Wisdom Matters

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Welcome to Wisdom Matters, the chance to reflect on a Bible verse or two each day for the purpose of living and thinking biblically. Wisdom is a gift from God that enables us to know how to filter and use all we learn for God’s higher purpose. I hope you will join me for Wisdom Matters.

  1. 19 MIN AGO

    Do you stand firm in faithful service to your King?

    This verse always reminds me of the guards standing outside Buckingham Palace. They are known for their uniforms, those tall hats, and for remaining focused and immovable for their entire shift at their post. The tourists do some crazy things trying to draw their attention, to no avail. Those guards are an image for our Christian faith. Paul told the Corinthian believers to be “watchful.” Corinth was a rough, ungodly city in Roman culture. The first-century Christians were very different from most people in the city, and they were carefully and curiously watched. The church in Corinth became one of the most influential churches of the first century.  Paul closed his letter to the church in Corinth by telling the members to pay attention to their witness inside the church as well as out among the culture. Their job was to “stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.”  Christians are supposed to be like those guards in front of Buckingham Palace. We aren’t supposed to look like the rest of the crowd, and we aren’t supposed to act like them either. We have a job to do because we are enlisted in the King’s service. We stand our post when we stand firm in our faith. There is no reason to waffle about because of different opinions. We don’t have to tolerate or accept what the Bible defines as sin. We don’t have to weaken our faith to make it acceptable to others. We are called to stand firm and serve our King. We are to be strong, steady, dependable, convinced, mature, and confident in our faith. That witness greatly impacted the decadent, sinful city of Corinth in the first century, and that same witness will impact our culture today. How would you describe your witness to others? Chances are, most people know you are a Christian and they know what Christians believe. We speak our loudest sermons sometimes by using no words. We simply take our post, stand firm, and remain focused on whom we are serving. The “tourists” can jump around and act crazy, but we are immovable, certain of the truth. Those guards at Buckingham Palace serve an earthly monarch. Christians serve a heavenly King. Yielding to God’s wisdom is spiritual strength. His strength and our dedication to serve will provide an influential witness to those who are watching. Are you willing to yield your life to faithful service of the King?

    4 min

  2. 1 DAY AGO

    Are you desperate for the Lord’s strength?

    You have probably heard that “there are no atheists in foxholes.” Most of us can remember a circumstance when we prayed with passion and desperation. “Foxhole prayers” are important, and we can know that God hears every heartfelt word we utter. We can also know that God’s answers are not always what we wanted or asked him to give. Often in a crisis time, we look for verses from the Bible that will provide the answers we need. God gave us his word for a reason. He knew we would need to reach for his voice and hear it as we read. The author of Chronicles had a different solution. People didn’t have Bibles sitting on a shelf in their homes or accessible through technology. In the Old Testament, the Spirit was present but didn’t indwell a believer’s life. In 1 Chronicles 16:11, we are instructed to “seek the Lᴏʀᴅ and his strength; seek his presence continually.” The Hebrew word for seek meant to search for something of value or importance. Think of how you would look for a treasured object like a lost wedding ring or an important key. That is the way we have been told to seek the Lord and his strength.  Our search for God and his strength is not just because we have a casual appreciation for his companionship. We are taught to seek him because there is no other option or substitution for his presence in our lives. We desperately need God’s direction and power in our lives.  And we are to seek his presence continually. When the Apostle Paul taught us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:16), he was teaching the same truth found in the Old Testament truth of 1 Chronicles. God is faithful to be present in our lives when we seek him. He is our patient, holy Father and will most often wait to show his Presence until he is invited. If we don’t seek God's presence continually, we cannot yield each moment to his wisdom, and yielding to God’s wisdom is spiritual strength. Seek—chase after—the Lord and you will find his presence and his strength.

    3 min

  3. 2 DAYS AGO

    Will you yield your temptations to God?

