There’s a big difference between having information and living with wisdom. Here’s a simple case to consider: a person has a detailed recipe for baking croissants. She has read the list of ingredients as well as the directions; she has the information. But this person is not in the practice of measuring precisely or following every step. She’s in a hurry after all. As a result, she ignores temperatures and most of the folding steps. Try to imagine her shock when she pulls out a lump of bread from the oven, wondering to herself where all the layers went.
This woman had information but lacked wisdom.
Okay, that’s a flaky example. Perhaps we could dig a little deeper and find an illustration that hits a little closer to home. Try this one on for size: a person is trained by a wise Christian woman on the finer points of budgeting. She is given spreadsheets, sample budgets, and spiritual lessons on tithing and generosity. Yet she lets pride rule the day, believing she has all the self-control she needs to make it financially. As a result, her attitude of entitlement ends up getting the better of her – and her debt.
This woman had information but lacked wisdom.
How about you? Can you think of a time in your life when you were given plenty of information yet still didn’t live wisely? Before you start beating yourself up, know that this is part of our human condition. Too often we neglect wisdom for comfort or instant gratification, for our own egos or even our proneness for people-pleasing.
But. There’s good news. His name is Jesus – the One Paul describes as having “become wisdom for us” (1 Corinthians 1:30). And because of Him, we have all the grace we need to live by God’s wisdom rather than our own (2 Corinthians 1:12). I told you – it’s good news!
Grace for the Laying Down
The Old Testament devotes three books to the idea of wisdom – Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. Together, they offer a complete view of godly wisdom.1 I find them to be some of the most challenging books because they are filled with imagery and figurative language that are hard to interpret. Individually, they come at ‘wisdom’ from different perspectives and with varying purposes, so I’ve found them difficult to synthesize. But, perhaps the hardest part about reading them is that they convict me. They reveal my inner motivations, habits, and tendencies.
And isn’t that why we need godly wisdom? We humans fall too quickly for that enticing “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” (Genesis 1:17). We think we know best.
We pick fruit that looks good – stats from this site, quotes from this influencer, facts from this news source, medical diagnoses from Dr. Google…all the information our age has to offer. We make our pros and cons lists. We set our goals. We earn our degrees. We read books and blogs. We live a lot of life. As a result, we feel informed and, dare we say, wise.
God in His wisdom gave us brains – so that we might think about Him and others.
God in His great love gave us free choice – so that we could love. Him and others.
Yet, like every human before us, we don’t always use our brains and free choice with the wisdom God desires.
It would be easy to drop our heads and heap shame upon ourselves, but that’s not God’s desire either. Instead, He wants us to mature in our faith to the point that we recognize our need for His wisdom – and with that comes the need for grace.
My friends, there is no ‘achieving’ God’s wisdom. The paradox that continuously shows up in God’s kingdom applies to His wisdom, as well. As those three Old Testament books point out, God’s wisdom looks like foolishness to the world (Proverbs 1:7).
Our world values knowledge so greatly that it lifts people up who can demonstrate it with effectiveness, going so far as to mistake wisdom for eloquence, character for charisma. The world lives with the assumption that people with lots of information (ie: education) are wise. It asserts that we can make our own way through striving and earning – and assures us this is wisdom.
But in God’s kingdom, wisdom comes from God alone (Proverbs 2:6; James 3:17); it is given by His Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:13, 12:8) and His Word (Psalm 119:98-100,130). That means we can’t work for His wisdom or earn His knowledge. In fact, in God’s economy, we must lay down our pride, our preferences, our propensities for believing we know best. Then we simply ask God for His wisdom (James 1:5).
It’s this laying down that is harder than any striving the world asks of us. And the only way to do this upside-down way of gaining the wisdom of God is by the grace of God.
Grace for the Picking Up
In His wisdom, God prepares a daily dose of grace for us, and the moment we take-in that manna-like-grace, it floods our human psyches and personalities, our broken hearts and assumptions, our stubborn pride and greed-driven goals. Grace cleanses and transforms us.2 Grace saves and sanctifies us.
Grace helps us to keep growing in our faith.
God gave manna to the wilderness-wandering Israelites so they would learn to trust that He would always show up for them, that He would always be enough for them. Manna helped their hunger, but it was also meant to be a tool to build their faith in God. And this is the work of grace in us. The more we pick it up and take it in, the more our faith matures. And when grace is given space to do a work in us, it trains “us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:11-12).
Let’s hear that again. When we pick up grace and give it space, wisdom has room to take root in us.
And yet, I am finding in my own life that while I must gather the grace I require for the day, I must also rely on that grace in order to do the picking up of the wisdom I need. I know. That’s a bit circular and may need to be pondered. Perhaps an example may help.
Most recently I’ve been feeling a bit restless, thinking that maybe I’m ready for whatever ministry God is calling me to next.
Despite five years of sitting with God on a daily basis – learning to let go of control, release my fears, and employ new rhythms that are quietly holy and have been teaching me how to depend on God wholly – in one weekend, I let my mind wander. I allowed my assumptions to take over, believing I knew what was next.
And I crashed right into disappointment.
The good news is because of all the time I’ve spent with God, I knew to run toward Him and to pick up that grace. In doing so, I poured out my pain. I sought forgiveness. I laid down my pride (again). And I went to bed that night grace-filled and hopeful for this season. Whatever it holds.
