Sirach 2:1-3 “So, my child, you want to serve God? Then get your life in order, respect others, and prepare your soul for the trial that will surely come. Tell your heart what to think; don’t go to sleep on the job. Bend, your ear; listen to your mind. When times get rough, keep your cool. Take a tip from God. Join hands with Him. Don’t slip-slide. Don’t go it alone. Do the wise thing; make wise choices." Today's scripture gives us some insight into wisdom and what we should be doing if we want to serve the Lord. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Wisdom For Beginners (Part 2)
Sirach 2:1-3 “So, my child, you want to serve God? Then get your life in order, respect others, and prepare your soul for the trial that will surely come. Tell your heart what to think; don’t go to sleep on the job. Bend, your ear; listen to your mind. When times get rough, keep your cool. Take a tip from God. Join hands with Him. Don’t slip-slide. Don’t go it alone. Do the wise thing; make wise choices.”
Today, we are going to continue to look at the verse we looked at on Tuesday. We didn’t really have time to look at all of it up close, and it had a lot of good things to say. Wisdom is a great thing, and if we can get some tips on how to grow in it, then it’s worth slowing down and taking the time to examine them. Starting where we left off yesterday, the verse says, “Bend your ear; listen to your mind.” I hear that we need to open our Spiritual ears and listen to what the Lord is telling us. We talked yesterday about telling our hearts what to think. This is because our emotions can sometimes lead us astray. Sometimes, we may not want to do the right thing and yet if we listen to our minds we know we should.
The Lord can talk to us in any number of ways. The most prevalent way for me is in my mind. I ask Him a question, and He answers it by putting the thought in my mind. For instance, I may ask him how I should pray for my kids better. Then I sit quietly, and all of a sudden, there will be all these thoughts as to how I can pray for my kids better. You might hear the Lord this way, or you might ask Him a question, and then you might get a strong feeling in your body that you know the answer, but you didn’t hear anything. You might also be led to Scripture after you ask the Lord a question, and you realize that the Scripture is the answer to your question. God is trying to talk with you, your job is just to listen. And sometimes that means listening to your mind.
Next, it says when times get rough, keep your cool. This can be much harder than it sounds, depending on how rough things get. One great way to keep your cool when things get rough is to pray for the peace of Christ. You can actually ask the Lord to fill you with the peace of Christ. I have prayed this over many people, and you would be surprised how peaceful they felt. Some of them were in situations where you wouldn’t think peace was even possible.
That is what is so amazing about the peace that we get from the Lord. It says in Philippians 4:7, “And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” God’s peace surpasses all understanding. I like how it also says it will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. This is so important. If we can keep our hearts and minds focused on Jesus, we are all set. It’s when we take our focus off of Jesus and we start to think more about how big our problem is. We spend our time thinking about all the ways things can go wrong instead of thinking about all the things that could be right.
We think about the fact that we can’t see a way out instead of focusing on the fact that God doesn’t need us to see the way out or that fact that God doesn’t need there to be a way out. He is a way maker. He can make a way even if there is no way out. He can blast a hole right through your problems. We have a God that can do impossible things. Nothing is too big for Him. Just yesterday, during witness Wednesday, we learned about how God gave a brand new heart to someone. His heart was damaged, and he needed to have stents put in or maybe even a bypass, they weren’t sure. Yet, when they went in to take a closer look, he had a brand new heart. God is bigger than you think He is, and He is definitely bigger than your problems. We can remain cool when things get rough if we keep our eyes fixed on the Lord.
Next, it says, “Take a tip from God. Join hands with Him. Don’t slip-slide. Don’t go it alone.” This is super important. I know I say this all the time, and you may be sick of hearing it, but it is true, and I don’t think we all understand the necessity of inviting the Lord in. If you want to go at this life alone, the Lord will let you. He believes in free will, so He doesn’t enter situations that He is not wanted or invited into. I love how this verse says to take a tip from God. How do we take a tip from God? I can think of two ways. First, stop and listen to Him like I talked about earlier. The second way would be to read scripture and apply it to your life. Scripture is God’s love letter to you. He is speaking to us through His Scripture. It is a living Word that answers our questions and can speak to us if we listen to it. I know many people who find their answers to life’s questions in the Bible.
I also love how the verse says to join hands with Him. I love that visual. I envision myself as a little girl, and I grab hold of Jesus’s hand, and we are just walking through a green field. This line shows us that God is not a distant God. He is a personal God and He loves us and wants to walk hand and hand with us. Why do we shy away from intimacy from the Lord? Why do we try to keep our distance? Jesus died on the cross so that there would not longer be a barrier between us and God. We have full access. Let’s take full advantage of that and join hands with Him. Think about how much easier life would be if we walked through it hand and hand with our Lord and Savior.
Don’t slip-slide to me means try not to veer off course. Try not to be wishy-washy with your beliefs. Try not to be all in one minute and then nowhere to be found the next minute. We don’t want to give our problems over to the Lord and then take them back again, either. We don’t want to listen to the enemy either. Sometimes, we can slip and slide when we let the enemy get into our head, and we start to believe his stupid lies. Let’s just do our best to keep our eyes focused on the Lord. I also just got the idea that if we are holding the Lord’s hand, He will keep us steady so we don’t slip. Thank you, Lord!
This verse ends with, “Do the wise thing; make wise choices.” This is something every mom or dad has probably said to their child, and so it makes sense that the Lord would say it to us, also. Especially since we are His beloved children. He loves us and I am sure it breaks His heart when we make bad choices. I was just talking with someone yesterday about why God hasn’t stepped in when it comes to the mess that is our government. I explained my thoughts on that. I feel God is not stepping in as much as we would like because we are working hard to exclude him from so many areas of life and because we are not inviting Him into these types of situations.
I was explaining that because of free will, God does not “make” us listen to Him. I am sure He is in heaven shaking His head because He knows if we would just listen, we could be in a much better place. However, He is a gentleman, and if we want to handle things without Him, He will let us. I was saying it is like our own children. We may know what is best for them. We may be able to see that they are making a big mistake. We can even see all the ramifications down the road if they continue on the road they are on. Yet, they are adults, and we can’t make them listen, no matter how badly we want to. This is similar to the Lord. Although He could make us listen if He wanted to, He doesn’t want to force us into it. He wants us to make wise choices on our own, and one of those wise choices that He is hoping we will make is to invite Him into the situation, grab His hand, and, as the verse says, “Don’t go it alone!”
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless everyone listening to this episode. Lord, we love you so much, you are amazing! We are so grateful that you teach us about wisdom. We are grateful you don’t leave us alone and that you are willing to grab our hand and walk through life with us. Lord, we ask you to help us invite you in. We ask that you help us do all the things mentioned in the verse above. Lord, we want more wisdom, we need more wisdom, please help us. We ask all of this in the mighty name of Jesus, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Today is the last day to sign up for the retreat next weekend! If you have been thinking about it make sure you decide by end of day today. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in April 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “There will be moments in time that you will reach out for me. You will not feel my presence or see me in the circumstances, no matter. I am there. I am there. You never walk alone. I am your God, your shepherd.”