Author: admin

Wise people feel no compulsion to tell others all they know. In fact, they run much deeper than they let on. If you don’t probe and ask questions, you will only skim the surface of what wise people understand. They have spent much time thinking about important issues. They have meditated upon God’s word. They have read and studied widely. They have a wealth of knowledge and breadth of insight that could be of enormous help to those who seek to learn from them. Prudent people do not withhold knowledge maliciously. They simply treat it as something valuable that has been entrusted to them. They do not offer precious gems to people who will treat them as cheap trinkets. Wise people hallow God and His word. Around those who treat God’s word lightly, wise people will remain silent. They know there is no point in subjecting God’s wisdom to a fool.

Conversely, fools love to speak, regardless of whether they have anything valuable to say. In disrupting the silence, such people reveal the impoverished nature of their soul and thought. Had they remained silent, you might have suspected the scarcity of their thought. But now that they have opened their mouth, they leave no room for doubt!

Are you someone who delights in wisdom? Do you meditate on the deep things of God? Are you continually on the lookout for wise people who could teach you much? Can you recognize wise people when you are in their presence?

People have an uncanny ability to view life through their own individual lenses. We can act selfishly and yet justify our actions by proclaiming that we needed a break. We can be rude but view our behavior as merely being honest. We look out for ourselves, but we see it as caring about the greater good. We are dishonest but explain we were simply following commonly accepted practices. We hurt someone but console ourselves in the knowledge that we meant well or that we were misunderstood. We make a mistake but blame others. Nothing is our fault! We have an explanation for everything!

Of course we are not as generous in evaluating the behaviors of others. When others fail, we don’t believe they meant well or gave their best. When they hurt our feelings, we assume they are malicious at heart. While we expect others to forgive us, we are less inclined to extend pardons toward others.

Because we so easily deceive ourselves, we must rely on counselors who know us and who understand the truth of our situation. We need someone who will cut through all of the lies we tell ourselves and make us confront the truth. This isn’t easy and it doesn’t come naturally. But it is the pathway to wisdom. While living in a dream world where we are always the hero can be fun for a while, it is not reality. It is only an illusion. So find someone who will tell you how things really are, and then listen to what they say!

Money is unbelievably seductive! It can lead us to believe that we can do anything we can afford to pay for. It causes us to turn to our wallet in times of difficulty rather than to our prayer closet. We can misguidedly value people not by their godly character but by their net worth. And if that were not enough, we can mistakenly assume that riches are reliable.

The truth is that there is no vault secure enough to prevent the loss of everything we own. Thieves are constantly devising new ways to relieve us of our possessions. Natural disasters can overwhelm us unexpectedly. The economy can plummet. Our partner can cheat us. Our company can fall on hard times. Clients can dry up or be lured away by a cutthroat competitor. And, if we manage to overcome all of these challenges, our health will ultimately decline and death will finally loosen our grip on every dollar we accumulated. Even the world’s wealthiest people have ultimately grown frail and weak and been unable to control their destiny. For those whose confidence is placed in their wealth, many an anxious night awaits them!

In what or whom are you placing your trust? Is it reliable? Would you bet your life on it? Can you sleep at night?

When you are generous, you reflect God’s character. It is in God’s nature to give you far more than you deserve or expect (Ephesians 3:20). Of course, God can afford to give generously because it never depletes His storehouse or limits what He can provide the following day.

While we do not have unlimited resources like God does, He still encourages us to reflect His generosity. There are many reasons for this. For one, what we give in this life will follow us into eternity. Today’s investments will pay enormous dividends in the future! Second, God is looking for conduits. When we share with others what God has given to us, God tends to marshal additional resources in our direction. God desires for His people to be channels of blessing to those around them. Third, God never asks us to do anything He will not also provide sufficient resources to accomplish the task. You must believe that if God is calling you to be generous, He will also enable you to be so. Finally, when you relate to others with generosity you will be surrounded by people who are grateful for your life. People tend to respond in kind. If you are stingy with them, they will be miserly toward you. But if you relate to others generously, there will be those who show kindness toward you in return.

Ultimately you must decide what kind of person you will be: Stingy or generous? The fact is that this life is extremely brief. We will hold our possessions and wealth only temporarily. Soon, whatever we had will be passed on to others. So, we can wait until after our death for our worldly goods to be distributed to others, or we can enjoy the process and participate in sharing love and encouragement with those around us now. God knows that is the best way to invest our life. Are you truly a generous person?

Good advice is priceless. It can bring you success and it can protect you from grievous harm. It can save you from a costly mistake and it can guide you to make wise choices. There is enormous value in counselors. The key is to gather as many of them around you as you possibly can!

Astute advisors don’t generally volunteer for the job. They must be enlisted. Wise people don’t waste their time on fools. You must assure them you truly desire to know what they have to say. Counselors are also not wise on every matter. One counselor might be brilliant on financial matters but inept in personal relationships. That is why we must surround ourselves with a diversity of advisors. In every important area of our life we ought to have someone to whom we can go for help. Life is too precious to squander it through foolish choices!

It is our responsibility to gather the best advisors we can around us. We must treat them as a valuable resource. And we must heed their counsel! We negate the value of our advisors if we never do what they suggest! We are also responsible for cultivating a teachable heart. If our heart is unprepared, we will not recognize excellent advice though it stares us in the face!

Think of the top three advisors you currently have accessible to you. Consider their caliber. Reflect on their godliness. Reflect on the track record of what they have advised. Then consider how secure you are in facing the upcoming challenges of your life. Do you need to gather more advisors? Do you need to start listening to the ones you already have?

