Wisdom

We are all born with a level of intelligence, which we hopefully build upon with academic pursuits and life experiences. But wisdom is truly a different matter. 

We can gain a certain amount of wisdom through the process of simply experiencing life and learning life lessons based on the outcomes. In that light, making mistakes can lead to more wisdom than making good choices as we tend to remember the pain of bad choices longer. 

However, that wisdom, natural or worldly wisdom, is very limited and often skewed by dumb luck or exceptions to normal reality. Natural wisdom is limited to what one experiences and the confines of his life circumstances puts a very definite lid on how much one can gain.  

And, people sometimes have very different experiences than the rest of us. For instance, experience teaches that smoking takes years off your life but then there is a George Burns who smoked most of his hundred plus years of life.   

Natural or worldly wisdom is not reliable for those two reasons: it is limited and it is inconsistent.  The apostle Paul warns us of its weakness: "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?" (1 Cor 1:20).

How can natural wisdom understand spiritual truths as they are beyond natural experience?  And, given that spiritual realities supersede and transcend natural ones, how could we rely on natural wisdom to guide us on the path of life that doesn't begin or end in the physical realm?  

Wisdom comes from experiencing the presence of the Spirit of God, which comes as we listen to His Word, communicate with Him in prayer, encounter Him in worship and walk with Him in our daily lives. So wise up - spend time with the Lord daily. Jus' Sayn