When decisions are made out of emotions, wisdom is often absent

  • Only when we have the fear of the Lord can we begin to grow in our wisdom
  • Wisdom is using of knowledge rightly to yield fruitful and blessed end
  • Wisdom is acquiring understanding by knowing God intimately: His ways and His will.
  • Lack of fear of God leads to lack of wisdom,
    • In Psalm 14:1a The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
  • Wisdom tells us that we have no control over our lives, but God does
    • In James 4:13-15 “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”

How can I have wisdom in all that I do?

 

  1. Stay Your Ground – Don’t quit, don’t switch, don’t change

James, the half-brother of Jesus, opposes Jesus at first

  • John 7:2-5 …His brothers therefore said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing… If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” For even His brothers did not believe in Him.

After Jesus resurrected, his eyes were opened & he declared Jesus as Lord (kyrios: Messiah, Jehovah)

  • 1 Corinthians 15:7 After that He (Jesus) was seen by James, then by all the apostles.
  • Then the believers were under persecution and dispersed all over the places (in Acts)

James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,

  • Count it all joy – What are you choosing to look at?
    • The circumstance that creates stress and fear, or to look at God, fearing Him?
  • Fall into various trials – all kinds of different, unexpected trails that may take us off-guard
    • Make a decision before it happens: we either fear God or fear the circumstances

James 1:3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

  • Testing – Proof ourselves that we will not move away from the word of God
  • Produces – Katergazomai: To be energized (Gazomai) from top to bottom (Kater)
  • Patient – hypomonē: Abide, refuse to move, steadfastness, endurance, perseverance

When we abide and become immoveable, God’s power, not our will power, will outlast all trials

 

  1. Sow Your Seeds – Work on your spiritual life

James 1:4 Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing

  • Perfect – Teleios: brought to its end, finished, wanting nothing necessary to completeness
  • Complete – Holoklēros: complete in all its parts, in no part wanting or unsound, faultless
  • Lacking nothing is referring to everything we needed has all been provided
  • Stay our ground in perseverance, fearing God and keep Him in our view, within our sights

 

Galatians 6:7-9 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

 Sow your seeds, in your own Spiritual life and also in the lives of other people

 

  1. Seek HIS Face – Ask God for wisdom to understand

Ask God and He will give liberally, but there is a condition – to put your full faith in God first

James 1:5-7 if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways

  • Wisdom – Sophia: broad and full of intelligence; the knowledge of very diverse matters
  • Faith – Pistis: conviction of the truth of anything, belief
  • Double-minded – Dipsychos: wavering, uncertain, doubting, divided in interest
  • Unstable or restless – On the reverse, when we seek His face, we find stability and rest

 

It is either we fear God or fear the situation

  • Seek His face and we can find stability and rest
  • which builds our faith that gives us understanding about God
  • Understanding gives us knowledge, and knowledge provides a path to wisdom.

That is the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

 

Application

  1. Catchup with God this week – ask Him what He likes to talk about?
  2. Catchup with someone whom you haven’t talk to for a long time this week