The challenge of growing in wisdom

In our spiritual pilgrimage by the hand of Christ, situations, difficult or not, have come upon us in which we have surely wondered what would Christ do in my place if he were going through this trance? How can I solve this problem for which I cannot find satisfactory human advice?

We Christians have the possibility of obtaining, through faith and reverent fear of our creator, an invaluable gift of the Spirit that would help us to come out of all kinds of situations - even if pains and breakdowns arise in the conflict -: wisdom .

If we asked anyone about the meaning of the word wisdom, it is possible that their answer describes a relationship of this word with what we commonly call knowledge and they would say, for the most part, that wisdom is something like an abundant knowledge in all the disciplines of human knowledge and everything that revolves around life; therefore a wise man would be one who squanders and distills knowledge even through the pores. For those born in Christ, knowledge and knowledge do not always go hand in hand. It is that even, sometimes, one has nothing to do with the other.

The great English preacher Ch. Spurgeon once said: "Wisdom is the correct use of knowledge. Knowing is not being wise." Of course he was referring to the wisdom that comes from God, from the knowledge that God gives in full hands to those who with humility, await without insurgencies or kinks, the touch of the Father adding to his grace a portion of his infinite wisdom. God is the only true source of wisdom. He is the only wise God (Ro 16:27 a). Paul fervently desired that the brethren in the church in Ephesus would be blessed with this gift. “… That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him” (Eph. 1.17).

When speaking of divine wisdom, the name of Solomon immediately comes to mind. The Word notes that “the whole world sought to visit him to hear the wisdom that God had given him” (1 Kings 10:24). Solomon's secret was that he asked God, in a humble gesture, to give him the necessary wisdom to rule His people (2 Chr 1.10) and God granted it to him in such a way that, the Bible says, there was no king before him and after him that he had so many goods, riches, glory, wisdom and knowledge to carry out His designs (2 Chr 1.12).

The wisdom of God manifested in the Christian cannot be seen apart from faith and spiritual growth. We can and must ask God at all times to give us wisdom from above, not to rule our lives, but to do his will. A renewed mind in Christ is a safe deposit to acquire, store and treasure the wisdom that comes down from on high and to grow in the knowledge of Jesus, who is your greater will. Santiago in his universal letter, points out that this type of wisdom has nothing to do with the wise men of this time, nor with philosophers, nor those who are knowledgeable in any matter, but with those who, submitted to the will of God and in obedience, they found and ennoble the work of God with purity, kindness, full of mercy and good fruits, demonstrating with their acts of faith an intimate communion with God and a heightened knowledge of his nature and attributes. To grow in wisdom is to grow in the knowledge of our God and our Savior Jesus Christ to fulfill their eternal purposes.

The apostle Paul told the Corinthians: “Let no one be deceived. If any of you believe yourself to be wise according to the standards of this age, make yourself ignorant in order to become wise ”(1 Cor 3:18). That's great! So to be wise, we must first become ignorant. James also brings us a similar message and warns us that if at any time we feel wise, we should not demonstrate it with vain knowledge, but through a testimony seasoned with the work done with the humility that wisdom produces (James 3:13) . God's wisdom produces humility in Christian character.

God grants wisdom to those who long for it and seek it to give him glory. He wants us to be his faithful stewards, to make correct decisions, to walk in justice in all that we do, to behave wisely with those who do not believe in Christ (Col 4.5). All this is the fruit of the wisdom that comes from God, it is appreciating its value, seeking it with all our being to grow in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Job understood that wisdom is a precious and incomparable good of God. There is no wealth that can be compared to it, it is revealed only to those who tirelessly seek the Lord, who are jealous and show an insatiable hunger to know him more every day. That wisdom is available to everyone in the fear of God, walking in faith and yearning to find it in Jesus Christ, owner and Lord of all spiritual riches. To grow in wisdom is to discard pride and sufficiency that produces foolishness and vain knowledge that does not bear fruit for the Kingdom, rather it is to confront life by relying totally on Him “so that your faith is not founded on the wisdom of men, but in the power of God (1 Cor 2.5).

In the Dictionary of Anecdotes and Biblical Illustrations of A. Almudevar appear many types of wise men. I quote verbatim:

There are the wise men according to themselves, whom the Bible calls fools.

There are the wise according to the others, whom the Bible praises.

There are wise men according to knowledge, of which the Bible says that they must lose all their knowledge when they die.

There are the wise men according to God, whom men call fools, and the Bible calls born again.

The latter is true and real wisdom because it will last forever in heaven.

God bless you!