I have been at my computer here a bit the last couple of days. We spent last week in Gulf Shores with our daughter as she battled in the USSSA 12U World Series and the wifi just wouldn’t hold up, so now I am playing catch up. As I sit here working on things and checking emails and answering calls and texts, I also am realizing that in three days I will be saying goodbye to my husband and daughter as they head to serve in Guatemala.
You know… I probably should be freaking out about now. But I ain’t.
Walking with the Lord is funny like that…
It’s amazing the way He is able to provide peace in the craziness of life. Tonight I will lead a lesson to our K – 5th grade kids about the sufficiency of Scripture. Tonight they will learn, or be reminded again, that God has provided us with His Word, not just for salvation but for help in our everyday struggles in this life.
His Word is filled with wisdom for us.
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
James 1:5
I have an inkling that some people read this verse from James and pray that God would give them wisdom in a certain situation and then they just look up and wait for God to drop it in their head. I don’t believe that is quite what God had in mind when He inspired the half-brother of His Son to pen these words.
Do you know how you ask God for wisdom?
You open up His book and read it… and you don’t just read it but you dig into it. Have you ever misplaced something of value, maybe your wedding ring? Did you just glance around the house for it? Or did you flip over every couch cushion, grab a flash light and climb under the bed, crawl around on your hands and knees running your fingers through the carpet…etc? If we really want God’s wisdom and God’s answers for our life, we will search His Word like we would search for anything else of high value… that is if we truly value Him and His will for our life.
God has protected His Word for thousands of years and made it available in all type of forms and languages. He gives it generously, and He tells no one they can’t have it. It’s free and generously offered to all by Him. He doesn’t care who you are and He doesn’t care what state you are in when you open up His Word to seek Him… He will not withhold His wisdom from anyone who is sincerely seeking.
Because there’s even more to it if we want to receive of the wisdom of God…
But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
James 1:6-8
We have to be willing to take it as God said it… no but’s or what if’s… no waffling or wavering… no taking just a little of it and twisting and manipulating it to try and make God say what we think we want Him to say.
God doesn’t play like that… if we want to receive His wisdom we have to take it like it is.
There are things in life that may not make sense to us from our point of view. We may be wondering what in the world God is up to and try as we might we won’t figure it out here in this life and we might not even in the next… quite possibly we won’t even care or remember on the side of eternity.
For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him?
1 Corinthians 2:16
We have no ability or right to ever instruct God on the how’s or why of life… not ours and certainly not anyone else’s. This verse ends with this…
But we have the mind of Christ.
2 Corinthians 2:16
Think about that.
What on earth does that mean?
In John 15:15 Jesus says to His disciples…
No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
In John 8:28-29 we read…
So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”
So what does it mean to have the mind of Christ?
It means we do nothing on our own initiative, but speak the things that God has taught us and we do the things that please our Heavenly Father. It means we don’t tell God what we need Him to do… but we wait for God to tell us what to do… and even if what He says is hard to hear, say, or do… we obey knowing that He is with us and never ever ever leaves us alone.
In one of my emails today I read this from Chuck Swindoll…
Conquering giants isn’t accomplished without great skill and discipline. To be God’s warrior, to fight His way, demands much more expertise and control than one can imagine. Using the sling and stone of the Spirit is a far more delicate thing than swinging the club of the flesh. But oh, how sweet is the victory when the stone finds its mark . . . and how final.
Are you facing a giant?
Chances are you’ve already bumped into one or more of them this week. Is the intimidation reaching unbearable proportions? Do your ears ache from their constant threats? Don’t run . . . but don’t try a bigger club, either. Be like David. Turn your Goliath over to Jehovah, the giant-killer. Explain to your powerful God how anxious you are for Him to win this victory for a change—not the giant and not you.
Then load up your sling, soldier, and don’t forget the stones. You’re in for the time of your life.
I read this post and my mind immediately went to my family. It went to my Dad, my sister-in-law Phillis, and my father-in-law Jerry. All three of them are facing a Goliath called cancer. It went to my husband and daughter who will both be going on their first international mission trip. It went to my life as I submitted to what God was leading me to do, both in stepping down as Children’s Minister at our church and then out of the blue accepting the call to step into the Weekday Education Director over a preschool at a different church.
All these things have been bathed in prayer and oh how we have sought the wisdom of God concerning them. As I read the words, don’t forget the stones, I thought of what would have happened had David showed up that day with his sling and nothing but air to sling?
Nothing would have happened. Goliath would still stand taunting and ridiculing our Glorious God and striking fear into the hearts of His people.
It’s sad, because when I think of the people who are praying and asking God for help… but they never seek Him in His Word… that’s the same thing as if David had attempted to face Goliath without the stones.
So beloved, please, I beg you…
Don’t. Forget. The. Stones.