[Anglican Devotional 6 November 2021] Topic: Determined To Be Wise
TOPIC: Determined To Be Wise
READ: Ecclesiastes 7:15-29 (NKJV)
I have seen everything in my days of vanity: There is a just [man] who perishes in his righteousness, And there is a wicked [man] who prolongs [life] in his wickedness.
Do not be overly righteous, Nor be overly wise: Why should you destroy yourself?
Do not be overly wicked, Nor be foolish: Why should you die before your time?
[It is] good that you grasp this, And also not remove your hand from the other; For he who fears God will escape them all.
Wisdom strengthens the wise More than ten rulers of the city.
For [there is] not a just man on earth who does good And does not sin.
Also do not take to heart everything people say, Lest you hear your servant cursing you.
For many times, also, your own heart has known That even you have cursed others.
All this I have proved by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise”; But it [was] far from me.
As for that which is far off and exceedingly deep, Who can find it out?
I applied my heart to know, To search and seek out wisdom and the reason [of things,] To know the wickedness of folly, Even of foolishness [and] madness.
And I find more bitter than death The woman whose heart [is] snares and nets, Whose hands [are] fetters. He who pleases God shall escape from her, But the sinner shall be trapped by her.
” Here is what I have found,” says the Preacher, “[Adding] one thing to the other to find out the reason,
Which my soul still seeks but I cannot find: One man among a thousand I have found, But a woman among all these I have not found.
Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, But they have sought out many schemes.”
THE MESSAGE:
God’s word tells us that the most important thing we can do in life is to seek wisdom from God. Proverbs 4:7 declares: “Wisdom is supreme, therefore get wisdom… “The wisdom of God- the power to put our time and our knowledge to proper use – is essential to a meaningful and godly life. Solomon, in this text, laments his own iniquity (having many wives) as being more vexatious than vanities; it turned him away from God and his duty (verse 23-29). For these reasons, he determined to be wise (verse 23), and applied his heart to understanding (verse 25). Those who seek wisdom by their own efforts fail; God gives wisdom. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives generously to all without finding fault, (James 1:5).
Wisdom offers us long life, wealth, and honour but sin is a big hindrance to wisdom. “I discovered for myself a bitterness that surpasses that of death: The woman whose heart is full of snares and nets, whose hands are chains of bondage.. ” (verse 26). This woman is the personification of the seduction of immorality and wickedness; the exact opposite of the woman personified as wisdom in Proverbs 8:1-4. It takes a wise and God-fearing believer to overcome her. Sinners cannot find wisdom because they are ensnared by wickedness; those who please God receive God’s wisdom and escape a life of sin and helping them to prepare for rapture as in the case of the 5 wise virgins in Matthew 25:1-13.
PRAYER: “The truest wisdom is a resolute determination” – Napoleon Bonaparte.
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