Wisdom is useless without application
October 12, 2011
Today the Holy Spirit is just moving in me. I believe it is because of many factors, but mainly the physical and financial challenges that we are facing right now definitely have me on my knees more than any other time this past year. Jon is working on his thesis for graduation in December. On top of that, he works all of the football games and has had events even during the week where he has had to work late. We feel like we never see each other. I do not know how single mothers make it. On top of his schedule, I have been given several amazing opportunities to build Ripple Of One, Aflac, and UMG...but opportunity brings hardship as it takes hard work to make things happen. Self-employment is such an adrenaline rush but at the same time you do definitely work way more hours. But I also get to stay home with James and sleep in and have my coffee on the porch in the mornings with no pressure :) All of this background is important, because what I feel led to share today is this: Apart from God's wisdom we can do nothing. And anything we do without wisdom from Him and His word is in vein regardless of how successfully man may measure it.
Today I turned to Kings 3:12 and read about the wisdom of Solomon. The story in Chapter 3 tells of a dispute between two mothers. Both birthed a son, but one mother's son died in the night as she was holding him and he suffocated ("she laid on him" is what scripture says). The grieving mother grabbed the other living son in the night and put the dead child in the other unsuspecting mother's arms while she slept. When the guiltless mother awoke, she knew the dead child was not the son she gave birth to. The dispute reached the King. we see in verse 3:27 that King Solomon discerns with strength which lady is the acutal mother of the living son and resolves the dispute.
I take away from this so much. First, when we are fully seeking His plan, we are given wisdom and clarity on life's decisions that can take our lives from simply living to developing a sanctified legacy. I believe God wants us to use His word as a lamp to our feet, but with each step have the ability to move forward with the same wisdom and clarity that King Solomon demonstrated.
We also learn by his journey that the wise and understanding heart he was given was not applied in all areas of his life (Nehemiah 3:26). His journey shows us why God commands us and requires us to give him ALL of our mind, heart, soul and strength. All of us means all areas of our life. Wisdom from God is available to us, but useless if we do not apply it. One of the prayers that I pray daily as I seek to receive God's wisdom, is for me recognize every available opportunity to build His kingdom and that I do not miss a person or a blessing that He has designed and ordained for the order of my day. I can tell you that He has answered in ways that are hard to express in words, and too numerous to even keep track of, but even harder to comprehend. He has connected me with complete strangers whom are now some of my best clients and closest friends. He put people right in front of me that needed prayer and to see that following Him is the real deal. He used circumstances that often were confusing or not so fun to weave together a tapestry for Ripple of One, Aflac, and UMG to build fabulous networks of individuals that are seeing the power of what God can do when we get out of his way. For example, in less than one year, He brought together one by one more than 20 passionate volunteers to serve as mentors for our families. God's wisdom enabled a team of just three people to build a strong training program for our mentors that is the framework for our family success model that makes the Ripple program unique. Recently, His wisdom inspired a new business opportunity with one of my friends business partners. Through prayer and meetings that lasted hours, we both heard from the Lord that this is part of His design for us both. One step at a time we started planning. 3 Weeks ago through prayer we identified a primary need for a very sophisticated database programmer. This opportunity was not for an amateur. We both said that it was going to take months to fill this need because no one was going to be interested in doing this project for free. But we both looked at each other and said, but God can make this happen! He is bigger than this need. And we pushed forward. We prayed specifically for the IT resources and support. In less than one week, I got a call from a Ripple of One volunteer that was sharing part of this project with another peer. They mentioned a guy to him that may want to help out. Long story short, the three of us met. I shared part of the business model with him and this guy turns out to be the owner of an IT database programming company. He volunteered his staff, resources, and time to create and execute this database until we are profitable and can take ownership of the support. I almost fell out of my chair. Prayers for wisdom followed by getting in His word daily and applying His word to our lives = answered prayers.
I think back to the dispute King Solomon dealt with. Just as sure as we are about being mothers, and bearing our own children and calling them our own, so should we be as sure and certain about the steps we take in other areas of our life. Receiving wisdom is powerless without application - and that needs to happen with fervent radical prayer, getting in the Word, and taking action with His word as a lamp to our feet. I want to be as sure that my next steps are His design and not my own that I am about being James's mother.
