This Year Choose Wisdom
Would wisdom be your first choice? Maybe you can relate to this story more than you’d like to admit:
An angel appears at a faculty meeting and tells the dean that in return for his unselfish and exemplary behavior, the Lord will reward him with his choice of infinite wealth, wisdom, or beauty. Without hesitating, the dean selects infinite wisdom.
“Done!” says the angel and disappears in a cloud of smoke and a bolt of lightning. Now, all heads turn toward the dean, who sits surrounded by a faint halo of light. At length, one of his colleagues whispers, “Say something.”
The dean looks at them and says, “I should have taken the money.”
Betsy Devine and Joel E. Cohen, Absolute Zero Gravity, Simon & Schuster.
When you picture wise people, who comes to mind? Biblically speaking, Solomon, of course. No doubt older folks are generally associated with wisdom. That’s biblical too: “Wisdom is with aged men, with long life is understanding” (Job 12:12). But what about you? How’s your level of wisdom? As you face another year, there’s no guarantee you’ll be wiser at the end just because you’ll be older. Even Solomon was intentional about gaining wisdom. Wisdom is a choice.
Consider our culture where the primary pursuits include the right spouse, family, a satisfying and lucrative career, wealth, personal and material security, a close community of friends, and physical health. And when it comes to voting, investing, education, marketing, and priorities, wisdom is not the focus of such things. So, would a political candidate have a chance if they ran on a platform of pursuing wisdom for our society? Not likely a prescription for victory.
But for the wisest man in the Bible, when God made him this offer: “Ask what I shall give you” (2 Chronicles 1:7), Solomon did not reply with anything from our typical list. Instead, Solomon’s request was, “Give me now wisdom and knowledge” (vs. 10). As a result of getting his priorities straight, God granted him not only wisdom but gave him all the “riches and wealth and honor” (vs. 12) anyone today could only dream of having!
Wisdom comes with age only as you use each year to pursue wisdom. It starts with asking. “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).
Next, practice those things that strengthen wisdom. We must seek instruction from the ultimate book of wisdom, the Bible. If we truly fear the Lord (which is the beginning of wisdom—Proverbs 1:7), we’ll do the work necessary to grow in our knowledge of Him through reading, studying, and memorizing the Word. The goal is “To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding” (Proverbs 1:2).
Ask for wisdom, seek wisdom through reverence for and knowledge of God through His Word. Then, make wise choices. To ask for wisdom and to know about it means little until we conduct ourselves wisely. James wrote, “Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom” (James 3:13).
If we practice those three things: asking, instruction from the Word, and wise behavior, it will be a challenging year, but a year of growth. Of course, other New Year’s resolutions are fine too, but this year, whatever other goals you have, resolve to be wiser.
“Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will discern the fear of the Lord And discover the knowledge of God.” —Proverbs 2:2-5