God's Wisdom: Don't be your own worse enemy

Excerpts from my book: "The Politics of Prayer Daily Devotional"

WISDOM

Truth, knowledge, and wisdom are only effective when put into action. Luke 2:52 states Jesus increased in wisdom, stature, and in favor with God and man. Wisdom was his intellectual growth, stature was his physical growth, favor with God was his spiritual growth, and favor with man was his social development. Wisdom was a major part of Jesus’ life and should be a part of every Christian’s life as well.
It takes wisdom to pray for our leaders and ourselves. It takes wisdom to make the right choices when engaging political issues. When making choices on political issues we may ask ourselves:
1. Does it help my witness for God?
2. Am I motivated by a desire to help others to know Christ?
3. Is it against a specific command in Scripture and would thus cause me to sin?
4. Is it the best and most beneficial course of action?
5. Am I thinking only of myself, or do I truly care about the other person?
6. Am I acting lovingly or selfishly?
7. Does it glorify God?
8. Will it cause someone else to sin?

WISDOM QUOTES
“A wise old owl sat on an oak: The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard; Why aren’t we like that wise old bird?”

“The highest form of wisdom is kindness.”
The Talmud

“Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it.”
David Starr Jordon

“A man only becomes wise when he begins to calculate the approximate depth of his ignorance.”
Gian Carlo Menotti

“We must become the change we want to see.”
Mahatma Gandhi

“Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.”
Kahlil Gibran

“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.”
Cicero

“One of the greatest pieces of economic wisdom is to know what you do not know.”
John Kenneth Gilbraith

“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”
William James

“The truest greatness lies in being kind, the truest wisdom is a happy mind.”
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.”
Immanuel Kant

“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”
Mohandas K. Gandhi

“Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.”
Norman Cousins

“Patience is the companion of wisdom.”
Saint Augustine

“The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to question, and by seeking we may come upon truth.”
Pierre Abelard

“I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.”
Thomas Jefferson

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
Abraham Lincoln

“By three methods we may learn wisdom; first, by reflection, which is noblest, second, by imitation, which is easiest, and third; by experience, which is the most bitter.”
Confucius

“A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows public opinion.”
Chinese Proverbs

SOLOMON
“As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father, David saying; ”You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel” (I Kings 9:4-5).

Solomon should have been a man to be envied. He was the first king to sit on the throne of a kingdom at peace, he had been given divine wisdom by God, he built a temple for God (a center of Jewish religion), and he was richer and more prosperous than any king in any surrounding nation. This should have been enough for the man who had it all, but it wasn’t.

Solomon’s downfall came from within the walls of his home; his many wives and their many pagan religions. He married 700 hundred women for political reasons and consorted with 300 concubines (I Kings 11:3). Solomon, in his old age, began to do as his wives did and worshipped pagan gods and built high places of worship for those pagan gods. For Solomon’s sin, God said he would take the kingdom from the hands of his son; all but one tribe would he leave for his son for the sake of his father David.

The lesson to be learned is to be mindful of our associations and how we conduct our private lives. Solomon was his own worst enemy in a time of success and grandeur, he destroyed himself. It is easier to blame our problems on government or others, but we must also look at ourselves.

REFLECTION
I encourage you to incorporate prayer for your leaders into your daily prayers asking God to give them wisdom to lead. Wisdom goes beyond just knowledge; it encompasses the ability to make the right choice at the right time. Wisdom is only effective when put into action. Pray that your leaders, as well as yourself, will have the ability to know what is right and to do what is right.

PRAYER LIST FOR THOSE WHO NEED WISDOM