Getting Knowledge and Grace

Sherlock-Holmes-007I am by nature a loner. As a child, I was totally content to play by myself with all my imaginary friends. My late mother used to tell me about how when I was four, she looked out the kitchen window to the backyard and saw me playing. She said she could see me having a grand time talking and directing at least three different imaginary friends. Perhaps it is because I had two older sisters, while doting over me constantly, obviously were not boys with whom to play. More likely, it is writer’s nature to sit alone and contemplate and imagine different scenarios. This can be creative at times and detrimental at others. The Bible warns against too much isolation:

    “A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he rages against all wise judgment.” (Proverbs 18:1)

So how do I find the right balance in spending time alone meditating on my thoughts and seeking the knowledge and wisdom of others? First, I must apply mental fasting, in that I am careful on what my mind meditates. If I am obsessed with something out of my control, then I am on a fool’s errand. I have to learn to trust in the Lord and lean not on my own understanding. The Bible warns against such behavior:

    “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” (Proverbs 26:12)

Second thing I do to find the right balance is to have a deliberate plan to seek Biblical wisdom. Wisdom is the crown jewel of the Bible, in which you can read of the great value of knowing the mind of Christ and living out Godly principles. A man’s path in life is made clear and straight when he is following that which is laid out in the Bible. All that a man desires and hopes for is found in heavenly wisdom:

    “So shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul; if you have found it, there is a prospect, and your hope will not be cut off.” (Proverbs 24:14)

Third thing I do to find the right balance is to be slow to speak. This is an everyday challenge for me. The difference between hearing and listening is as wide as the Grand Canyon. One can hear and never understand, while the man who listens long before he speaks spares himself from many moments of embarrassment:

    “He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him.” (Proverbs 18:13)

This world is a confusing place these days. There is so much calamity, callousness, and corruption that a person can come to the point where he or she knows not who or what to trust. This can lead to frustration to where you decide that you can trust only yourself, and alas you become the person of whom Solomon wrote in Proverbs 18:1. We give up searching for the truth because we no longer believe it can be found. Commenting on that verse, Matthew Henry writes:

    “If we would get knowledge and grace, we must try all methods of improving ourselves.”

Of course Pastor Henry would instruct us to be sure the methods we try are righteous and wise. One might wonder if that knowing which methods are acceptable is an impossible task in itself. It will be if I seek in the wrong places, but it can be easily found if I know where to look. God declares in His Word:

    “I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in vain’; I, the Lord, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.” (Isaiah 45:19)

Finding true wisdom is not an impossible task. Getting knowledge and grace simply means turning your life over to Jesus and surrendering control of your future to the One who cares for you most. Read again for the first time Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount:

    “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25)

I want to be likened to a wise man by my Lord and that means I cannot isolate myself from Him or His teachings. I must search and meditate on the scriptures daily and let heavenly wisdom rule my world.

Care to join me?

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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    Copyright © 2014 David Jeffers

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