October 31 – Wisdom Through Fellowship (Psalm 119: 57-64)

“I am a friend to all who fear you, to all who follow your precepts.”(Psalm 119:63)

IN WORD:
We like to think of our relationship with God as a highly personal matter involving no one but ourselves and Him. But God will not work that way. He calls us into community. The learning that we do must be done in community. The wisdom we acquire is imparted partly through fellowship. The truths we speak are meant to edify others as well as ourselves. Receiving the mind of Christ requires living in the body of Christ.
As we become steeped in the wisdom of God, we will find ourselves in tune with others who are steeped in His wisdom. It is more than a common interest; it is a spiritual bond. To receive His mind is to receive his Spirit, and to receive His Spirit is to have fellowship with one another. Why? Because God has poured out His Spirit on many members of one body. He has distributed His gifts widely so that, if we want to know Him in fullness, we must depend on one another. The Three-in-One is communal, and his people must be people of community. There is no way to be well-rounded in His truths without fellowship.
But that’s a problem for many. Sometimes it’s hard to see Christ in the body of Christ. Seekers are often turned off from God because of the people who represent Him. Though He dwells in us, we often do not let Him dwell visibly. These clearly earthen vessels often hide their treasure within an opaque crust of sin. The mind of God is sometimes obscured.

IN DEED:
Don’t idealize the church. It is made of redeemed but flawed people in a process of transformation. But don’t underestimate it, either. God really dwells there. His wisdom is too great to be completely absorbed by a solitary mind, so He has spread it among many. The body of Christ is the physical presence of Jesus in the world. Do you really want to learn the mind of God? Then we need each other. It is in His Word, written on our hearts, and cultivated in the fellowship of His people.

“Christians are not lone rangers.” -Chuck Colson-

October 30 – Wisdom Through Practice (Psalm 119: 49-56)

“This has been my practice: I obey your precepts.”
(Psalms 119:56)

IN WORD:
An old training program book shows novice swimmers how to swim. It shows pictures of the position of the body in the water, the proper technique for various strokes, the most efficient ways to breathe while maintaining speed, and everything else one would need to know to get in a pool and not drown. But no one ever learned how to swim by simply reading that book. Perhaps its readers obtained the necessary knowledge, but they did not really learn. Some things can only be grasped by experience.
God’s wisdom is one of those things. If speech reinforces the truths He’s given us, practice reinforces them even more. The best way to learn how to do something — really learn it — is to actually do it! Reading or hearing a lesson only involves one of our senses. Putting a lesson into practice involves them all. Obviously, the mind is better trained when it is fed by multiple senses.
James comes down hard on those who are hearers of the Word and not doers of the Word (James 1:22-25). It isn’t just a matter of hypocrisy; it’s a matter of training. It is easy to forget the things our minds have entertained. It is much more difficult to forget the things that our minds have entertained, and our mouths have spoken, and our hands have done. And we want to make forgetfulness difficult. When it comes to the wisdom of God in our hearts, retention is everything.

IN DEED:
The wisdom of God is not theoretical, it is intensely practical. It is not a matter of speculation for religious intellects, it’s a matter of instruction and training for real life situations. If we want God’s wisdom, we must be honest with ourselves and determine that we want it for a purpose. Living it must be our priority.
Do you find a gap between the knowledge you’ve learned from God’s Word and your lifestyle? Are His truths a matter of your mind and not a matter of your heart? Then put them into practice. They will be learned in ways that nothing else can teach us.

“Do good with what you have, or it will do you no good.”
-William Penn-

October 29 – Wisdom Through Words (Psalm 119:9-16)

“With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth.” (Psalm 119:13)

IN WORD:
Experts in memory techniques tell us that if we use a new acquaintance’s name in our conversation, we’ll be more likely to remember it. Students who discuss the subject matter of a class with each other are going to integrate it into their thinking better. Those who have a hard time remembering good jokes are those who never tell them. There is something powerful about uttering newfound knowledge. Speech reinforces thinking.
The principle is written into God’s Word as well. After we’ve prayed for His wisdom, meditated on His truths, and memorized some Scriptures, we may find that the process is furthered by our willingness to speak what we’ve learned. In contemporary Western cultures, the spoken word is a casual thing, a simple, verbal expression of sometimes meaningless thoughts. Not so in the Bible. There is power in the spoken word. When God created, He spoke. When He and His people blessed, they spoke. When people cursed, they spoke. What was said out loud could not be unsaid. It was concrete; its utterance made it so.
That truth should be enough to cause us all to examine our speech. Are we reinforcing negative thoughts and false suppositions when we open our mouths? Or are we reinforcing truth? Do our tongues practice righteousness and praise or discouragement and doubt? We think the mind has complete influence over the mouth, but it is often the other way around. Our own words can train us well.

IN DEED:
When you have learned one of God’s truths in your mind, try speaking it with your mouth. Repeat it loud to yourself. Share it with someone else. Discuss its application with other believers. Let it become a sensory reality rather than an inaudible thought. The likelihood of its remaining a part of your thinking and a part of your character will increase dramatically. Your mouth and your ears will establish what’s in your heart.

“Words, those precious cups of meaning . . .”
-St. Augustine-

October 28 – Wisdom Through Recall (Psalm 119:9-16)

“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”(Psalm 119:11)

IN WORD:
Some Christians carry a Bible with them constantly, but most do not. Even if we did, however, we would not always have immediate access to the right verse for the right occasion. Even in a day of electronic micro-Bibles, on-the-spot research does not always lead to the right word for the moment. We need something more than gadgets and resources. And we need something more than the pages of Scripture at our side. We need them in our hearts.
We have prayed for God to give us His wisdom. We have meditated on His Word. But we want to contemplate it more thoroughly, more constantly, more effectively. We want the wasted moments of our day to be redeemed for spiritual growth. The best way for the Word to be written on our hearts is to learn it — by heart.
Many people associate memorization with learning historical dates or geometric formulas in high school. That was an imposed pressure with a potentially ominous grade pending. The very idea of memorization suffers in that context. But God does not threaten us with an ominous grade, and He does not impose His Word on us against our will. He invites us into it so we will invite it into us. That’s where real blessing is to be found; that’s where we enter into His mind and His thoughts become ours. Memorizing God’s Word is no boring task; it is a powerful tool that will guide us into His will

IN DEED:
When you’ve memorized a variety of Scripture passages, you will find them deeper and more relevant than ever before. When you’re in the midst of a crisis, the Spirit will bring the right word into your situation. When you are tempted, the sacred rebuttal will be on your tongue as it was with Jesus in His wilderness test. When a fellow believer has a deep need, the Spirit will bring up within you a deep word of counsel or hope. The Word of God becomes not a part of your baggage but part of you. It is written on a tablet of flesh, and you are its handiwork.

“I know of no other single practice in the Christian life more rewarding, practically speaking, than memorizing Scripture.”
-Charles Swindoll-

October 27 – Wisdom Through Meditation (Psalm 119:145-152)

“My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises.”(Psalm 119:148)

IN WORD:
Our receiving God’s wisdom begins with prayer, but it does not end there. He has a method in His transformation process, and it requires our full cooperation. We are not passive recipients of His mind; we are active in our pursuit. He offers it, but we must want it. And there is more to wanting than just asking.
We can learn the Word of God through study. But it does not become a part of us until we meditate on it. Lacking that step, we become knowledgeable without becoming wise. There is a profound difference between knowing about God’s will and His ways and actually knowing God’s will and His ways. One leads to an illusion that we’re spiritual when we’re not. The other leads to life.
Churches are full of people who hear the Word of God preached on Sunday and then have forgotten it on Monday. There are many tools to incorporate God’s truths into our lives, but the first, after prayer, is to meditate on it. What does that mean? It means to chew on it, think of what God does with it and why it came from His mouth, how we’ve failed it in our past, and how it might be applied in our everyday lives. The Word of God is not given simply to be admired; it is given to be learned. It is not spoken to make us smart; it is spoken to change us and conform us to the bright image of the living God.

IN DEED:
At all costs, do not passively let the Word of God go in one ear and out the other. Do not read it so casually that it is forgotten the next day or the next hour. There’s power in it! It is a gift that will craft us into the person God wants us to be, the person we were designed to be from the very beginning. That molding process is the greatest earthly fulfillment we can ever experience. And God first begins to answer our prayers for that when we meditate on His truth. Let it soak in, completely and deeply. Let it do its powerful work.

