Being Wise in an Unwise World
Proverbs 16:16 How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen above silver.
Proverbs 3:14,15 For her profit is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fine gold. She is more precious than jewels; and nothing you desire compares with her.
I wish we believed that. If we did, it would radically change our priorities and pursuits. It would change our very definition of what we understand being blessed truly means.
Look what wisdom offers according Proverbs 8:12-21NIV:
I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion. To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I have understanding and power. By me kings reign and rulers make laws that are just; by me princes govern, and all nobles [judge rightly].NAS I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity. My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing wealth on those who love me and making their treasuries full.
There is a wealth wisdom makes possible that exceeds cash in the banks. However, wisdom may bring monetary wealth as we seek the Lord’s direction on investments, His prudence in spending and His Spirit-enabled self-control. On the other hand, His wisdom also encourages and enables generosity and selflessly spending on the needs of others. The rule needs to be: if blessed with monetary wealth, it is for the purpose of blessing others. We are blessed to bless. Actually that applies to any of the ways God blesses us. What He said to Abraham in Genesis 12:2 applies to us as well. “And I will bless you… and so you will be a blessing.”
When it comes to monetary wealth, Proverbs 23:4 warns, “Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your [pursuit of understanding] of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies towards the heavens.” 1 Timothy 6:10 says, “The love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” That sounds neither blessed nor wise. Hebrews 13:5 counsels, “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have, for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.” Our security and stability needs to come from God’s presence and provision. Not from what we can count and control.
According to Proverbs 3:13, being blessed is being wise. Being wise is having true wealth. "How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding."
There are several different words translated “blessed” in the Old Testament, this one is esher, which actually means to be happy, to have great joy. If the key to happiness is being blessed, then we need to understand what being blessed truly means.
Recently I made the comment that I am so very blessed. I wasn’t making a pompous religious sounding statement, but sincerely stating an overwhelming personal truth. For a year, my focal verse was “You have made [me] most blessed forever; You have made [me] joyful with gladness in Your presence.” (Psalm 21:6) Every day I saw how “most blessed” I truly am. It is quite mind-blowing. It was her response that surprised me. “Yes, you are so lucky. No wonder you are always so happy.” She was right that being blessed filled me with great joy. She was wrong about the reason why I was so joyful. She saw it as my being lucky, prosperous and carefree.
She isn’t the only one to have an askew understanding what blessed means and a faulty assumptions to why we are so blessed. There are some big lies we buy when it comes to being blessed.
Lie I am blessed when I have certain things or something specific happens.
This narrow definition of what being blessed has to look like makes us feel shortchanged, discontent, or even envious until we can see it, count it, or check it off the list. Jesus tells us in Luke 12:15 that “not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”
Being satisfied and content, is an incredible blessing. However, the question is: What longing is being satisfied, and whom or what is satisfying it? In Ecclesiastes 5:10, Solomon tells us “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity.” In Proverbs 13:25, he tells us that “The righteous has enough to satisfy his appetite, but the stomach of the wicked is in [constant] need.” There is incredible blessing in knowing that “my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus.”(Philippians 4:19) However, the blessing is not in the control of knowing we have countable resources or dateable happenings, but knowing “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.” (2 Corinthians 9:8)
He wants to bless us. It actually gives Him great pleasure to do so. He knows what, when and how that are best. We have to trust Him to wisely choose how best to bless. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose trust is the LORD. (Jeremiah 17:7)
Being satisfied and content, is an incredible blessing. However, the question is: What longing is being satisfied, and whom or what is satisfying it? In Ecclesiastes 5:10, Solomon tells us “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity.” In Proverbs 13:25, he tells us that “The righteous has enough to satisfy his appetite, but the stomach of the wicked is in [constant] need.” There is incredible blessing in knowing that “my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus.”(Philippians 4:19) However, the blessing is not in the control of knowing we have countable resources or dateable happenings, but knowing “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.” (2 Corinthians 9:8)
He wants to bless us. It actually gives Him great pleasure to do so. He knows what, when and how that are best. We have to trust Him to wisely choose how best to bless. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose trust is the LORD. (Jeremiah 17:7)
Lie I am blessed when I feel blessed/happy.
Let’s be honest, that feeling of being happy comes when all is good and going great. The Lord really does want us to be happy, but even more He wants us to be joyful. The origin of the word “happy” is actually to happen. Happiness does have a way of simply happening – come and go, often based on our mood. It also has a way of being anchored to something happening. Joy, however, has roots. According to Galatians 5:22, joy is a fruit of the Spirit. Paul prayed in Romans 15:13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” The blessing of joy isn’t based on all is good and going great. It is the joy of Christ made full in us (John 15:11) through believing in Him and His Spirit filling and flowing in and through our lives.
Lie I am blessed when I am in control.
We tend to see being in control, whether it is of self, others or the situation, as an indicator of being blessed. Control has all kinds of nuances. Beginning with the control of knowing: what, when, where, why and how. We often base our sense of peace on this kind of control. We don’t actually have to be the one in control, just know who is, and that they are going to do things the way that we are comfortable with. We have even come to define respect as others agreeing that we are right and doing it our way. In other words, bowing to our control.
Lie I am blessed when I only have to worry about me.