Today the Holy Spirit is just moving in me. I believe it is because of many factors, but mainly the physical and financial challenges that we are facing right now definitely have me on my knees more than any other time this past year. Jon is working on his thesis for graduation in December. On top of that, he works all of the football games and has had events even during the week where he has had to work late. We feel like we never see each other. I do not know how single mothers make it. On top of his schedule, I have been given several amazing opportunities to build Ripple Of One, Aflac, and UMG...but opportunity brings hardship as it takes hard work to make things happen. Self-employment is such an adrenaline rush but at the same time you do definitely work way more hours. But I also get to stay home with James and sleep in and have my coffee on the porch in the mornings with no pressure :) All of this background is important, because what I feel led to share today is this: Apart from God's wisdom we can do nothing. And anything we do without wisdom from Him and His word is in vein regardless of how successfully man may measure it.
Today I turned to Kings 3:12 and read about the wisdom of Solomon. The story in Chapter 3 tells of a dispute between two mothers. Both birthed a son, but one mother's son died in the night as she was holding him and he suffocated ("she laid on him" is what scripture says). The grieving mother grabbed the other living son in the night and put the dead child in the other unsuspecting mother's arms while she slept. When the guiltless mother awoke, she knew the dead child was not the son she gave birth to. The dispute reached the King. we see in verse 3:27 that King Solomon discerns with strength which lady is the acutal mother of the living son and resolves the dispute.
I take away from this so much. First, when we are fully seeking His plan, we are given wisdom and clarity on life's decisions that can take our lives from simply living to developing a sanctified legacy. I believe God wants us to use His word as a lamp to our feet, but with each step have the ability to move forward with the same wisdom and clarity that King Solomon demonstrated.
We also learn by his journey that the wise and understanding heart he was given was not applied in all areas of his life (Nehemiah 3:26). His journey shows us why God commands us and requires us to give him ALL of our mind, heart, soul and strength. All of us means all areas of our life. Wisdom from God is available to us, but useless if we do not apply it. One of the prayers that I pray daily as I seek to receive God's wisdom, is for me recognize every available opportunity to build His kingdom and that I do not miss a person or a blessing that He has designed and ordained for the order of my day. I can tell you that He has answered in ways that are hard to express in words, and too numerous to even keep track of, but even harder to comprehend. He has connected me with complete strangers whom are now some of my best clients and closest friends. He put people right in front of me that needed prayer and to see that following Him is the real deal. He used circumstances that often were confusing or not so fun to weave together a tapestry for Ripple of One, Aflac, and UMG to build fabulous networks of individuals that are seeing the power of what God can do when we get out of his way. For example, in less than one year, He brought together one by one more than 20 passionate volunteers to serve as mentors for our families. God's wisdom enabled a team of just three people to build a strong training program for our mentors that is the framework for our family success model that makes the Ripple program unique. Recently, His wisdom inspired a new business opportunity with one of my friends business partners. Through prayer and meetings that lasted hours, we both heard from the Lord that this is part of His design for us both. One step at a time we started planning. 3 Weeks ago through prayer we identified a primary need for a very sophisticated database programmer. This opportunity was not for an amateur. We both said that it was going to take months to fill this need because no one was going to be interested in doing this project for free. But we both looked at each other and said, but God can make this happen! He is bigger than this need. And we pushed forward. We prayed specifically for the IT resources and support. In less than one week, I got a call from a Ripple of One volunteer that was sharing part of this project with another peer. They mentioned a guy to him that may want to help out. Long story short, the three of us met. I shared part of the business model with him and this guy turns out to be the owner of an IT database programming company. He volunteered his staff, resources, and time to create and execute this database until we are profitable and can take ownership of the support. I almost fell out of my chair. Prayers for wisdom followed by getting in His word daily and applying His word to our lives = answered prayers.
I think back to the dispute King Solomon dealt with. Just as sure as we are about being mothers, and bearing our own children and calling them our own, so should we be as sure and certain about the steps we take in other areas of our life. Receiving wisdom is powerless without application - and that needs to happen with fervent radical prayer, getting in the Word, and taking action with His word as a lamp to our feet. I want to be as sure that my next steps are His design and not my own that I am about being James's mother.
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