Promise for Today - Wisdom, Understanding and Common Sense

For only the godly will live in the land, and those with integrity will remain in it.
Proverbs 2:21 NLT

Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.
Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding.
Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures.
Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God. For the Lord grants wisdom!
From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest.
He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.
He guards the paths of the just and protects those who are faithful to him.
Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will find the right way to go. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy.
Wise choices will watch over you.
Understanding will keep you safe.
Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those whose words are twisted.
Proverbs 2: 1-11 NLT

Prayer:

Father,
           Your Word instructs us to ask You for wisdom if we don't have it. So we come before You and ask for it, because You promised that You would give it to us and not chastise us for doing so. We know when we ask that our faith must be in You alone - according to Your Word. And so it is, Lord. We're not wavering. Our loyalty and trust is in You alone. We will not be unsettled as the waves of the sea, tossed and blown by the wind. Give us Your wisdom, O God! In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Go the Distance

You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands. 

Psalm 119:73 NLT

We can have a genius IQ and still lack common sense. We can read the Bible cover to cover, but if we're reading just to be able to say we read it and don't make it applicable to our lives, we are fools. It's been said that the distance between heaven and hell is 18 inches. That's the distance from our head to our heart... 

It's not head knowledge that gives us a relationship with God, it's our heart knowledge - asking Him into our hearts. Allowing Him to change them from hearts of stone to tender, responsive hearts as He promised in Ezekiel 36:26, And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.

Prayer:

Father,

           You made us; You created us. Please give us the sense to follow Your commands. Change our hearts we pray so that we will follow You in spirit and in truth. Help us to go the distance, Father! In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Good Advice and Common Sense

I, Wisdom, give good advice and common sense. Because of my strength, kings reign in power, and rulers make just laws. I love all who love me. Those who search for me shall surely find me. 

Proverbs 8:14-17 The Living Bible

There are all kinds of anecdotes floating through cyberspace about common sense and the lack thereof. More and more, it seems there is less and less of it. When I read this passage, I finally understood why.

It's in seeking the Lord and His wisdom that we receive common sense. If they're not seeking, they're not finding, and they're definitely not receiving. There is a huge difference between asking for something and actively seeking it. However, they don't know where to look unless we point them to Christ.

Mark 16:15-16 TLB reads, And then he told them, “You are to go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere. Those who believe and are baptized will be saved. But those who refuse to believe will be condemned. 

 It's on us to tell them. That's just using the common sense God gave us.

Prayer:

Father,
           We ask for divine appointments to do exactly that. Give us wisdom to know what to say and the common sense to say it. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

World Views

[Jesus speaking] For John didn’t spend his time eating and drinking, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ But wisdom is shown to be right by its results.
Matthew 11:18-19 NLT

The Truth is that the world's view is always going to be in opposition to the Word of God. I'm relatively certain that's why Jesus instructed us in Matthew 7:6, “Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you." 

I caught a snippet today about a young actor who in recent months made the news by expressing his faith in Christ. He was in today's headlines because he made an Instagram post about being on the Daniel Fast. The media jumped all over it - The Today Show, MSN.com, Time, People, USA Today, Prevention, Men's Health... just to name a few who voiced opinions about it. From dangerous to delicious; nuts to nutritious, crazy to committed - the world is full of opinions about something they know very little about.

Scripture explains the opposition in 1st Corinthians 1:18-25,  For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: 

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Make time to know the Word of God. After all, it is God's Truth that sets us free, not the views and opinions of the so-called free world.

Prayer:

Father,

          According to Your Word, let us not lose sight of common sense and discernment. Guide us in when to speak and when to keep silent. Give us wisdom, O God! In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Common Sense vs Uncommon Faith - Repost by request

So take courage! For I believe God. It will be just as he said.

Acts 27:25 NLT

Paul was on a ship at sea, as a prisoner, in the middle of a storm with typhoon-strength winds. He had already warned the officers and crew once not to put out to sea, but they didn't listen. After all, both the owner and the captain saw it differently than Paul the prisoner. They were learned in the way of ships and seas. They were sailing men, (but not followers of Christ). Everything they knew - common sense dictated their course of action. What would you have done? Who would you have listened to?

Sometimes life, as we know it, is the same scenario. Common sense deciding our course of action, but uncommon faith diametrically opposed to that which is understood. Not only is it not common sense, it makes absolutely no sense! Why didn't Paul just speak to the wind to be still the way Christ did? Why didn't God just stop the storm? I don't know the answer to those questions, any more than I know why sometimes awful things happen to good people. 

What I DO know is God DOES have a plan. And while it may not make any sense at all to us, it does to God. And if we trust Him in it - if we take courage and believe God that it will be just as He said - we will have peace of mind and heart. 

Can we believe Him in the middle of our storm when the wind is raging and the seas are crashing and we're shipwrecked on the rocks? Common sense would tell us there's no way. We're gonna die. Uncommon faith declares, "...take courage! For I believe God. It will be just as he said."

Prayer:

Father,

         We may not always understand the whys and the wherefores, but we can know that Your Word is true. Your love is true and real. Your provision uncommon. Help us to always see - and believe - You.  Father, we want uncommon faith. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

* Common Sense

I, Wisdom, give good advice and common sense. Because of my strength, kings reign in power, and rulers make just laws. I love all who love me. Those who search for me shall surely find me. 
Proverbs 8:14-17 The Living Bible

There are all kinds of anecdotes floating through cyberspace about common sense and the lack thereof. More and more, it seems there is less and less of it. This morning, when I read this passage, I finally understood. 

It's in seeking the Lord and His wisdom that we receive common sense. If they're not seeking, they're not finding, and they're definitely not receiving. There is a huge difference between asking for something and actively seeking it. However, they don't know where to look unless we point them to Christ.

Mark 16:15-16 TLB reads, And then he told them, “You are to go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere. Those who believe and are baptized will be saved. But those who refuse to believe will be condemned.  It's on us to tell them. That's just using the common sense God gave us.

Prayer:

Father,
         We ask for divine appointments to do exactly that. Give us wisdom to know what to say and the common sense to say it. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

* Common Sense vs Uncommon Faith

So take courage! For I believe God. It will be just as he said.

Acts 27:25 NLT

Paul was on a ship at sea, as a prisoner, in the middle of a storm with typhoon-strength winds. He had already warned the officers and crew once not to put out to sea, but they didn't listen. After all, both the owner and the captain saw it differently than Paul the prisoner. They were learned in the way of ships and seas. They were sailing men, (but not followers of Christ). Everything they knew - common sense dictated their course of action. What would you have done? Who would you have listened to?

Sometimes life, as we know it, is the same scenario. Common sense deciding our course of action, but uncommon faith diametrically opposed to that which is understood. Not only is it not common sense, it makes absolutely no sense! Why didn't Paul just speak to the wind to be still the way Christ did? Why didn't God just stop the storm? I don't know the answer to those questions, any more than I know why sometimes bad things happen to good people. 

What I DO know is God DOES have a plan. And while it may not make any sense at all to us, it does to God. And if we trust Him in it - if we take courage and believe God that it will be just as He said - we will have peace of mind and heart. Can we believe Him in the middle of our storm when the wind is raging and the seas are crashing and we're shipwrecked on the rocks? Common sense would tell us there's no way. We're gonna die. Uncommon faith declares, "...take courage! For I believe God. It will be just as he said."

Prayer:

Father,

         We may not always understand the whys and the wherefores, but we can know that Your Word is true. Your love is true and real. Your provision uncommon. Help us to always see - and believe - You.  Father, we want uncommon faith. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen