Wisdom. It’s something that we all want and yet, in each one of us, there’s a stubbornness, a resistance to the changes that the getting of wisdom demands. Maybe that’s why we keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again.

Let’s be honest. Sometimes we do the dumbest things. We don’t mean to, we just do. And there comes a point where you think to yourself: “Why am I making this same mistake over and over again?” I’m guessing you’ve been there.

For some people, it’s constant worry. Sure you’ve heard the bit where Jesus says “Who, by worrying, can add a single hour to their lives?” (Matt 6:27). Maybe you’ve heard it a hundred times before, but you still can’t stop worrying.

Perhaps you’re someone who carries anger and bitterness around in your heart. Sure, you know that the Bible says – “don’t let the sun go down on your anger” (Eph 4:26) … but that anger keeps bubbling away.

Or maybe your someone who is constantly trying to impress other people. You know it’s a pride thing. You know that pride comes before the fall (Prov 16:18) but, well, you know …

There are so many things that hold us back in this life. There are so many things that we hang on to for dear life, that are in fact ruining our lives. We all have our Achilles heel. We all have blind spots. We all have circumstances in our lives where ‘doing it my way’ – as much as that may be the way we’ve always done it – just doesn’t work.

If I asked you, in those circumstances, “Do you want to be wise?” I’m sure your answer would be, “Absolutely!”. But then, if I asked you, “So, are you prepared to make the changes you need to make to get that wisdom; to live out that wisdom?”

Well, most of us, at that point, would hesitate; equivocate. “Change? Really? Change? Well, I’m not so sure about that.”

If we’re going to talk about wisdom then, we have to start at the beginning.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:7)

Now maybe that’s a verse that you’ve heard many times before. But let’s just get a grip on it for a minute. The fear of the Lord means an awe, a respect; a realisation of the terrible outcomes of the judgements of God.

My father loved be and I loved him. But let me tell you, when I was a lad, I knew that if I did something wrong, there was going to be a reckoning with my dad. And if it was bad enough, I knew that it would involve punishment.

We just toddle along through life as though anything goes. If it feels good do it. I wonder though, if we thought a bit more about the terrible judgement of God, if we questioned our thoughts, our motives, our actions, if we asked ourselves “What would God think about this, really?” … I wonder if that wouldn’t open our hearts to God’s wisdom.

A few years ago, I recorded a radio program about the fear of God. Now, I remember thinking to myself “No one wants to hear about the fear of God these days.” But I just felt God nudging me towards that message.

So, I did it. I wrote it, I recorded it. And a few months later, I received an email from a man in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is what he wrote:

I was at a peace conference in Goma and in my hotel room I turned on the radio. I heard a program about the fear of God. And I realised that with no fear of God in the hearts of people there will be no peace! No peace at all! I don’t know if this was a revelation from God … but my heart was beating, coming far away, God was speaking to me. I have been on the battle field for 13 years now and I don’t know how many people have died because of my gun, but what I know is that I decided to lay down my arms in that hotel room.

I’ve never forgotten that email. He gave his life to Christ and ended up fleeing to another country in fear of his life. The bit of his email that keeps ringing out for me is where he says, “without the fear of God there can be no peace, no peace at all!”

You know what, he’s absolutely right. When we just carry on as if anything goes, when we live our lives for ourselves without any respect, without any awe, without a right sense of the fear of God in our hearts, we are going to make a hash of it. A complete mess of our lives and a complete mess of the lives of the people around us. The people we hurt through what we say and do. Through the expression of anger and disapproval on our face. Through our failure to love them, the way they need to be loved.

And the crazy thing about this ‘fear of God’ thing, is that once we yield our lives to God, once we say, “Lord I’m sick of making mistakes. My way doesn’t work. I want your way. I want your wisdom. I want your help. Once we do that, all the fear in fact goes away.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. (1 John 4:18)

Yes there is a terrible judgement that awaits those who rebel against God. A terrible But when we come to a turning point, as Safari Murinzi came to a turning point in that hotel room, the fear goes away.

When we choose to live in God’s love, that perfect love casts out all fear.