    The more we focus on God and live in his truth, the less we will struggle with the temptations of this world. Also true is that as long as we are in this world, we will never be able to live without the temptation to sin. The Apostle Paul wrote, “God is faithful and he will provide a way of escape,” but he also wrote in his letter to the Romans, “I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep doing” (Romans 7:18–19). If the Apostle Paul struggled with his sins, we should expect to struggle too. We want to be consistently faithful to God, but we can also know that consistency will always be difficult to achieve. Thankfully, we have a perfect, loving Father who, as Paul said, “is faithful” to us. God does not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability and always provides a way for us to stand strong in the temptation and escape the sin. Paul knew that God provided him with the spiritual strength he needed, even when he didn’t live with that strength as he should.  There are moments we are tempted to set aside our faith in order to fully enjoy a pleasure the world offers. Later, those moments have passed and we are left with words we wish we hadn’t spoken, people we wish we hadn’t hurt, and a witness we wish was more intact. We had a good time, for a moment, but we know that we “set aside our faith” for the sake of something less important. Why do those moments happen in the life of every Christian? Paul told us we had a way of escape and that we wouldn’t be tempted beyond what we could endure. Yet we were tempted, and we did not escape our own choices.  The Holy Spirit is a one-time addition to our lives, but being led by the Holy Spirit is a moment-to-moment choice. The Spirit of Christ is constantly speaking his thoughts into our day, but, as with any conversation, it is up to us to listen and then act on the words we hear. Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). We shouldn’t expect to live in this world temptation free. Even Jesus was tempted in every way. Jesus was the only sinless person who will ever exist. Our failures are inevitable, and God redeems those times by helping us find our way out of those weaknesses and giving us the strength to endure and overcome them the next time.  Our earthly spiritual lives are not about perfection; they are about growth. Our heavenly lives will be our perfect reward. Until then we remember: yielding to God’s wisdom is spiritual strength. Whenever we are tempted, we can choose to yield those moments to God and he will lead us through the temptation to a greater reward.

    4 min

  4. 3 DAYS AGO

    Do you yield your praise to God?

    Have you ever spent an entire day alone and separated from the noisy world, simply for the purpose of meditating on God’s reality and then praising God for the specific ways he has led and preserved your life? The magnitude of listing his blessings in our lives is endless, which oftentimes keeps us from ever making it. Moses was praising God for bringing his people across the Red Sea on dry land and giving the people triumph over Pharoah and their enemies who were pursuing them. All of God’s people, especially Moses, understood that their triumph was the direct result of God’s miraculous provision. Moses had spoken for God, and the Pharaoh had been told Jehovah was the source of each plague. Moses had followed God’s calling to confront Pharaoh and lead his people from captivity. When they stood on the shore of the Red Sea, the waters parted, making a path for the freed slaves, and then the waters ceased parting and the Egyptian army was killed. Moses knew all that God had done and praised him, saying, “The Lᴏʀᴅ is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” We often remember to praise God for the “big” victories in our lives. But some of our most important victories can often go unnoticed. The world’s coincidences are often God’s doing. Near misses are often an angel’s work in our lives. God has never stopped “parting the seas” that his children face. That said, God doesn’t always part the sea; sometimes he just swims the waters alongside us. Everything God does in our lives is worthy of his praise. All that God does or allows is within his character and can be seen as his direct work and will. We were taught to pray, “Thy will be done,” but are we careful to notice his answers to that prayer and give him our praise? Like Moses we can say, “The Lᴏʀᴅ is my strength and my song.” God is the reason Christians can live with the confidence of our eternal salvation in Christ. We can praise God at any time for the hope that is ours, now and always.  We often congratulate or praise people for their personal achievements. How would your day be different tomorrow if you filled it with praise to your God for the immeasurable blessings he has provided in your life?  Praising others is usually good. Yielding our highest praise to God is always good. Yielding to God’s wisdom is spiritual strength. Yielding our time and our praise to the One who is most deserving is wise.

    4 min

  5. 4 DAYS AGO

    Are you willing to yield your life to God?

