Seeking Wisdom



 

Tough choices.  There is nothing like being in a situation where you have to really weigh things.  I’m not talking about a pro-con list.  That is usually what people do when the decision they have before them is not emotionally based.  I’m talking about being in a situation where the heart is involved.  Where you feel like you might lose-lose.  There doesn’t seem to be any light at the end of a tunnel of apprehensive feelings. 

 

I’m living in one right now.  I have a big decision to make.  It’s not big from the world’s perspective, like a move or a job change, but it’s big for my heart.  My counselor recommended this week that I approach it from a spirit of curiosity, not make decisions but just notice my feelings and why I was having them.  

 

This advice has been super helpful.  For me noticing the why became determining the origin and it led me down the path of discernment.  How often do we lose sight of the importance of determining where suggestions derive from?  Is it from a spiritual enemy?  If so, which enemy?  Fear, doubt, bitterness, or resentment? My decision, small to the world but weighty in my mind, has to do with a relationship.    

 

A book that has been helpful in working through my problem made a statement that made me pause:  “No one but you has the right to define your obligation and duty in a relationship[1].” Though I do think that I need to define my relational boundaries, I disagree with the “no one” because my submission to King Jesus means I willingly give Him the right to speak into my life about how I treat others.  If I call Him Lord, I must be prepared to let Him direct me.  From the beginning, He has been in the work of restoration.  We first must restore our relationship to Him so we can be restored to one another. 

 

Yet in the next paragraph, the book made another statement, and one that I did find helpful: 

“When you start feeling compelled by duty or obligation, ask yourself who’s suggesting that and why[2].”  I realized in my quest for emotional health, I had failed at times to discern the root of the obligations and duties I was feeling and I had fallen for the same parlor trick that Satan successfully pulled over on Eve: taking things out of context.  

 

In the garden, Satan questioned “Did God actually say[3]?” and he tempts us to question what God says all the time. The underlying assumption he gets us to consider by this tactic is to question, is God really good?  He tried the same technique on Jesus in the dessert in Mathew 4.  Yet Jesus, knowing the full teaching of God as the embodied Word, replied with Scripture interpreting Scripture.  

 

In my current dilemma, I ask for to know what to choose and God reminds me of the difference between knowledge and wisdom.  Knowledge is knowing God’s word, holding an accurate viewpoint, whereas wisdom is taking the years of acquiring knowledge and synthesizing it to make the best decision.  And it begins with the fear of the Lord. 

 

When we fear God, we aren’t afraid of Him, but we reverently respect Him and His commands.  We discern the intent of the voices that influence us and identify their source.  We take the totality of scripture and not one verse out of context but put them together to establish our priorities and actions.  Unlike the double-minded man unstable in all his ways[4], when I fear God I begin a journey of wisdom that leads me to want to know what He says in the whole of Scripture, not just for example the Pauline letters.  I build up my knowledge so I have many sources that stack up to give me confidence of the way I should go.  I see things from His different perspectives instead of getting caught in a “one-verse” mindset.  In my current situation, when I allowed God to show me His thoughts in different places, it gave me a better direction overall and a peace began to settle. 

 

 

Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.  Lean me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. Psalm 25:4-5

 

 

Let us be teachable, respecting the Lord’s words and ways in our life, seeking His wisdom, trusting His knowledge, and discerning the voices that tempt us away from the process of clarity.  He has replaced my confusion with direction.  So quiet yourself, let the process unfold as you wait,  and let the God whose led you this far, be the voice that you follow[5] in the end. 

 

 


[1] Pg 71, Recovering from Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Reclaim Your Emotional Autonomy and Find Personal Happiness by Lindsay C. Gibson

[2] See footnote 1

[3] Genesis 3:1

[4] James 1:8

[5] John 10:3


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