MIF 17:3 (May-June 1985)
Divine Wisdom
We also … do not cease to pray to you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Colossians 1:9).
While the active mind never really stops learning, June is the month that marks for most a pause in the pursuit of formal education and, of course, we refer in particular to our young people. However, secular knowledge does not come equipped with wisdom, the ingredient that makes knowledge useful in facing the problems and responsibilities of life. The only true source of such wisdom is God through His Word. He invites us to seek His wisdom, and we honor Him in so doing.
The first in the list of gifts ministered to God’s people through the Holy Spirit is wisdom, by which we obtain spiritual insight and understanding (1 Corinthians 12:8). This includes sanctified common sense, discernment, and divine guidance in choosing between right and wrong. The theme of the book of Proverbs is man’s need for divine wisdom and how it may be acquired.
In James 1:5 we find teaching regarding divine wisdom. “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (NIV). There are no restrictions on who may thus obtain wisdom, nor on the measure to which it is available, coming from the inexhaustible source of all wisdom — God Himself. We need only acknowledge our need of it and He will supply it. The wisdom thus granted is pure, gentle, peaceable, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, impartial and sincere (James 3:17).
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10).
—Arthur F. Wilder