This includes not having to worry about what others think, feel or how they are impacted. That works only if you consider living all by yourself on an island as being blessed. Our lives are intricately interconnected. Truth is: we constantly impact and/or influence others!
How we act towards and around others matter, not just in regards to them, but also to ourselves. We are all familiar with the Golden Rule: Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Luke 6:31NIV) We may not be as familiar with the Reciprocal Rule: As you do to others, God does to you! “With the kind You show Yourself kind, with the blameless You show Yourself blameless; with the pure You show Yourself pure, and with the perverted You show Yourself astute.” (2 Samuel 22:26,27) The word translated “perverted” (iqqesh) is an adjective that means "distorted, twisted, crooked or perverse." “Astute” (patal) is a verb meaning “to twist.” If our actions, attitude and motivation are twisted, He is going to twist it back to bite us in the behind. We are blessed if we worry about how we impact others, because it will end up impacting us.
This includes not having to worry about what others think, feel or how they are impacted. That works only if you consider living all by yourself on an island as being blessed. Our lives are intricately interconnected. Truth is: we constantly impact and/or influence others!
How we act towards and around others matter, not just in regards to them, but also to ourselves. We are all familiar with the Golden Rule: Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Luke 6:31NIV) We may not be as familiar with the Reciprocal Rule: As you do to others, God does to you! “With the kind You show Yourself kind, with the blameless You show Yourself blameless; with the pure You show Yourself pure, and with the perverted You show Yourself astute.” (2 Samuel 22:26,27) The word translated “perverted” (iqqesh) is an adjective that means "distorted, twisted, crooked or perverse." “Astute” (patal) is a verb meaning “to twist.” If our actions, attitude and motivation are twisted, He is going to twist it back to bite us in the behind. We are blessed if we worry about how we impact others, because it will end up impacting us.
Lie I am blessed when my life is conflict free.
We extend that blessing to include being able to avoid or separate ourselves from conflict of any kind. All I can say to this one is “Good luck with that!”
Romans 12:18 says, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” There are times that it does depend on us. There are times when it doesn’t. Our best efforts need to go into prioritize peace with God. That in turn impacts how we respond to others and they respond to us. “When a man’s ways are pleasing to the LORD, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.” (Proverbs 16:7)
We extend that blessing to include being able to avoid or separate ourselves from conflict of any kind. All I can say to this one is “Good luck with that!”
Romans 12:18 says, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” There are times that it does depend on us. There are times when it doesn’t. Our best efforts need to go into prioritize peace with God. That in turn impacts how we respond to others and they respond to us. “When a man’s ways are pleasing to the LORD, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.” (Proverbs 16:7)
Lie I am blessed when everyone like me and is pleased with me.
We tend to go in one of two directions with this: compromise to gain others' approval, or contaminate the pursuit of righteous godly lives with expectations that it will guarantee their favor and acceptance. In other words, godliness with a self-serving agenda.
1 John 3:13 gives us a heads up, “Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.” Everyone is not going to like you nor are they going to be impressed no matter how good or godly you are. Jesus tells us why. “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:19)
The problems with buying into this lie are: (1) we are unprepared when hit with negative responses to our doing, giving and being our best; and (2) we can start pursuing godliness for what we get out of it instead of blessing God and others.
1 John 3:13 gives us a heads up, “Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.” Everyone is not going to like you nor are they going to be impressed no matter how good or godly you are. Jesus tells us why. “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:19)
The problems with buying into this lie are: (1) we are unprepared when hit with negative responses to our doing, giving and being our best; and (2) we can start pursuing godliness for what we get out of it instead of blessing God and others.
One of the biggest lies we buy is the BECAUSE lie: I am blessed because I am a really good person.
If constant goodness is the qualifier for being blessed, we are all in trouble. An honest evaluation of ourselves acknowledges “there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:21) “Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.” (Ecclesiastes 7:20) We tell ourselves this lie as our way of assuring ourselves we deserve to be blessed or the blessings we have. If we are the reason, than neither gratitude nor allegiance are necessary.
These are just a few of the lies we buy. They are pervasive in our culture because Satan is very persuasive. Jesus says, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)
Compare his lies with the truth Jesus states in Matthew 5:3-12. For a fresh perspective, here is The Message version.
· You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
· You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.
· You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.
· You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.
· You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.
· You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
· You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.
· You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom. Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit Me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.
We need a heavenly perspective and a divine enabling to grasp being blessed in these ways and under these circumstances. It takes wisdom from God – being wise – to recognize the true blessing. We need to keep repeating Proverbs 3:13 until we believe it: How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding.
Prov. 8:32-36 Now therefore, O sons, listen to me [wisdom], for blessed are they who keep my ways. Heed instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts. For he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD. But he who sins against me injures himself; all those who hate me love death.
The blessing of wisdom has to be pursued. We have to seek it – listen for it – watch for it – wait for it. The word “wait” in verse 34 is shamar, which means to actively look for an opportunity to do what needs to be done. Matthew 7:7 says, “Keep asking and it will be given to you; keep seeking and you will find; keep knocking and it will be opened to you.” There is unwavering persistency. ♬We won’t go until we get some ♬ - is an annoying but fitting song lyric that needs to be applied to the blessing of wisdom, not just figgy pudding.
