Choose Wise

Jesus is always trying to get us to live for eternity. He wants us to live with God in mind. We are always getting sidetracked trying to make heaven right here. I think that is particularly true for us as Americans. We have this thing called the American Dream. We spend our lives building our ideal here and forget our true destination is heaven. And so, we are working to make more money, or spend more time or build more of this or that because we are looking to build that perfect life. Live for the weekend, live for retirement.It is a misallocation of time and resources. This man’s time and resources was focused on being comfortable and getting to a point where he could relax. But God wanted him to use is time and resources for the kingdom of God. This man would have made his decisions differently if he knew he was going to die that night. He would have done something else than build a barn and plan for retirement.Our decisions are based on a false premise. I will be content if… I will be happy when… God calls this foolish. He says this is the wrong goal.

Making wise choices from a foundation of contentment. Contentment is a spiritual state.Discontent is also a spiritual state. We know contentment is universally a good thing. We know it is something for which to aspire. We know that it is better for us psychologically. However, contentment and for that matter discontentment is deeper than that. It is a spiritual state.What does that mean “spiritual state.” What we are really getting at is that contentment says something about our relationship with God. Discontentment says something about our relationship with God.

I see the Lord blessing people at the age of 16 and 17 because of wise choices they made when they were 9. I see people in their 20s being blessed because of choices they made when they were in their teens. I have seen woman make changes in their 30s and 40s and watched as their lives started overflowing with blessing. We can follow the call of the Wise Woman at any time. Though the call of the Foolish Woman sounds similar we can discern the difference and make better choices that will pay off in the years to come.

How do we build things that last in this life? When life seems hopeless, how do we find purpose. We long for the eternal, how do we build eternal things?

Proverbs says that discretion shall preserve you. One of the distinguishing characteristics between a foolish person and a wise person is a plan. Discretion is a plan and it will keep us from following the ways of the evil man and the strange woman. Studing Proverbs Chapter 2.

We read in the BIble about the fear of the Lord is the key to wisdom and knowledge, what does this mean? How can fear be a good thing?

Not many of us self identify as a person of great wisdom. We want to make wise choices. We want to be wise. We want to do wise things. Wisdom is the common thread that affects all areas of our life. Everything from finances, to health, to relationships, and employment is made better when we choose wisely and it is quiet obvious when we make choices that lack wisdom. A great place to look for wisdom is the book of Proverbs. Proverbs was written by the wisest man in the Bible. The purpose of the book is to relay that wisdom to his son.The purpose of Proverbs is to: Know wisdom and instruction Perceive words of understanding Receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgement and equity Give subtility to the simple knowledge and discretion to the young manWisdom requires three things of us: knowing, perceiving, receiving. The result is it will give subtlety to the simple: subtlety prudence and shrewdness. To the young man knowledge and discretion (advisement).There is a correct response to wisdom is: Hear will increase in learning Attain wise counsels Understand a proverb the interpretation words of the wise their dark sayingsThese are levels of maturity or mastery.The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7 Wisdom rests on this key princiciple. The fear of the Lord is really an understanding of God’s position. He is the creator, the designer, the owner. And because of that I respect His right to prescribe the rules, and explain the best way to do go about doing things. Despising instructions is rooted in pride, not needing help, thinking we already know, not admitting we are incorrect. So the first step is are we going to hear? We need to honestly assess if we are willing to hear/obey and increase in learning. If we are unwilling to admit we don’t know something or that we need to know something we can’t move into the first levels of wisdom.