I sat in a meeting about how women’s ministry could help women in difficult places, but sitting there, what I really thought was, “That’s crazy!What can we do? We have nothing to offer. if they ask questions for which we don’t know the answer?I don’t have enough experience, I don’t have the wisdom or the ability to do it, but despite all these questions in my mind, I didn’t express these thoughts, I just sat down to meditate on Proverbs 17:28, “Even the madman, when he shuts up, is considered wise. “So all these thoughts spin in my head until the end of the day, when I sit down and think better.
This situation is not really new to me; I’ve answered a lot of questions. I receive many texts that ask: “Can you send me a Bible verse that you remember, for someone suffering from depression, grief, children who misunderstood, addiction?, The list is endless and – emails arrive in my inbox wondering what I would do in this or that situation?What wisdom could I share? I mean, what do I know?What do I have to offer that makes sense? I can barely understand what is happening in my own ministry and in my own life, let alone how to advise someone in Africa or America.
- If I have no worries.
- I can treat God’s Word as an encyclopedia or a catalog of special verses for specific questions and situations.
- I don’t want to just throw a few verses at someone or send emails with a few trivial lines.
- Mindless verses can be a dangerous and superficial method of giving advice.
- When we try to do so.
- We run the risk of adapting the Bible verses to the situation.
- Interpreting the Bible through the prism of our lives.
- Instead of interpreting and looking at our own.
- Lives and situations through the prism of the Bible.
- I have to be aware that my words (even in a text message or email) have weight.
- I want them to point to Christ.
- Who is the one who knows everything and can really help.
So how much do you need to know to speak properly and know about someone’s life?
I’m certainly not the only one asking questions like these: Does it have to be some kind of “Superinteligent Biblical Concordance”?Or did you attend the seminary to speak correctly and wisely?The older I am, the more I realize I don’t know anything!
To respond consistently, we must begin to think about the difference between what we know and what divine wisdom is. You may be the most educated person in the room, but does that make you a wise man?I was reading an article by John Bettler in which he talked about four categories of people, it was a really useful article and here’s my condensed version of his four classes:
Remember the movie Debi?
You know the guy: really smart, but no common sense!My son is one of those strange children who has a calculator in his brain, however, in the second year of school, he failed in math, he was really disoriented and I asked the teacher, “Does he really give the wrong answers?”His answer was hysterical. He said, “No, give all the right answers, but that’s just a point, to earn two points, you need to prove your reasoning and you don’t. Should I show your calculations? I failed. “in math because it was too boring to write all the calculations on paper. Smart but stupid.
In fact, ignoring is too harsh and completely wrong because these people are smart and experienced, they may not have tons of reviews to show, they may not have professional qualifications, but if you’re stuck on a desert island, you’ll want to have one of them on their team because it’s good at everything. For example, he may be a believer who knows nothing of church history, who has not attended a systematic theology conference and who thinks that the guy named Calvin is famous for his underwear, even if they do not have a good education, they act well when dealing with people and giving good advice, may not be as reliable as the pillars of theological reform , but they know the Lord, express themselves well, and direct all to Jesus. We love this boy!
I’m not sure there’s a lot of smart, wise people out there. They are people who know a lot and live practicing what they know. You know her, she’s the person in the church you always ask the hardest questions. , and not only does it have the answers, but it applies them to your life. It is people like James 1. 22 who walk and talk: not only listeners but practitioners of the Word.
When I think of these four classes defined by Bettler, I can identify the people who really fit into each category and I think it makes a lot of sense. The problem is, I can’t get away from Psalm 1, which resonates in my head. Psalm 1 has a simpler approach for people than Bettler, because this psalm essentially describes only two categories of people: “The Madman?And the ‘man of God’.
So what is my question in all this and what does this have to do with how much wisdom do we have to share with someone?
What I want is for us to recognize that the source of our wisdom must be God, without Him we are stupid, as simple as that. The fool said in his heart, There is no God. They corrupt and practice abomination; Isn’t there anyone who does good?(Salt 14,1). It is the source of our wisdom and helps us speak well and wisely, have I said it before and will I repeat it?We have nothing to present except Christ, it is enough for any situation that we must face. trust him and his word; that’s where we have to take people.
“The Lord God has given me the language of the scholars, so that I may say a good word to the weary. Do you wake me up every morning, wake up my ear so I can listen as a scholar?(Is 50. 4).
Wisdom is defined as the quality of experience, knowledge, and common sense; Quality of being wise?God is infinitely wise, doesn’t he make intelligent assumptions and he has no theories, he just knows. He knows things before we know we need to know them.
He is the “only and wise God [and to him] to be the glory in Jesus Christ for ever and ever. Amen?” (Rom 16,27).
O depth of God’s wealth, wisdom, and knowledge!How unsinkable are their judgments, and how impenetrable their ways are!Who knew the Lord’s thinking?For him, and for him, and for him are all things; that is why, for him, eternal glory. Amen? (Romans 11: 33-36).
It is in God that we must trust to have wisdom when we talk about people’s lives (as well as ours). This is where we begin, trusting in God and His wisdom in any situation when we speak, Tiago reminds us (in 1. 5) of our source of wisdom, helps us to understand the situation from the right perspective, seeing through the fog of confusion.
However, if any of you need wisdom, ask God, who gives free to all and does nothing to them; And will it be granted?(Tg 1. 5).
When it comes to talking in difficult situations, we have two options: we can be like a door that has no brain and many useless words (the madman) sprout, or we can be the person who trusts and depends on God and not his understanding. I know it can be scary to get involved and talk about someone else’s life, and we can use many excuses not to do so, but if we believe that the Word of God is true, powerful, and relevant to today, we need to help others see that this also directs these people to Christ.
So what if we go back to our original question?Would we respond differently than before?
Here are some things to remember: