Wisdom

The Fool has said in his heart, “there is no God.”

Psalm 14:1

I was thinking about this verse over the weekend. How we view the words foolish and wise. How we seem to think that a fool is simply a clown and a wise man must have great intellect.

That’s really not what the Bible says though. The Bible says a fool is someone who won’t acknowledge God. Someone who lives his own way. A fool can’t be trusted, cannot deliver a faithful message and will ultimately produce calamity for himself.  A fool can be anyone. Anyone. There are even foolish Christians. The ones who acknowledge God exists, that He is preparing a heaven for them and that He sent His son to die so that they could go, but that is where their acknowledgement ends.

They do not refer to Him otherwise. They may be very smart. They may be well read and extremely resourceful, but they are not wise if their first resource is not God Himself.

What is wisdom then?

As a young person, I prayed for wisdom because to me it meant the ability to see beyond what was obvious and choose my path according to what would leave me with the fewest regrets. I wasn’t all wrong in that, having wisdom will produce that, but I didn’t realize what wisdom is in itself.

I had a pastor in my late teen years who defined wisdom as: “knowledge applied.” That’s not all wrong either, but applied knowledge is only wisdom if it’s the right knowledge.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Psalm 111:10

When the Bible talks of fear of the Lord it is speaking of reverence. An acknowledgement of His deity, His authority and His power.

So a wise man, simply, is a man who bases his action on the belief that God has power and authority over him.

Fools and wise men are opposites of each other, but they are not clowns and geniuses. Rather, a man of great intelligence can easily be a fool if he walks out his life according to only his own set of rules, while a man with little knowledge or intellectual ability may have great wisdom if he is choosing to rely on God for every move he makes.

It struck me that when we ask God for wisdom, we are not simply asking for a greater ability to map out our steps. We are asking for the ability to see God in our circumstances. Asking for wisdom is asking for the ability to know Him, to hear His voice, to sense His presence and gain a more tangible understanding of His activity in our lives. We walk more steady when we know He is beside us. We tread more carefully when we know He loves us. We love more readily, we give more freely, we smile, we stand and we rest, with greater ease, with greater joy because He is real to us.

The wisdom of God is not the knowledge that sand is a poor foundation and rock will hold us up better. Logic is enough for such things. The wise man built his house upon the rock, because the Rock is Christ. There is no wisdom outside of this reality.

We pray for wisdom for specific circumstances, but we should simply pray for wisdom. The circumstances will tell us enough about themselves when we are standing on such sure ground. There is no risk, no insecurity, no falling when He has revealed Himself to us.

In all your ways, ALL your ways, the little things and the big things, acknowledge Him…and He will direct your paths. I wonder if we wouldn’t avoid difficult decisions and stressful circumstances more often if we were looking for Him in the everyday little things more readily.

The Amplified says it so well: “In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.” Proverbs 3:6

Pray for wisdom. Pray for that knowledge of Him, such a knowing will often apply itself when it is needed. The path is already laid out for us. Wisdom simply allows us to recognize it.