God wants to impart to you, His wisdom. The wisdom of the ages. My dad had a lot of wisdom. He wasn’t perfect of course, but he took the time and made the effort to impart much of that wisdom into my life.

And to a great extent that wisdom has made me the man I am today.

Imagine though, God who is perfect, God who knows all things for all time, God who loves you beyond measure, wanting to impart His wisdom into your life. Surely, we have to stand back from that, you and I, and think to ourselves, “WOW! That’s amazing!!” And it is. Totally amazing.

Just think for a moment of the things that you have going on in your life right at this moment that are causing you grief. The things that are complicated, that you just can’t sort out and fix. Imagine now, that God is prepared to speak His word of wisdom into that one situation that’s driving you to despair.

Would you want to hear that wisdom? Would you want to receive that wisdom? Probably out of frustration, out of a desire just to get that thing sorted, the answer is a big, fat “Yes!”

But then let’s say you open your Bible and you read this verse:

The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. (Proverbs 8:13)

And you realise that actually it’s your pride and your arrogance, the way you’ve been talking to other people, that’s the biggest factor in this dilemma in which you find yourself.

Now let me ask you again. Do you want to receive that wisdom? It’s not easy is it.

There’s this thing inside each one of us that wants to blame everyone and everything else for our problems, except our selves. And yet so often, the getting of wisdom involves owning up. It involves being honest with ourselves. It involves making the changes that we need to make in order to bring peace.

And that’s where the fear of the Lord comes in. It’s this heart attitude that says, “You know God is right. The alternative here is continuing in this mess. The alternative here is facing God’s judgement for this one day.”

Receiving the wisdom of God into our lives isn’t always easy. In fact a lot of the time, it’s incredibly tough. It’s something that we don’t want to do, because we want to wallow in our immaturity, in our pride, in our … let me call it for what it is … sin.

But your Father in Heaven has, sitting ready and waiting for you, the wisdom of the ages. A wisdom that will utterly transform your life. A wisdom that, day by day, will set you free to be all He made you to be.

Wisdom is something that we would all love to have. I don’t know a single person who, if asked, wouldn’t want to be wise. But I wonder how high it is on our priority list of desires. I wonder whether we actually yearn for wisdom.

Wisdom is something that I think, we all desire. I mean, I don’t know anyone on this planet, who, if asked, wouldn’t want to be wise. But I wonder just how high it is up our priority list of wants and desires.

We long after different things in our lives. Sometimes we yearn for love, acceptance and companionship. Other times it might by something more basic – like enough food to eat. There are plenty of people on this earth who simply don’t have the basics – food, clean water, shelter.

But in affluent places, we yearn, frankly, for silly things. A new pet dog – nice, but not essential. The latest hair style, the latest fashion accessory, a new dress in this season’s colours, a new car – shiny and bright, just like the one on the TV add.

Right now, given what’s going on in your life, what do you yearn for? What’s the object of longing that’s dominating your heart and mind right at this moment. Does godly wisdom even feature in, say, your top three desires? If you’re like most people, the answer is: probably not.

When Solomon, the son of King David, was still a young man, he became the king of Israel. What a huge responsibility. Ruling a country, that young, that immature, with so little experience. He knew it was way beyond him, just like many of the things that you and I confront in life are beyond us.

One night he had a dream. And in that dream, God said to him:

Ask what I should give you. (1 Kings 3:5)

I wonder … I wonder if God appeared to you and me in a dream one night and said that to us, what we would ask for. Well, here’s what Solomon asked for:

Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people? (1 Kings 3:9)

And then, we’re told in the very next verse that:

It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honour all your life; no other king shall compare with you. (1 Kings 3:10-13)

So asking for wisdom, it seems, asking unselfishly for the right thing, is an act that pleases God and releases great blessing into our lives.

Just imagine what your life would look like if you yearned for the wisdom of God. Imagine what your life would look like if, like King Solomon, you petitioned God for the wisdom to do the things that He has set before you, the things that in your heart of hearts, you know are way before you.

It would please the Lord no end. It would bring you rewards that go way beyond anything you could ever have imagined.

When we ask God for wisdom, we’re asking Him for something that’s not so much about us, as it is about serving Him and other people.

Think about the things that you need wisdom for in your life right at the moment. What are the things that are going on in your relationships that are beyond you? What decisions do you need to make that are going to have an impact on your life and perhaps the lives of others, that you’re just not sure about?

The young and inexperienced King Solomon wanted wisdom to govern God’s people. So when he asked God for an understanding and discerning mind, instead of wealth and honour as king, the longing in his heart was for his people, not for himself. He could have asked for great riches and honour, but instead He asked for wisdom.

You know what I think. I think that all too often we ask God for things that are about us. Our needs, our Now, just as Jesus taught us to pray “Give us this day our daily bread” there’s nothing wrong with asking God to meet our needs.

But if that’s all we ask of Him, then it’s a pretty selfish little prayer life that we’re having isn’t it? It’s a pretty narrow life that we end up leading.

Imagine if you could see your problems through God’s eyes. Imagine if you could see your circumstances, the decisions that you need to make, through God’s eyes. Imagine if you could stand on heaven’s balcony and see the view from there.

I think that’s what wisdom is. God’s wisdom gives us a completely different perspective. God’s wisdom helps us see the bigger picture, rather than our own little narrow circumstances.

A thousand or so years after Solomon, the Apostle Paul found himself in a Roman dungeon, chained to a guard, on death row. Imagine how easy it would have been for him to have a narrow view of his circumstances. But instead, he was able to write:

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)

There’s a man filled with the wisdom of God. There’s a man who can see his dire circumstances from the vantage point of heaven’s balcony.

Back to you. Back to your life. Your dilemmas. Your decisions. The things that are before you that you know are way beyond you. The struggles, the hurts, the situation that’s confusing you and confounding you at the moment.

Your God wants to show you the big picture. Your God wants to put His arm around you and show you the view from heaven’s balcony. Now sure, He may not show you the whole picture, but if you’ll just ask Him for His wisdom, it will please His Father’s heart and He will show you just enough to get you through.

Just today, I opened God’s Word, as I do almost every morning. I’m reading through the Psalms at the moment. There are 150 of them and today I was up to Psalm 91. I’ve had a pretty rough travel schedule over the past few weeks. I’ve had a punched nerve in my neck. I was tired and sore and you know it as well as I do, when you’re physically down. You can be emotionally down too.

You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” (Psalm 91:1,2)

That Psalm was just the wisdom, the encouragement, the comfort, the heavenly perspective that I needed today. That Psalm is why, right now, I am full of the joy of the Lord, which, by the way, is my strength.

In my life, I’ve come to yearn for the wisdom of God. There are so many things that God sets before me that are way beyond my ability to figure out. There are problems that come along, challenges, things that I wish I could figure out for myself but just can’t. So I pray, I read God’s Word, every day and somehow – I can’t explain exactly how, I can’t give you a formula – God gives me His wisdom. Because He knows I lng for it. He knows I long to see His kingdom come, His will be done on this earth as it is in heaven.

Sometimes He brings along someone with a brilliant idea that I would never have had on my own. Sometimes His Word just leaps off the page and gives me the answer I was looking for. Sometimes H nudges me in this direction or that.

The Bible says we walk by faith, not by sight. You know, when we yearn for God’s wisdom, when we long to hear Him speak, when we go to Him as Solomon did and ask for wisdom and discernment, it brings joy to His heart and He pours it out on us, just like we asked. It’s who He is. It’s how it works.

God’s Wisdom is ready and waiting for you.

It’s all well and good to talk about God’s Wisdom. We can talk about the theory all day long. But in day to day life, in your life, in my life, the theory just doesn’t cut it. What we need is to know where to get God’s Wisdom. How to get God’s Wisdom.

It’s a humbling thing to come to the realisation that you don’t have the wisdom, the where-with-all, the IQ, the emotional intelligence – call it whatever you want – to deal with a problem.

Pride keeps a lot of people from asking for help. Pride whispers to us, “If you ask for help, you’ll be showing other people how dumb you are.” And so, many people make bad decisions because they don’t seek help from others, when they need it.

Without counsel, plans go wrong, but with many advisers they succeed. (Proverbs 15:13)

The truth is that none of us has all the answers. When I was a young man, working as a pretty high priced IT consultant, I used to think that I had to show my clients that I had all the answers for everything. That there were no limits to my expertise. After all, look at what I was charging them.

How stupid I must have looked, and, let me tell you, that attitude caused me a lot of grief in the end.

No, we will need help. We all need the different perspectives that others can bring. We all need counsel from good advisers. And THE best adviser of all, without any shadow of a doubt, is God Himself. Especially, let me say, when we’re in the middle of a crisis.

Crises happen, often, without warning. They’re like earthquakes. People are going about their ordinary, day to day business. Or perhaps they’re asleep in bed and without any warning, the earthquake hits, shacking the very foundations of their lives. Reeking devastation. Throwing people into fear and panic.

We tend not to make very good decisions under those circumstances. Suffering has a way of completely distorting our perspective.

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you is lacking in wisdom … (James 1:2-5)

Now I want to stop it just there, because that last bit is the bit I want to focus on.

If any of you is lacking in wisdom … how easy is it to pretend you have all the answers? How easy is it to go on and make decisions when you’re facing trials, when your faith is being tested, when things are hurting – as though you know it all?

With all that you have going on in your life at the moment, is there a place where you haven’t admitted to yourself, that you don’t have all the answers?

Because, listen to me here, admitting to yourself that you actually need help, is the essential first step, into God’s wisdom.

And once we come to that point, once we admit that to ourselves, well the flood gates open. God steps in, in power. In a way that we could scarcely have imagined.

I wonder whether, when you go through difficult trials, through times of testing, whether you’ve ever felt as though God has deserted you.

You pray and you pray and you pray, but it feels as though your prayers are just bouncing off the ceiling. You ask God for guidance, for wisdom, for advice – but it seems as though He’s left you hear, alone in the wilderness, to your own devices.

You realise that you don’t have the power or the wisdom to deal with whatever it is, but God is silent, mute it seems … and so know despondency sets in.

Ever been there? Sure you have. Perhaps you’re even there now. There’s some huge problem in your life and you know you need help, but there doesn’t appear to be any help on the horizon.

Would you like to know what’s going on? Here it is. God has taken a step back to test your faith.

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)

He does that, because your faith is precious. God knows that by testing your faith, He will grow it stronger. Is it fun, no. But perhaps He’s brought us together today, just to remind you of what’s going on here in your suffering, in your time of testing.

And now … now I want to share a powerful promise with you into the middle of that despondency. Are you ready?!

If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; , for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. (James 1:5-8)

WOW! So you’ve come to the conclusion that you need help. You’ve realised that you don’t have the wisdom that you need. That’s a good thing. That’s what He wants, the realisation that: “I am lacking in wisdom.” A great step of humility. A step that God will honour.

And look again at his Word, His promise is that He will give you His wisdom – generously and ungrudgingly. So stop doubting, stop being tossed to and fro, ditch the doubt, the double–mindedness, and just believe in what God says.

If you need His help, if you need His wisdom in the middle of your suffering and the testing of your faith, ask, believe and His wisdom WILL be given to you – generously, and ungrudgingly.

Hallelujah!

In my life, I came to a point where I was sick to death of being tossed to and fro by the winds and the waves of my circumstances. It’s a terrible thing when you’re going through a tough time and you don’t have something rock–solid to stand on.

Well, let me tell you, God’s promises are rock–solid. God’s promises never fail. If God says that He’s going to do something, then He does it. Full stop. End of story.

You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday. (Psalm 91:5-6)

You and I need never be afraid of our circumstances. You and I never have to worry about how we’re going to handle something complex, something difficult, something that we really don’t want to deal with, something that’s so complex that it’s beyond our ability to cope with.

Because God’s promise is that, if in a time of testing and trial, if in a time of suffering or persecution, you ask Him for His wisdom, He’ll just give it to you.

One of the things that’s really struck me, reading through the book of the Psalms again over the past couple of months, is how many times people like David were in times of trials, with enemies pursuing them, with life-threatening situations. And over and over again, the Psalmist – David and others – comes to the conclusion that God’s faithfulness never fails.

They come to that conclusion out of their own difficult experience. And as you travel through your tests and trials, I know – beyond a shadow of doubt – that as you come out the other side, you’ll be able to look back and come to exactly the same conclusion.

Because God will have given you His wisdom, generously and ungrudgingly.

Pride and hardness of heart go hand in hand. Pride is the enemy of humility. And pride … pride stops us from laying hold of God’s wisdom, which causes us pain and in turn, hardens our hearts. It’s a vicious, vicious circle.

Heart disease is rather a big deal these days. A diet high in refined carbohydrates, combined with a lack of exercise is taking its toll.

The problem seems to be hardening of the arteries. But it’s not a condition that affects many young people, because it takes time for arteries to harden. Decades in fact, of dietary abuse. And the reason that arteries harden is as a defence against the effects of the stuff that we’re putting in our mouths. Eventually, they rupture and there you have it – a heart attack or a stroke.

The Bible talks about the hardening of our hearts, heart disease if you will, too. Several times.

The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse – who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings. (Jeremiah 17:9)

I mean when that’s what’s going on in your heart, when that’s the way you’re abusing yourself, your heart is going to get diseased. It’s going to harden. Here’s how it goes. Here’s the vicious circle.

Pride and hardness of heart go hand in hand. Pride is the enemy of humility. And pride … pride stops us from laying hold of God’s wisdom, which causes us pain and in turn, hardens our hearts, like scar tissue. It’s a vicious, vicious circle.

And when that’s what’s going on inside us, we’re not prepared to take advice from anyone. We’re hunkered down, defending ourselves, just trying to survive … and the wisdom of God is something that we just don’t want to accept.

Have you ever found yourself in that sort of a situation? That place where you’re so damaged, that you can’t receive the good advice of others or the wisdom of God that’s actually going to make things better?

It’s often the way things go. In protection mode, our heart hardens and we become unteachable. Unaccepting of the wisdom that will set us free.

Is your heart desperately sick? Be honest. How teachable is your spirit? How open are you, right at this moment, to accept the powerful wisdom of God that will set you free from the maladies that are plaguing your life?

Has sin so wracked you with pain and suffering that your heart feels as hard as stone? If you’re in that desperate situation, then I have a Word from the Lord for you today. It’s a prayer that can set you free from this dark and difficult place.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:10)

I remember a time in my life when I was completely unteachable. A time when I was so proud, and yet so damaged, that my heart was as hard as stone.

There’s nothing worse than a hard, unteachable heart. It stops you from receiving the healing wisdom that God has for you. That’s why God wants to give us a clean heart. That’s why God wants to put His Holy Spirit in us.

To heal us from the inside out. To do some radical heart surgery, to remove the diseased tissue, and replace it with healthy tissue.

I remember the very first heart transplant, by a surgeon Dr Christian Barnard on the 3^rd of December, 1967. The heart recipient only survived for 18 days, such was the state of the technology and medical knowledge back then.

These days, whilst not quite a routine operation, heart transplants almost always succeed, adding years of healthy life.

And that’s the key. It’s not just life, but healthy life, vibrant life, abundant life that we’re looking for here. And that’s the sort of life that God wants you to lead. But you can’t have it with a diseased heart. And just as King David, after committing murder and adultery, prayed for a clean heart, a right spirit, an infilling of the Holy Spirit – what we discover elsewhere in God’s Word is that that’s exactly what God wants to do for us.

A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

In other words God wants to give you a new heart – taking the heart of stone, the diseased heart out, and replacing it with a healthy heart of flesh. And not just a new heart. When we have a new heart, when our heart is soft and healthy again, it will be open to receive a new Spirit, the Holy Spirit – so that we can receive the wisdom of God. So that we can receive the wisdom of God.

How’s your heart? Hardened by years of abuse? Hardened by pain and unforgiveness? Scarred by the hurts that you’ve suffered in the past? Damaged to the point that it’s difficult, almost impossible, to receive the healing wisdom of God?

Well, today I have some good news for you. God wants to give you a new heart and a new Spirit. All you need to do is to believe His Word and ask Him for it.

He is ready, willing and able to heal your life, to replace your heart, to fill you with His Spirit and to open you up to receive His wisdom into your heart.

When you think about it, the heart is where we live. It’s the seat, the centre, of our emotions.

Of course, the heart is a physical organ vital to life. That’s why we use it as a metaphor for the centre of who we are. Everything flows out of our metaphorical heart. If the heart is diseased, our lives are diseased. If the heart is healthy, our lives are healthy.

If our heart is filled with evil intentions, then our lives will live out that evil. That’s why Jesus said that murder begins in the heart. Out of the overflow the heart speaks. What happens in our hearts first, is later acted out in our lives. Our hearts, and our hands are connected.

As I look back on my life there have been times when my heart has been completely closed to the things of God; the wisdom of God. And the only way that I’ve discovered to deal with that is to draw near to God.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:8)

You and I can work and work and work at improving ourselves, but have you noticed, it just doesn’t work, no matter how hard you work at it.

So, when you feel as though God is a million miles away (He isn’t of course, it just feels that way) then it’s time to tackle a step towards Him. It’s time to set a bit of time aside each day to pray. It’s time to open His Word and read it, reflect on it, receive it.

It’s not easy at first. It’s like a young infant taking her first faltering steps towards her dad. But, just think of what that does in the Father’s heart. When we take a few, faltering, unsteady steps towards Him, He takes some mighty, God-sized steps towards us.

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

That’s His promise to you today, in case you’re feeling as though He’s a million miles away. Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you. And in that place, He will purify your heart, He will cleanse your hands, He will remove the double-mindedness and doubt from you in a way that you could never do for yourself.

What’s the matter with us that we think we have to clean up our act before we go to God? Sure our hearts might be filthy dirty, diseased, hard as stone. Sure our hands might be covered in filth as well.

It’s for sinners like you and me that Jesus died.

What you and I need is wisdom that penetrates the heart. And that’s exactly what Jesus has ready and waiting for you.

As much as beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, it seems that the same is true of wisdom. What’s wise from where I sit, may not appear wise from where you sit. So … what does wisdom, real wisdom, actually look like? How do you know it, when you see it?

Most of my life, I’ve believed that wisdom comes with age. And to some extent that’s true.

Normally someone who’s been around the block a few times, will have made enough mistakes, and seen enough things to be able to impart some real wisdom.

But just because you’re a bit older, doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily any wiser. Sometimes a person’s blind spots, you know their weaknesses, their failures, stop them from, I guess laying hold of real wisdom.

And sometimes, something that holds itself out to be real wisdom, is tainted by self-interest or other motives that may not be in your best interests.

Let me ask you, is it wise for a woman to have an abortion or not? Well, that depends – at least out there in the marketplace of ideas – on where you’re coming from; on your perspective; on your interests.

So how do you know what real wisdom looks like? How can you tell real wisdom from false wisdom, when you see it? Being able to discern that, being able to tell the difference between these two types of wisdom, as things turn out, is incredibly important.

Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. (James 3:13)

So it seems that, according to God at least – probably not such a bad place to go for wisdom when you think about it – the first marque of wisdom is a good life full of works born out of gentleness.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not naturally a gentle person. I’m more your get things done kind of person. So a huge part of my journey has been to learn gentleness. Now, gentleness doesn’t mean weakness. It doesn’t mean being airy-fairy and indecisive. It doesn’t mean being ill-disciplined.

But what it does mean is getting things done in love. What it does mean is that as much as getting things done is important, people, these people who annoy us and who frustrate us … who, to be honest drive us crazy sometimes … these people who are made in God’s image and loved by Him every bit as much as you are loved by Him … yes, those, people matter more than getting things done.

So when someone holds themselves out to be wise, ask yourself What does their life tell me? Is it a life full of good works done with gentleness? Because that will tell you the nature of their wisdom – real, or fake.

And, come on, let’s look in the mirror too. Let’s take a look at our own lives. What’s the rest of the world seeing in how we live out our lives? Good works born out of gentleness … or, not.

Because let me tell you, false wisdom is ugly. Really, really ugly.

Some people pretend to be wise, but then, when you scratch below the surface, you find that they’re anything but. What makes this so dangerous is that often those same people are … so confident; often they’re incredibly successful and so we fall for that.

Those sorts of people lead many astray into ways of thinking, into ways of behaving, into ways of living, that end up ruining your life. That’s why you and I need to be so incredibly discerning when it comes to deciding who we are going to allow, to influence our lives.

It won’t come as a surprise that some people are wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing. You’ll find them at work, sadly sometimes at home and yes, you’ll find them in your church too. And here’s what their brand of wisdom looks like:

But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. (James 3:14-16)

Envy and selfish ambition – those two things go hand in hand. Some people are only in it for what they can get out of it for themselves. And sometimes, they’re in the most unexpected of places. I remember having something to do with the head of a large, well-known, global ministry who was far more interested in his reputation and self-promotion than he was in seeing people’s lives changed by the love of Jesus.

When others in his organisation succeeded, instead of celebrating and praising God, he became envious. It poisoned his heart, it damaged the ministry and it ended his career.

Sure there are people out there who are flashy, successful, articulate, capable of leading a crowd. But the questions to ask ourselves is: Why are they doing it? What is the motivation of their heart?

Because let me tell you, their words, their actions, their facial expressions and body language, their decisions will ultimately betray what’s going on in their hearts. They can’t help it. So be wise yourself. Take the time to watch and listen, before being seduced by what is, ultimately, worldly, self-interest that holds itself out to be ‘wisdom’.

You will know a tree by its fruit, right? And while we’re at it, what does your fruit say about your heart? What motivates you? If it’s selfish ambition, if you find yourself becoming envious of other people who succeed, then it’s time to look for a different sort of wisdom.

In our world. We’re taught that success is the most important thing. But envy and selfish ambition have nothing whatsoever to do with wisdom.

So, let me ask you, what does real wisdom look like? If you ran into some powerful, godly wisdom, how would you recognise it.

People who roll over the top of others, who succeed at the expense of those around them, well, no, that’s not wisdom is it?

People who are in it for themselves, full of selfish ambition, people who get jealous whenever anyone around them succeeds … no that’s not wisdom either, no matter how successful those people might be.

I want to share with you today, the best, the most powerful, the most reliable definition of wisdom that I have ever come across:

… the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace. (James 3:17-18)

Real wisdom comes from above; from God. It’s pure, completely untainted by partiality, self-interest or envy. Purity is fantastic isn’t it. It king of rings out – simple, beautiful, unmistakable. It’s just the sort of wisdom you know is from God because it’s peaceable.

You and I are called to be peacemakers. To navigate in love through conflict and strife. The most powerful and influential leaders I know are peaceable and gentle. Gentleness is such an underrated quality these days.

I wonder what opportunities lie ahead for you, today, to be gentle with people? Hmm? Great wisdom is willing to yield. When someone else has a better idea, when someone else is heading in a direction that you know in your heart of hearts to be right – real wisdom, godly wisdom, is willing to yield.

Full of mercy for others – because all those annoying people out there are going to make mistakes. They’re going to rub you the wrong way. And when they’re behaving badly, mercy forgives. After all, mercy is only mercy, if it’s undeserved.

Godly wisdom is full of good fruit, without a single trace of partiality and hypocrisy. Real wisdom yields a harvest of peace.

Wow! Just stop and take those two verses – James 3:17-18 – and imagine how your world would change, if you lived your life like that. Because that’s the very sort of wisdom that God wants for you. That’s the very sort of wisdom that He has ready and waiting for you.

Why is it that we think that selfishness and partiality is the way to get ahead? Why is it that we imagine that we always have to put our best foot forward, so that everyone will think well of us?

Let me ask you, do you think well of those sorts of people?

There is a different sort of wisdom waiting for you. Live that wisdom and may your life yield a harvest of righteousness and peace.