    There is a large yield sign at our exit on the tollway. We are always pleasantly surprised when drivers actually stop to allow us off the ramp and into the lane ahead of them. Yielding is not something most people are naturally inclined to do. Yet Scripture teaches us that yielding is one of the most important aspects of our spiritual strength. God told his people if you will stop and allow me to be first, if you will come back to me and rest yourself in my Presence, I can save you from all kinds of mistakes and hardships. God told them our earthly life shouldn’t be about working harder, doing more, and striving to be more successful with earthly things. The Lord taught them that if they would just be still, to listen and wait for him to lead, then they would be spiritually strong and truly successful in the things that matter most.  God told his people that he could bless their lives if they would just obey his teaching, and then he voiced some of the most convicting words in all of Scripture. God said, “But you were unwilling.” Have you ever wondered why it’s difficult to yield our schedules and our plans in order to spend time focused on the Lord? Satan would rather you hurry through your life doing one hundred good things than take the quiet time necessary to hear and obey the God-things that will change your life, and likely the lives of others.  It will probably always be a difficult choice to rest in the Lord and remain there long enough for him to strengthen our lives and direct our paths. Satan wants us to remain self-sufficient instead of God-dependent. Satan isn’t threatened by our good success in the world; he is threatened by those moments we walk in God’s plan and find spiritual success in our lives and ministries. Are you willing to take the time to rest in the Lord and allow the world to rush past? Is there a place where you know you can spend quiet time with God, uninterrupted by anyone but the Holy Spirit?  The question is, are you willing to yield your good ideas and your own plans in order to wait for God’s perfect guidance? Rest in God and you will be saved from making wrong choices. Rest in God and trust his direction because yielding to God’s wisdom is spiritual strength.

    4 min

  6. 5 DAYS AGO

    Why is yielding to God’s Spirit necessary?

    It’s been said that the Holy Spirit has a strange affinity for the trained mind. But it is easy for people to think that because they know a lot about God, they know God. We need only remember the Pharisees and Sadducees to know the truth. God stood next to them, they heard him teach, they saw him do miracles, and yet they didn’t recognize his Presence in the man named Jesus. Spiritual wisdom is a gift from God. Spiritual service is not accomplished with human strength. Spiritual strength isn’t measured by how much knowledge we have acquired about God; it is measured by how well God can use all that knowledge we have acquired. That’s what the Lord was telling Zerubbabel, a king of Judah. Zerubbabel was tasked with building a temple in Jerusalem. The people had returned from the Babylonian captivity and they needed a place to worship. Zerubbabel was overwhelmed with trying to build even a simple structure, let alone something that compared to the temple Solomon had constructed. Have you ever felt overwhelmed by a calling from God? Have you faced a trial or tragedy that seemed too difficult to overcome? Maybe there was a time when the effort of remaining faithful to God seemed too costly in a culture that doesn’t believe he matters. God did not give us his Holy Spirit as a favor. God’s Spirit indwells Christians because he is a necessity to our spiritual lives. God’s word to King Zerubbabel remains his word today. The Lord spoke to the king, saying, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit.”  The king wasn’t going to build a temple because of his great wealth or powerful abilities. The temple would be built because God’s Spirit would provide all that was needed. God’s Spirit would inspire the people to work, give, and serve. God’s Spirit would inspire the king’s leadership and protect the people from their enemies. The temple was God’s idea; therefore, God’s Spirit was essential for every aspect of its construction. We don’t accomplish great things for God in our strength or because of our training. We accomplish great things for God when we allow the Spirit to be powerful through us.  Yielding to God’s wisdom is spiritual strength. We cannot be strong in the Lord until we yield to his Holy Spirit.

    3 min

  7. 6 DAYS AGO

    Why is it wise to stay spiritually strong?

