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. 11 HR AGO

    Will you yield the wait to God’s timing?

    One Sunday my husband, Jim, was preaching a sermon on patience and I was teaching my Sunday School lesson on the topic of grace. He and I laughed about that and decided we should both be calling in sick! Jim has a lot of grace, but neither of us is very good at waiting. In fact, few people are.  Waiting on the Lord is the most difficult wait of all. I’ve rarely known God to hurry things along. As I’ve often said, “Waiting is often the most important part of God’s answer.”  When you have been waiting on God for something you know would be his will to answer, be encouraged. One of the best ways to recognize the hand of God is at work is the wait. We need to become spiritually patient because that is a great strength in our lives. It shouts to the world, “I trust God’s plan and I’m willing to wait for it.” Waiting gives us the chance and the inclination to seek after God and his thoughts. The more we learn about God in his word, the more likely we are to trust his perfection. The psalmist could have said, “Enjoy the wait because you will grow stronger and your heart will be encouraged by all you learn during that time.” Even as I consider my own words, I realize explaining God’s word is much easier than following God’s word in my own life. We are human beings and we want what we want as soon as we want it. God often makes us wait until we are willing to want what he wants and wait for his work in our lives. Yielding to God is spiritual wisdom. Yielding to the wait of God’s perfect timing is wise. His solution is about our salvation, our eternal reward, and quite possibly about the eternal lives of others as well. Wanting his answers makes it well worth our wait.

    3 min

  2. 1 DAY AGO

    Will you yield your fears to his promises?

    I decided to create Wisdom Matters because so many people I knew ended their day with the evening news and then struggled to fall asleep. There is increased anxiety and worry among God’s people and a sense that God’s family is moving in some wrong directions. Christians don’t need to worry, but we do need to seek God and his wisdom. Jesus told his disciples, “You will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately” (Matthew 24:6 NLT). When Jesus said “don’t panic,” his words were in the form of a command. In other words, panic is not our option.  Every generation has wars. Every generation has worries and concerns. Every network does its best to sensationalize the news these days because simply reporting the facts will send most of its viewers to a different network.  Wisdom Matters is intended to bring biblical truth that will transcend the thoughts and opinions created by the world’s news. In the end, we have the certainty of our salvation. We therefore live each day with the confidence that whatever our earthly lives hand us, we have nothing to fear. Jesus didn’t tell us to try to be brave. Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid.” The psalmist said, “The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid.” The most important word in that verse is the two-letter word my. A stronghold is a fort, providing walls of protection. The psalmist was saying, “If I run to God and take refuge in him, I will have nothing to fear.” God cannot be our refuge or stronghold until we run to him and give him that place in our lives.  If you have ever watched a toddler become frightened, you have watched them run as quickly as they can to the person they most trust to keep them safe. The parent, grandparent, or caregiver scoops them up and speaks quietly in their ear, “It’s okay. You are safe with me.” Compared to God, you and I aren’t even toddlers! The illustration is still true. Our Abba, Father, is present and ready to protect all who will run to him. We have been commanded, “Do not panic, do not be afraid.” The only way not to break those commands is to know and trust the One you can run to at any time.  Of whom are you afraid? Don’t be. Run to God and rest in his perfect, protective love. When God said not to panic, he wasn’t making a suggestion for your spiritual life; he was giving you a command. Yielding to God is spiritual wisdom. He is your stronghold, your fortress, and it is wise to live there.

    4 min

  3. 2 DAYS AGO

    Will you yield the fighting to God?

    Moses was teaching the Israelites how to go into battle whenever it became necessary. He taught the people not to fear, panic, or be in dread of their enemies. Moses taught them to allow the Lord to “go with them” and that God would fight for them and give them the victory. The most important lesson Christians can learn from Scripture about controversies, battles, warfare, and even the daily irritations we might find ourselves in is this: The battle is the Lord’s. We don’t know what to say or do until we ask God for his wisdom and direction.  Making Jesus our Savior was an easy choice. Allowing him to be the Lord of our lives is much more difficult. We can experience joyful peace when we remember that the battle is not ours to fight. The Lord has basically said, “Hop off my throne and allow me to handle this in a way that is best for everyone.” God always has a kingdom purpose as his goal. He doesn’t just want to fix the problem today; his plan likely includes the best fix for our eternal lives as well. Our battles are simply opportunities to step into his strength and surrender our own. There might be consequences to our earthly lives that are actually blessings for our eternal lives. The Bible teaches us that “iron sharpens iron” (Proverbs 27:17). God allows many of our struggles in life because they provide a way for us to strengthen and hone our faith and receive his favor and blessings as our reward.  God wants us to be strong and he wants to bless us for our choices. The greatest victories in our earthly lives will have heavenly rewards. Who or what do you need to surrender to the Lord and allow him to fight for you? Don’t panic, dread, or fear when an enemy comes against you. Just “tell God on them” and hear him say, “We’ve got this.” God has promised victory to those who allow him to own the fight. The best way to know God has fought the battle is that the outcome turns out to be a spiritual blessing for all involved.  We have a wise and powerful God. Yielding to God’s wisdom is spiritual strength. Allowing him to fight with us and for us is our hope of victory.

    3 min

  4. 3 DAYS 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

  5. 4 DAYS 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

  6. 5 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

  7. 6 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

  8. 14 MAY

    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
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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
    358
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Foundations
  • Show Website
    Wisdom Matters

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