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-