The Importance of Wisdom

In life, we're faced with a lot of difficult, stressful, and challenging times... Times where we feel like we don't know the answers to certain questions or don't know how to act or what to do... In these times of stress and confusion, we should be praying to God to help us obtain wisdom.

Prov. 4:7 tells us, "Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore, get wisdom. And with all thy getting, get understanding." This scripture first gives us a reminder of the importance of wisdom. It's the "principal" thing. It's vital to our existence. The writer here then tells us that we need to get it. And how do we get wisdom? What can we do? James tells us in James 1:5 "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask it of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to Him." If wisdom is something that we want to have (which it should be), we should be making sure that we're asking God for it. We also gain wisdom and understanding by studying God's word daily - and this is something we all should be doing.

When we consider the affects that our actions and decisions can have on our lives we must practice wise choices. Don't' be neglectful to search the scriptures, communicate with other knowledgeable people and to pray to God for direction that is needed to handle your life situations and circumstances.

Don't Give Up

Today we live in a period of time where it's very easy to give up. People give up on school. People give up on their jobs if they're too difficult or stressful. People give up on their marriages if things aren't going exactly the way they want them to go. And unfortunately, when times get hard, people give up on their faith in God.

People give up their faith because;

1) They forget how important our goal is - to save ourselves from spending eternity in Hell. When we lose sight on how wonderful Heaven is going to be, it's easy to just want to give up. But we have to remember that Heaven is better than anything we could ever imagine - with no pain and no sadness. Paul tells us in Philippians 3 to "Forget the things that are behind and press on to the things that lie ahead."

2) People want to give up because they don't receive enough encouragement from others. As Christians, we need to make sure that we're uplifting our fellow brethren. Hebrews 10 tells us to exhort and encourage one another and Hebrews 3 tells us that we need to do this daily. It's important for us to do this for one another.

3) People want to give up because they forget the teaching of God's word. But we should remind ourselves of scriptures like Phil. 4:13 " I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me..." and 1 Peter 5:7 "Cast all your anxiety upon Him because He cares for you."

On our race to the finish line, it's important for us to NEVER give up.

Our Shepherd

The Lord is our Shepherd and what does the Shepherd do for us?

- God is a Shepherd that gives us comfort. "He makes me to lie down in green pastures." A picture of comfort is painted in this passage. The Shepherd will comfort us in times of trouble and worry.

- God is the Shepherd that calms our soul. "He leads me beside still waters" - This is where we see a sense of calmness in a time of chaos. Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 5:7 to "cast all our care upon Him, because he cares for you."

- God is the Shepherd who restores our soul and our spirit. The world has a way of bringing us down to the ground. - Our Lord will pick us up and restore our spirit in those times.

But why does our God offer us calm and still waters and why does He restore our soul? - Because He wants us to live with Him forever. Because He's a true Shepherd who doesn't want to see any of His sheep go astray.

Let God be your Shepherd.

Things We'll Never Regret

Unfortunately, there are things that we do in this life that we regret. I can sit here and think of quite a few things that I regret doing... But our lives shouldn't be the kind that are full of regret. On the other hand, we should start trying harder to do the kind of things that we KNOW we won't regret.

I've come up with a few things that we'll NEVER regret doing. These are the types of things that we need to be filling our life with - if we do, we'll never have to wonder whether or not we did the right thing.

1) Fill your heart and your mind with the Word of God - it only teaches you righteousness. Psalm 119:11 says, "I have hidden your Word in my heart so that I may not sin against you." If we have God's Word filling our hearts and minds, we'll be less likely to give into sin and we'll never regret that.

2) You'll NEVER regret being present for every church service. Unfortunately, it's very easy to take worship services for granted. Sometimes we say, "I don't necessarily HAVE to go this Wednesday night... I mean, it doesn't really ever say in the bible that I have to worship on a Wednesday..." Hebrews 10:25 tells us, "Let us not give up meeting with one another - as some are in the habit of doing. But let us encourage one another..." Our goal is to get as close to God as we possibly can and church services are a great opportunity for us to have that.