“Meditation is allowing the Holy Spirit to take the written word and apply it as the living word to the inner being.”
-Campbell McAlpine-

October 26 – Wisdom Through Prayer (Psalm 119:169-176)

“Give me understanding according to your word.”
(Psalm 119:169)

IN WORD:
We know that God offers us His mind as one of the many blessings of His salvation. And the promise of His mind is great: It includes His guidance, His counsel, His purposes and plans, and the intricacies of His ways. It is the great storehouse of all of life’s mysteries and the key to all understanding. There is no greater place of knowledge.
But how do we get it? How does the mind of God become ours? How does His wisdom flow from His mind and into our small, distorted thoughts? There is a way, and the first step is prayer.
In an economy of grace, all things come by asking and believing. That is the foremost requirement: to forsake our dependence on all self-effort and ask. God is generous with all things. He has offered His salvation, bestowed His Spirit, and equipped us with his Word. The only thing left is to receive these blessings. And the way to receive — the only way in such a Kingdom — is to ask.
The petitioner who asks God for His wisdom acknowledges the deficiency of his own. There can be no confusion of providence and pride when the gift begins with a humble request. The one who prays that he or she might be saturated with the mind of God has admitted that the mind of a human being is not enough to make it in this world. It is finite and it is fallen. We need more.

IN DEED:
Have you sought God’s guidance? His counsel? His plan? Do more than that. Seek His mind. Ask Him to integrate His thoughts into yours. He has been extravagantly generous with all things to those who approach Him in humility and love. He offers Himself because He made us in His image. We were built for His habitation. Let Him dwell where He wants to.
But be incredibly open to change; His thoughts are much higher than ours. He offers them only to those who want more than a road map. He offers them to those who want HIM — and who will be bold enough to ask.

“What is most necessary for understanding divine things is prayer.” -Origen of Alexandria-

October 25 – A Rogue Ruler (2 Timothy 3:10-15)

“Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”(2 Timothy 3:12)

IN WORD:
Satan rules a rogue nation in one small corner of God’s cosmos. But to us, it’s not a faraway corner; we were born in it. It is exceedingly relevant to our lives. It affects us every day, constraining our choices and influencing our personalities. We were born as its citizens, destined to die when it is overthrown. But we have found a way of escape: We can flee as refugees into the safe asylum of Jesus. His Kingdom will grant us protection.
Paul tells Timothy that everyone — no exceptions — who wants to live a godly life will face persecution. This is one of God’s promises we rarely claim by faith, but it is certain anyway. It’s a solid guarantee: We will be harassed within our born-again hearts and harassed on the outside by a campaign of misinformation and even physical threats. Temptations aim to dissuade us from our holy calling, and people try to convince us that we need to conform to their wishes and their corrupt world. The battle wasn’t over the day we placed our faith in Jesus. It had only just begun.
Evil doesn’t die without a fight, and sometimes the fight can be really nasty. Satan’s tactics aren’t fair; lawlessness is one of his core attributes. We might as well get used to his attempts to hit us below the belt. We cannot turn a blind eye to his tactics. The only sure way to resist them is to be aware of them. Our awareness will turn us to the refuge of Jesus at exactly the right times.

IN DEED:
Do you wonder why you struggle? Are you disheartened because you thought the Christian life was easier than this? Avoid such illusions. You’re in a war. Maybe you didn’t realize that when you joined the Kingdom, but you will have to realize it now.
The good news is that the only harm that can come to you in this battle is temporary, and the only victory Satan can win is psychological. Real victory, lasting victory, is certain. It is our inheritance. Do not be disheartened. Stand firm. The day of triumph is coming.

“The Christian life is not a playground; it is a battleground.”
-Warren Wiersbe-

October 24 – Pure Joy (James 1:2-4)

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.”(James 1:2)

IN WORD:
What rational person would consider the trials of life pure joy? Only those who can see the surprising benefit in them. Through the lens of Scripture, we can see that benefit. We are told that our trials develop our character in ways that will produce eternal profit for us; and we are told that the God who allows them always has our welfare in mind. These are things that an unbelieving world cannot see, but they have been revealed to those who will believe.
The book of Acts is an amazing chronicle of the early church. In Acts 5, the apostles who were arrested for preaching Jesus, left the court of the Sanhedrin “rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name” (v. 41). Then in Acts 16, Paul & Silas sang praises to God from the depths of a filthy Philippian prison. What kind of mind reacts to trials in this way? According to the world, an irrational one. But according to Scripture, only a mind grounded in the truths of the gospel can recognize the glorious realities behind our temporary problems.
Though James points to the benefit our trials have for our own character, we know that there is an even greater blessing in them. Jesus revealed in us. His power is made manifest in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9-10), and participating in His sufferings lets us participate in His resurrection (Philippians 3:10). Not only is our character sharpened in painful processes, the resurrection of Jesus is displayed in the crosses we bear. Such trials are worth rejoicing about.

