8/12/2019 2004 Issue 1 - Restoring Christian Finances: What is
Wisdom? - Counsel of Chalcedon
1/4
Restoring Christian Finances:
What is Wisdom.?
And
How
Do
We
Get It?
Brian Abshire, Ph.D.
The third
installment
i
the
unpublished book
(Restoring Christian
Finances:
Biblical
Principles
i Building
GodlY Wealth
l J
Brian
Abshire
A
new
chapter
appears
in
each
issue.
This
book)
the
first
in
the (Restoring Biblical
Principles
series
will
soon
be available
from Providence Press at www.
providencepress. com.
One definition of a fool in
Proverbs is someone who refuses
to seek wisdom (prov. 1
22 .
Their
lack of wisdom isn't the reason they
are considered a fool, but their lack
of
seeking. Proverbs repeatedly
urges young men to acquire wisdom,
and seek for
it
like buried treasure
(prov.
2:
1-7). Wisdom
is not
something they have yet, for
they are supposed to go out and find it. So simply to say
someone lacks wisdom
is not
to say they are a fool.
This leads to our first principle: Christians mllst seek
wisdom
in
order
to
acquire it. It is
not
something we receive
at birth.
Nor
does wisdom come just by gaining life
experience. Ok, I agree, this does
not
seem like rocket
science. Nevertheless, I know some Christians who act
like merely listening to a few
good
sermons (or reading a
few good books) makes them wise.
It
isn't that
easy,
but
it isn't hard either. God does not command us to be wise
without telling us how to go about it.
James 1:5
says, ..
but
i atry lacks Jvisdom, let him ask
i God, vho gives
to
all men
generouslY and
Ivithout reproach,
and
it
Ivill be
given him.
The first step to acquire wisdom, then,
is to seek it in prayer from the source-God. To ask
God
for what
we
need
in
prayer
is
to take the first step
to becoming wise. Proverbs 1:7 says The fear of the
Lord
is
the beginning of wisdom. When we ask
God
for what we need, we acknowledge our deficiency.
We
also demonstrate that we know God has what we need,
that
He is
in control, and
is
therefore able to give it
to
us. When we humble ourselves before God in prayer, we
exhibit an attitude of respectful trust in His benevolence.
All these things are part
of
the biblical idea of what it
means to fear God. When we pray and ask for wisdom,
if
done in faith without any doubting,
as
James
says,
we
show that we have taken the first step towards becoming
wise-fearingGod.
Once we truly seek wisdom in prayer, we have God's
promise that
He
Ivill give it. But, exactly how does
He
go
about giving it? Do we pray, and then sit in a dark room
with a few candles and wait for UPS to knock at the door
with a special package from Heaven? On the contrary,
along with prayer, the Bible
says, we must get up off our
knees and work diligently to find wisdom. f all we do is
pray without following the rest of God's path to wisdom,
we
will have to suffer the consequences by living foolishly.
This does
not
necessarily mean that we are a fool, but
we might well have been
acting
like one.
In
other words,
even
if
I am
not
a fool,
if
I live more or less just like a
fool, I will have pretty much the same kind of life and
consequences.
For example, the idea that germs
cause disease, universally accepted
today, was a radical concept just
over a hundred years ago. People
scoffed at doctors who washed
their hands before treating different
patients. Scalpels and other surgical
instruments were simply wiped
off
with a dirty cloth before the doctor
operated on the next patient. Not
surprisingly, infection, gangrene, and
post-operative death were common. Even the smallest
wounds could fester and
kill
the patient. Wounded
soldiers routinely had entire limbs amputated because
there was no way to treat the infection from a small
bullet hole. Women and babies routinely died as doctors
unwittingly carried diseases from one mother to the next.
But, were these men fools?
Those who knew no better were
not
fools. But
later, some of them were. When one doctor pointed
out the correlation between cleanliness and disease,
they ridiculed
im
to the point
of
literally driving him
insane. Remember, one of the Biblical definitions
of
a fool
is
someone who refuses to learn from his
mistakes. Other doctors eventually saw that there was
a relationship between hand washing and infectious
disease. Accordingly, they changed their behavior and
saved millions of lives. Yet for a long time thousands,
even hundreds of thousands, of people died because
doctors acted foolishly. They did not understand the way
that God's creation worked, and
as
a result, they lived
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8/12/2019 2004 Issue 1 - Restoring Christian Finances: What is
Wisdom? - Counsel of Chalcedon
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Restoring
Christian
Finances hat is Wisdom?
like fools and reaped the same rewards as fools without
necessarily being fools.
Often we Christians live our lives, particularly in regard
to our finances, similarly to these doctors. We may well
be acting like fools, not because we are in open rebellion,
but
because we lack wisdom.
We
do not know how to get
the wisdom that God promises and, consequently, we live
contrary to the way that
God
has established His creation to
run. We then suffer the inevitable result.