3) Mark 16:16 - We'll never regret taking that major step in our lives of becoming a Christian. We receive so many spiritual blessings when we obey the Gospel and it's something that we'll never regret.

And going along with that...

4) You'll never regret staying faithful until the end. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 15:58 "Be steadfast... knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." Our work is going to pay off one day. And we'll never regret working hard and doing the best we could possibly do.

5) Finally, and quite simply, you'll never ever regret putting God first in your life.

What is our Potential?

What percentage of your spiritual potential would you say that you're using? Would you say you're using 100% of it? 50% of it? Or maybe only 10 or 15 % of it...?

God has made us all to have incredible spiritual potential. Though we may not all be born to be Gospel preachers, He still wants us to evangelize - and He has given us the talents and abilities to do that. But sometimes we get in this habit of saying, "That's not really my job... I'll leave that up to somebody else..." And those are the times we're only displaying 10 or 15 % of our spiritual potential.

Using 100 % of your spiritual potential is to be constantly searching for souls as well as ways you can tell those people about the wonderful Gospel. Using your spiritual potential means participating in worship services, it means visiting those who are sick, it means calling those who are spiritually failing, it means exercising forgiveness when a brother or a stranger wrongs you.

How much potential do you feel you have? How much of that potential do you feel you're using? How can YOU exercise more of it?

Don't let your spiritual potential go to waste. Let's start using it more!

Worrying

"In everything with prayer and supplication, let your requests be known to God..." - Phil 4:6

We could probably all improve our life if we spent less time worrying. Why do we worry in the first place?

- Life is hard and stressful and sometimes bad things CAN happen.

- We can't tell the future - sometimes we get nervous about the things that lie ahead.

- We're not in control, and that makes us worry.

Solution: Matthew 6:25-34. In that passage, Jesus tells us that we shouldn't worry about our life - because our Heavenly Father KNOWS what we need in our life.

There's some things we should keep in mind about worrying that could help us worry less!

1) Recognize that worry accomplishes absolutely nothing. Somebody once said, "Worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair - Lots of energy and you don't GET ANYWHERE!" Proverbs 12:25 tells us, "An anxious heart weighs a man down."

2) Put the first things first. We worry and care too much about the wrong things. - Sometimes it seems like we have our priorities mixed up. We need to be more focused and care about the things that really matter - like God and His kingdom.

3) Substitute worry for trust! We need to trust in God for everything. He's going to take care of everything - we have no need or reason to worry.

It's very easy to get worried about things... but it's not healthy - spiritually or physically. Let's stop worrying so much and focus more on trusting God.

Imitation - The highest form of flattery

A lot of people say imitation is the "highest form of flattery." It's always really fun and entertaining when we see somebody imitate and act like somebody else. I always think about Dan Aykroyd doing his Julia Child impression on Saturday Night Live back in the '70s. He probably spent a lot of time watching and studying her - making sure that the imitation was as close as possible to the real person.

As Christians - we should ALL be practicing an imitation of one person. Spiritually, we're called to imitate our God. Paul says in Eph. 5:1 - "Be imitators of God..."

In order to be imitators of God, there's some things we need to do. First of all, we need to always be showing love - just as Christ showed love. Christ displayed His love to everyone He came in contact with - do we do that same thing?

Secondly, if we're going to be imitators, we've got to learn more. - We have to be STUDENTS of God's word. That means reading and studying it daily. - And not just reading it, but DOING what it says. - Like James says in James 1:22 - "Be Doers of the word, and not hearers only..." If we're going to imitate God, we've got to learn - and do - what His Word says.

And Thirdly, if we're going to be imitators of God, we need to make sure that our behavior is pure. We need to get sin out of our lives. Any sin that we have in our life, is going to keep us from fully imitating Him. - So we need to make sure our hearts are pure.

Imitating God is not just a suggestion - it's a necessity.