IN DEED:
Are you going through difficult times? Don’t despair. Discouragement and depression are not the biblical responses, only the natural ones. But we live above the natural because the lens of holy Scripture lets us see beyond the natural. We know the end result of our pain. Perseverance results in maturity, and problems give Jesus a stage to show His resurrection power. There is no greater blessing than that. Consider it pure joy!

“More crucifixion, more resurrection. The more we suffer, the more we are drawn to Christ and His power.”
-A Persecuted Christian in Nepal-

October 23 – Perspective (Psalm 8)

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers . . .”
(Psalm 8:3)

IN WORD:
If there’s anything our generation lacks in wisdom, it’s perspective. Sin has always distorted our thoughts, making us larger than we ought to be and making God smaller than He is. As a result, our problems seem bigger than God, our plans seem better than his will, and our faulty logic makes more sense to us than His infallible Word.
What can correct us? What can bring us back into the right perspective? This psalm offers a good approach. All it takes is for us to consider the way things really are. Consider the vastness of God’s work. Consider the frailty of our flesh. When we see ourselves relative to God, we, along with David in this psalm, are amazed that God is even mindful of us. Such a perspective reminds us constantly of grace: that we are made by grace, saved by grace, sustained by grace, and completely dependent on grace. The majesty of God’s name and the glory and honor with which He has crowned His fallen creatures are mind-boggling. What a merciful condescension! The infinite, almighty, eternal God — the One who holds vast universes in the palm of His hand — has cared for pitifully small, broken human beings. He has even crowned us with honor. What a staggering contrast of proportions! A glimpse of it will deepen our perspective.
Understanding the vastness of God and the finiteness of humanity brings us back to sanity. Our problems become smaller than God, our plans bow to His will, and our faulty logic submits to His Word. Order is restored.

IN DEED:
Has your perspective become distorted? Do your problems seem huge and your God small? Do you prefer your plans over His will and His Word? Spend some time “considering.” Contemplate His handiwork. Know your place in His creation. Observe the contrast between the majesty of the Almighty and the neediness of the weak. See the marvels of His grace. Let yourself be trained in such thoughts. Let God shape your perspective.

“We seem to have lost the vision of the majesty of God.”
-John Stott-

October 22 – Praying God’s Mind (James 1:5-8)

“You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
(John 14:14)

IN WORD:
One of the most emphatic promises from Jesus to His disciples is the promise that the Father will give them whatever they ask in His name. It is profoundly encouraging to believe that promise, but truly bewildering not to see it answered. We know the usual warnings given about such prayers: They must be according to His will, we must ask in faith, we must not harbor sin or bitterness in our hearts, we cannot pray selfishly, etc. Still, we wonder why we don’t always receive what we’ve asked for, even when, as far as we can tell, we’ve met all the prior conditions.
James gives a prayer to pray that should come before all our other prayers. It is a prayer for wisdom (James 1:5). We can ask God to put His thoughts into our minds and His will into our hearts. We are not asking for Him simply to point the way; we are asking for Him to infuse His way into the very depths of our souls. We are asking for His Spirit to direct us from within. We are praying to receive his mind as our own.
Most assuredly, this is an answerable prayer. God waits with anticipation for us to ask it. He encourages it and appeals for it, calling us into it repeatedly. He doesn’t just want to pass on His information to us; He wants to fill us with Himself. Then our desires become His, His plans are written into our dreams, and He lives the life of His Spirit in the body of our flesh. It’s a powerful communion, amazing in its mercy.

IN DEED:
Do you pray with reservations, wondering if you are hitting or missing God’s mark, holding your breath and crossing your fingers for His answer? It doesn’t need to be that’s way. Ask for His wisdom. Pray for His thoughts. Look for a drastic revision to your character and your dreams, and then pray the desires of the new you. No, asking for His thoughts does not mean to grasp the next whim that enters your mind — He may not have put it there. But over time, you will see within yourself a blessed conformity to His purposes. Then you will know how to pray.

“Prayer is none other but the revelation of the will or mind of God.” -John Saltmarsh-