization

Do you struggle to give credit for a major accomplishment to someone you knew as a child? Do you remember when they were running around on the playground and find it hard to believe they have risen to the top? Are you willing to listen to them? Will you follow their lead?

Seeing someone grow up from a small child into an adult is wonderful. Especially when it is our children. Yet, we sometimes we find it hard to believe a person we knew as a child has achieved national recognition. We remember their youthful foibles. We still see them as a child.

The Jewish leadership in Capernaum felt the same way about Jesus. He claimed to have come down from heaven, yet they knew Him as a child in Nazareth. They knew His mother and father. They are incredulous that He claimed to have come down from heaven and to be the bread of life. He had compared Himself to the manna God had provided in the desert.

Though Jesus was right in making the statements He made, the Jewish leaders cast doubt among the people. They reminded them that Jesus had worked beside Joseph as a builder. He was a common laborer like so many of them. How could He have come down from heaven? They knew both Mary and Jospeh’s heritage. They were not of a priestly class. They were not from a leadership family.

There are many people today who make the same assumptions. They do not believe in angels nor the immaculate inception. They view Jesus as just another person. Maybe He was a great teacher, but nothing more. They lump Him in with other teachers and state that His teachings are outdated. There have been new scientific discoveries and people cling to them. They use our limited human rationalization to cast doubt on Jesus’ claims.

Tomorrow, we take a closer look at Jesus claim.

I pray we all recognize foolish rhetoric. I pray we see through the false rationalization. I pray each one of us will take Jesus at His word and believe He is who He claims to be. Give credit where credit is due. See through false assumptions. Believe Jesus. Believe in Jesus.

John 6:41-42 Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

God’s Path

How well do you stand up to scrutiny? Are you above reproach? Or do you have many faults? Are you somewhere in between? Are you your own worst critic? Or do others point out your weaknesses? How well do you believe you could withstand God’s scrutiny?

We may hear others point out our weaknesses and faults. We may already know them, or we may take action to correct. On the other hand, we may take offense to someone else pointing out our faults. Being criticized can be hard to take, but constructive criticism in a loving manner can be easier.

Yet, none of us can stand up to God’s scrutiny and his perfection. If we know we cannot withstand God’s scrutiny, why should we try? First, God desires us to strive to be perfect as Jesus is perfect. Second, in our striving we will recognize, or God will reveal to us our faults. Why is that important?

By recognizing our faults, we are both motivated to do better and humbled by our lack of being perfect. Being humbled before God keeps us grounded. We realize we need God’s help to continue our striving. We know that it is only by God’s grace that we are saved and blessed. It is by God’s love and grace that we can continue to grow closer to him.

It is by God’s grace we are forgiven. It because we are forgiven that we can continue to strive for the perfection God desires. Being forgiven sets us free—free from the guilt of sin. We are no longer weighed down. We can pursue the pathway God has set before us with confidence.

I pray we all recognize we cannot stand before God’s scrutiny. I pray we know that God forgives us. I pray each one of us know we have been set free so we can pursue the path God has set before us. Be humble before God. Be grounded in your forgiveness. Know you have been set free. Pursue the path God has set before you.

Psalm 130:3-4

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, 

Lord, who could stand? 

But there is forgiveness with you,

so that you may be revered.