The very next day, after gathering my daily manna-grace, I looked to God and asked for wisdom. I worshiped. I listened. I felt the assurance to take a different step – one that felt much smaller but not less significant. And God met me in the kindest of ways. He spoke through a new friend about (of all things) obedience, helping me understand that wisdom in this season is to continue sitting at God’s feet. He has more wisdom for me to pick up.
God will always have more wisdom for us because on this side of heaven, we never quit growing, never cease needing God’s grace, never ‘arrive’. We never know all there is to know. So we keep seeking God first. We keep coming to God again and again, trusting that the grace He gives us is enough to lay down our pride and plans – and to pick up His wisdom and follow His way.
May we lay down our need for more information by picking up God’s wisdom.
May we stop settling for worldly knowledge and hunger more for God’s Word and way.
May we cease reaching for instant gratification and, instead, rely on the reality of God’s revelation.
May we give grace and God’s wisdom room to do a work in us by trusting God is always enough.
Father God, You are the only One in all of creation who is truly wise – You know all things, across all time, beginning to end. And because Your nature is only good, your wisdom always seeks our good. But like stubborn children, too regularly we dig our heels in and demand our own way. We pout. We refuse to look at You – because we are so confident that we know what is best. And we are so sorry. By your grace, we ask for your forgiveness and for your wisdom. Lord Jesus, how we desire to grow in grace and wisdom. We want to learn how to say no to ungodliness and the desires of our flesh. We long to live self-controlled, to live godly lives in the world, in our homes. And we confess that we cannot live this way without your help, without your grace and wisdom. So we look to You – because You are God’s wisdom. Redeem us again, making us righteous and holy by your grace so that we may live wisely for You. Holy Spirit, we seek more of You. Pour into our parched souls each time we pick up God’s grace. Be our Living Water. Fill our weary, over-informed minds each time we focus on Jesus. Speak God’s will and way into us, for we want to be people of God who depend on His wisdom rather than our own understanding. Let it be so! In Jesus’ name, amen.
(Inspired by Romans 16:27; James 1:5; 2 Peter 3:18; Titus 2:11-12; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 1:12; John 7:38-39)
Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.
- 1 – The Bible Project has a series of incredible videos that unpack each of the three wisdom books in the Bible and show how they work together to weave a complete picture of what godly wisdom looks like. I’ve watched them separately a couple of times, but I’ve just found where they have put them together in a compilation video!!
- 2 – It occurs to me that when we hear statements like, “Grace cleanses and transforms us,” that we might imagine God’s grace coming and changing the very core of who we are — like our personalities. But that is not the case at all! In fact, the kind of deep, inner cleansing and transforming of the Spirit actually clears out all the clutter and heals all the broken places so that we are more purely the person we were created to be. We’ll be MORE of our true selves through the inner work of God — not less. (More good news!!)
- If you’re looking for a GREAT podcast on the work of Holy Spirit, check out Tyler Staton’s 10-episode podcast, The Familiar Stranger. Deep waters. So much wisdom! So many revelations as I’ve listened.
- So much of this life with Jesus is about laying things down — our hearts, our will, our pride, our fears, our regret, our shame… It’s why so many songwriters hit that idea in their lyrics. — like David Crowder in “Only You” or Sarah Reeves of The Belonging Co. in “Just Want You” on our playlist, Embracing Grace. But we are not asked to lay things down without also picking up — grace, wisdom, love, peace… Which is why so many worship songs lead us into receiving the grace of God — like in Big Daddy Weave’s song “Let It Begin” or Audrey Assad’s “Receive:”
- Faith is making plain the truth beneath the veil
Faith supplying where our feeble sense fail
To the Father, to the Son,
And to the Spirit be
Blessing, honour, glory, power,
Might, and majesty
It is God who we encounter,
It is God that we receive
From this altar we do believe
- Faith is making plain the truth beneath the veil
- Each Wednesday I upload a “Teacup” teaching video that carries on the topic here. You can find all the videos on my Facebook Author Page, Instagram, and YouTube.
- Many of you have found me on Substack. Thank you so much! And, if you’d like to listen to (rather than read) these weekly posts, you can do so on Substack, as well. It’s easy to see and use the audio bar across the top of each post. While you’re on Substack, check out the ministry I’m blessed to be part of, the Devoted Collective.
- My monthly newsletter, The Abiding Life, goes to email inboxes the first week of each month to those who have subscribed on my website. I also post them on Substack. My most recent edition can be found there, and you can subscribe for future newsletters on Substack, here.
Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is one way to aid us in our desire to become more Christlike. There’s nowhere better to know Christ than in His Word, so throughout this series, we’ll grab hold of one passage each week and embrace the rhythm of starting our day with God and His Word every morning.
- This week our passage is James 1:5. This verse in the NLT helps us see the connection between God’s wisdom and His generosity. He desires to give us His wisdom. So, let’s ask Him — then go pick it up!
“If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.” –James 1:5 NIV - We’re all called to share the truths about the work of Jesus. One way you can do that is by sharing this site and telling others your own stories of faith experiences. Believe it or not, we worship God each time we share our stories of faith! We use our whole selves to tell about our holy God!!
Featured Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash “All the Bits and Pieces” Photo by Arjun Kapoor on Unsplash.
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