Story of the day: Stepping out by faith (Kim’s Collections)
Sometimes I am embarrassed of how quickly I can accept a worldly idea and see it as good. Just the other day as my husband and I were listening to the news on the car radio, it said something that for a moment sounded like a great idea and I made the comment, “That’s ingenious!” But as I continued to listen (to the newsman and to God), I began to see how evil this idea really was. God’s word talks about two kinds of wisdoms: Worldly wisdom and spiritual wisdom. 1 Corinthians 3:19 says, “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” Unless we know what God’s word says, we may find ourselves easily adopting the ideas of this world.
In the book of Ephesians, Paul prays unceasingly for the people to be given this spirit of wisdom. But this wisdom is received, according to Ephesians 1:17, in the knowledge of God through His words. I’ve heard before that in order to be able to recognize counterfeit bills, one must familiarize themselves with the real thing. God never wants us to follow after the ideas of this world, but often the worldly ideas can make more sense to us if we are filtering things through worldly wisdom and not allowing God’s spirit to give us His understanding.
A few years ago, My husband and I were at a crossroad and needing to make a decision about his resigning from his job of 20 years to pastor full time. I made the comment that there was a fine line between faith and stupidity. According to worldly wisdom, him walking away from a well-paid position to a financially challenged, small church was foolish. But since we committed to operate in godly wisdom through knowing the truth of His promise of provision the decision was easy and the reward was great! Just as the world’s wisdom is foolish to God, the wisdom of God is foolishness to those who don’t believe (1 Corinthians 1:18). But when God is the one leading and we are following Him, His “Peace that passes all understanding will guard our hearts and minds” and give us the faith to step out into the unknown confidently. We so often evaluate the ‘walk of faith’ by the degree of difficulty it is for the ‘step of faith’. The decision will be easy, but the step needs to be difficult so that we will be sure it is the walk that God has called us to.
Quote of the day: Samuel Rutherford
“You shall find it such a burden as sails are to a ship or wings to a bird. I find that my Lord hath over gilded that black tree, and hath perfumed it, and oiled it with joy and gladness”.
Bible verse of the day: Ephesians 1:17
“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.”
Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father,
I pray that the eyes of my heart may be enlightened in order that I may know the hope to which You have called me, the riches of Your glorious inheritance in the saints, and Your incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of Your mighty strength, which You exerted in Christ when You raised Him from the dead and seated Him at Your right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. (Ephesians 1:18-21)
In Jesus Name I pray,
Amen
Bible Verse of the Day 