When God is pleased with you, He blesses those around you. When you lead your business in a God-honoring way, God can guide your business to uplift your community. When God prospers you financially, He can show you how to use your resources to meet the needs of people where you live. When you treat your employees in a godly, generous manner, you raise the spirits and lifestyle of families in your community.

God is looking for conduits. He wants to bless people who will pass His blessing on to those around them. Righteous people do not hoard God’s provision. They freely share what they have been given with their family, colleagues, churches, and neighbors. No wonder a community will rejoice when a righteous person is exalted! Such people know that they will share in God’s favor as well.

The wicked, however, are another story. Their mouths speak evil and deceit. They scheme to better themselves at the expense of others. They spread lies to cover their sordid trail. They use people to acquire maximum gain. Such selfish people are not missed when God sweeps them away.

How is your life presently exalting the city where you live? Is God’s favor on you making a positive difference on those around you? Are you being a conduit of God’s blessings to others? Would the people where you live miss you and your organization if it were gone?

It is a paradox that seven people experienced at fishing on the Sea of Galilee could catch nothing after laboring all night while a carpenter with no boat or net had an ample fish breakfast cooking on the shore! Surely Peter and his companions had done everything they knew to make a catch. They surely went to their favorite fishing spot. They used their best net. They labored with zeal and determination. Yet as dawn arrived the morning light revealed their utter failure.

As soon as the weary disciples rejoined their Master, they had all the fish they required! In fact, there is no record of the disciples ever again feeling the need to go fishing for fish. They had found that when they follow God’s will, God takes care of their provision. With Him there is no want. In His will there is no shortfall.

Could it be that what we are vainly striving for is already available in abundance in Christ’s presence? Should we not set aside our own nets and hurriedly make our way back to Him? How long will we continue to labor through the night and catch nothing? When will we admit that apart from Christ, we can do nothing? When will we pack up our own plans and schemes and wholeheartedly follow Christ? Christ had no obligation to bless Peter’s plans and efforts, regardless of how noble. But once Peter surrendered his life to God’s purposes, Christ changed the world through him

At times we can become so consumed with the tasks before us that we are unaware of how far we have moved from where Christ wants us to be. Peter had fished all night without success. He was no novice. He knew how to fish on that small sea. Yet he caught absolutely nothing. All through the Gospels Peter had done what his Lord had told him to do. As a result, he always experienced success. But this time Peter had come up with his own plan. We are not sure why he went fishing. Perhaps he had the best of motives. But it is clear his Lord had not guided him to do so. Jesus was on mission to redeem a lost and hurting world. Peter had become focused on fishing for fish, something Jesus had taken him away from.

As soon as Peter realized that he was in a boat while his master was on the shore, he quickly rectified that discrepancy! Never one to do things in half measures, Peter leaped into the sea to join his master. That reunion would be fortuitous. For history would show that Peter walked closely with His Lord the remainder of his life. We do not hear of Peter fishing for fish again. There is no further mention of “the” boat in Scripture. That option in Peter’s life had been forever expunged.

How quickly do you rejoin the Lord when you realize you are not where He is? How readily do you surrender your plans when you learn that Christ has a different agenda? Perhaps you need to leap into the sea and make your way as quickly as possible back into your Master’s presence.

Easter is a wonderful season for Christians. We celebrate Christ’s victory over death, hell, and sin. We rejoice that God is victorious. We are reminded that nothing can overcome the will of God. But then Monday comes. It is time to get back to our normal lives. We have work to do. Problems to solve. Issues to tackle. Before we know it, we can return to the same normal living we have experienced for years.

No one had seen the hand of God in his day more than Peter had. No one had received Christ’s teaching or witnessed more miracles more than he had. Yet even after witnessing Christ’s resurrection and receiving His challenge to be sent into the world as Jesus had been sent, Peter determined to go fishing. He and six companions embarked in “the” boat. Supposedly those reading John’s Gospel would have been familiar with “the” boat. Perhaps Peter had not abandoned it as completely as Jesus had earlier instructed him to. Perhaps Peter was concerned he could not pay his bills or have enough to eat if he did not, at times, revert to his former lifestyle. Perhaps after his grievous failure, Peter was drawn to do the one thing he knew he could do well.

There are many things we can be tempted to do at night. Yet despite their efforts, on that night the experienced fishermen caught nothing. Clearly attempting things on their own initiative led to failure. At the dawn we often see our lives more clearly. The next morning the disciples saw Jesus. He gave Peter a fresh commission, to feed His sheep. We never hear of the boat, or Peter fishing, again. Peter could never go back to normal living again. How has Easter and all Christ has accomplished affected the way you are living?

Encounters with Jesus are life-transforming. They bring great joy. They give us courage and renewed resolve. How good it might appear if we simply camped our lives in an upper room and basked in our Savior’s presence! Yet inevitably with the fellowship we enjoy with our Lord will also come the inevitable command.

How easily the rejuvenated disciples might have determined to remain with Jesus indefinitely in the safety and warmth of the upper room. But that was not on the heart of God. Jesus informed His disciples that in the same way His Father had sent Him into the world, so Jesus was now commissioning His disciples. How was Jesus sent into their world? Humbly. Inauspiciously. As a servant. As one who lived His life to glorify God. As one who faced opposition and temptation. Yet ultimately as one who radically changed His world.

How is Jesus sending you into your world? In the same way the Father sent Him. It is not so you can have an easy life. It is not so you are popular and surrounded by loved ones who support you. He sends you into a hostile world so He can change it through you. Just as the Father was always with Christ, so Jesus will always be with you. Are you ready to be sent into your world in exactly the same way Jesus was sent?