Think of it this way; you promise to feed your children.
Your ten-year-old son asks for some breakfast. You tell
him to go to the cupboard for a bowl, go to the pantry for
some cereal, and then go to the refrigerator for some milk.
You have provided just what you promised.
He asked for
food, and you told him where to find it, but it does require
a little effort on his part to obtain. What would you think
of a child screaming and crying, "My Daddy won't feed
me?" f the child refuses to do what you told him to do and
goes hungry, it
is
notyourproblem, but
his.
And, as a good
father, though you would rebuke and correct your son, you
would let him go hungry until he got off his chair and did
what you told him to
do
And,
if
he still sits there whining
and crying, you might even have to spank him to give him
an incentive to obey you
and
to feed his tummy
God
promises wisdom to those who ask of Him, and
He
then gives it richly in the Scriptures (with the Proverbs
being one of the clearest places). We must take the time
and the effort to study those Scriptures. The difference
between a fool and a man who simply lacks wisdom is that
the godly man w ll learn from his mistakes,
but
the fool
continues in his
folly.
A fool will
not
change his course.
He
w ll
not take advice (prov. 26:12, 16, etc.), he does not
seek after wisdom (prov. 1:22), and he is perfectly happy
doing the same thing over and over again no matter how
disastrous the outcome (prov. 26:11). One of the classic
definitions of insanity involves someone doing something
over and over again expecting differing results. Are you
living this
way?
Take for example a family that does
not
control their
spending; let's call the father "Bob." "Bob" allows his
family
to amass considerable credit-card debt, paying exorbitant
interest rates every month, because he does not carefully
budget their finances.
Say "Bob" then receives financial
counseling to take out a small mortgage
on
his house, so
that he can replace the high interest rates
of
his credit cards
with the significantly lower interest
of
a home equity loan.
Now, the family still has debt, but "Bob" is in effect
saving
hundreds of dollars each month with a lower interest loan.
However, if "Bob" does
not
change the behaviors that got
the family into trouble in the first place, their situation
could
get even worse. f they continue to live beyond their means
(and if they are so foolish so as not to cut up their credit
cards), then they could end up amassing new credit card debt
on top of their new mortgage payments They would then
have a mortgage and high interest credit card debt
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Are you like Bob? Are you in one financial emergency
after another, your life an ongoing economic disaster? Do
you nevertheless continue to do the same foolish things?
Do you try to justify, rationalize, and find mitigating
circumstances as to why what you are doing
is
okay? You
may be acting like a fool, then, doing the same thing over
and over again, expecting the result to improve. It is time
to walk
wisely.
f you find this description fits you, pause
before you read on, and make up your mind to seek God's
wisdom and follow it from now on.
There is another possible explanation.
f
you find
yourself in situations like the ones described above, you
may
actually be a fool. You may not simply be an unfortunate
soul who lacks wisdom and does
not
know any better. You
may need to be rebuked and not coddled. If this is the case,
as your Christian brother, I
say
to you to knock it off, and
repent, and follow the Lord.
We need to ask ourselves some very hard questions
if
we want to change our economic situation: are
we
willing
to seek wisdom, to value it, to cherish it, and then do what
is necessary to apply
it
in our
lives?
Will we receive sound,
godly, and wise counsel and make the necessary changes, or
will we insist on continuing to do things our own way? The
answer to these questions reveals whether a man is poor
because of a lack of wisdom or because he is a fool.
What is this "wisdom" that is so important to have?
Though we gave a brief definition earlier, a more detailed
explanation is now in order. Wisdom is understanding,
accepting, and applying certain unchanging and universal
principles based
on
the character
of God
that are built into
the very fabric of creation. Proverbs 3:19 says, The Lord
ry
Jnsdom
founded the earth, ry
understanding
He established
the heavens
...
"
God
designed the creation to reflect His
nature, being, and glory (ps. 19:1ff).
In
Proverbs 8:22
personified Wisdom says, The Lord possessed me at the
beginning of His
way,
before His works of old. From
everlasting I was established, from the beginning from the
earliest times of the earth." Thus, not only did
God
fls
wisdom in creating the earth, He also possessedwisdom as
a part of His unchangeable nature. Part
of
God's glory
is
His wisdom, and He created all things, using wisdom, to
reflect His glory. Therefore, the Creation contains within
it principles of godly wisdom. When we understand,
accept, and practice biblical wisdom, the whole realm of
the Creation responds according to its design and purpose,
typically rewarding us with increased prosperity.
Wisdom is the application of the knowledge of the
One True
God
and of His ways: "
...
the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom" (prov. 1:7). By definition,
the way that
God
does something is the right way to do it.
Men must then conform their
ways
to God's
or
suffer the
consequences for doing things the wrong
way.
God's Word
reveals the way
God does things, and the
way
God tells
us
to do things. Submission is our duty. We must humble