    All of us realize our human bodies need to rest. God created us to work and created us to sleep. God also created us to enjoy our lives and to enjoy our God. We need time with God just as much as we need time to sleep. It’s good to be strong physically, but it’s crucial we stay strong spiritually. Isaiah made the point that even young people grow tired physically. Then he described the strength that only God can give. He said, “They who wait for the Lᴏʀᴅ shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles.” We should hear Isaiah’s words with Isaiah’s perspective. Picture the prophet as a young boy, watching an eagle soar above the earth and imagining what it would be like to do that himself.  Christians today can sit in an airplane and arrive in a completely different country. We can travel in cars to faraway cities. We grow weary of waiting in security lines, or we hop out of our cars, weary of driving. Isaiah and the people of his day couldn’t imagine the lives we lead today. Yet we have one thing in common: every human being, of every era of history, has needed the strength of God for their circumstances in life. Isaiah was telling the people that God could give them the strength they could never have had otherwise. He said, “They shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Spiritual strength is the strength only God can provide. Physically, we can train our bodies to run a marathon, but no one can run two marathons in a row without rest. That is true spiritually as well. Every day requires water, food, exercise, and rest for our physical needs. Every day requires spiritual filling as well. Only God can renew our spiritual strength, and he does so as we spend time with him.  Are you willing to seek the Lord’s wisdom and wait for the Lord’s spiritual strength each day? We don’t have the strength to run a marathon unless we train for it. Neither do we have the spiritual strength for tomorrow unless we wait on the Lord to provide it. God’s strength is renewed in us when we wait for it. Waiting for God’s strength each day is wisdom, and it is also the ability to soar through our lives on wings like eagles. Flying is usually easier than driving. Driving is easier than walking. Living with God’s strength is easier when we wait for him to provide it. Yielding to God’s wisdom is spiritual strength. Wait for it and you can find the strength to fly like an eagle through the day ahead.

    4 min

  8. 11 MAY

    Why should God’s wisdom transcend human logic?

    God’s wisdom transcends human reasoning. Jesus told his disciples that a true leader is a person who serves. He said the greatest person in the group was actually the one who made himself the least. His statements stand opposed to human logic, yet we know his words are perfect truth. Jesus didn’t choose the trained church leaders of his day to become his disciples; instead, he chose faithful men who knew how to run a fishing business. He chose a tax collector who wanted to be right with God. Jesus even chose a man who would one day betray him. The wisdom of Christ teaches us to value people for the strength of their faith more than their abilities. The wisdom of Christ reveals the importance of knowing and faithfully choosing God’s leadership, even when it might seem illogical to others. Logic should have led Jesus to choose the men who had dedicated themselves to studying the scrolls of God’s word. It would make sense that the Pharisees and Sadducees would be the most logical men to recognize and understand Christ’s life as the fulfillment of the numerous messianic prophecies of Scripture. Yet, it was the men who were Jesus’ most logical choice to be disciples who would later shout “Crucify him!” and call for their Messiah’s death. People today often fall into the same mistake of following human logic instead of following the Spirit’s wisdom. God told Moses to part the Red Sea and lead the Israelites to step off the shore and cross to the other side. God told Joshua to lead the people into the promised land by crossing the Jordan River—at flood stage. Jesus told his disciples that greatness in heaven would be found by clawing their way to the bottom. Scripture doesn’t exist to strengthen our logic; it exists to strengthen our faith in God’s power and wisdom. Why does God insist on working in ways that seem to contradict logic?  If Moses and the people had been able to cross the Red Sea on a boat, would his enemies have been slain? If Joshua had waited until the Jordan River was shallow, would his enemies in Jericho have hidden within the city walls, fearful of Joshua’s God? If Jesus had picked the Pharisees and Sadducees, would they have wanted to listen to his teaching or debate their own thoughts and ideas? God has an affinity for people who humbly consider themselves the least. God often calls people to lead who will understand their need to follow. That’s why Jesus said, “Let the greatest among you become as the youngest” and the “leader as one who serves.” Remember, David was the youngest of all the brothers, yet he was the one chosen by God to become the king. Until we yield to God’s wisdom, all we have is human knowledge and human strength. God’s ways are not our ways. They are higher and holier. Spiritually, we will be much stronger when we trust that spiritual truth should always give direction to our human logic. Yielding to God’s wisdom is spiritual strength. It is perfectly logical to yield to the wisdom of our perfect God.

    5 min
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About

Welcome to Wisdom Matters, the chance to reflect on a Bible verse or two each day for the purpose of living and thinking biblically. Wisdom is a gift from God that enables us to know how to filter and use all we learn for God’s higher purpose. I hope you will join me for Wisdom Matters.

Information

  • Channel
    Denison Forum
  • Creator
    Foundations with Janet Denison
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    357
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Foundations
  • Show Website
    Wisdom Matters

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