The truth is that while many of us may aspire to have spiritual understanding, only a select minority of us understand what it is. Knowledge and spiritual wisdom are not the same thing. In actuality, even if you are very familiar with facts, truths, or principles, if you do not use them in your life, you are the exact opposite of wise.
Wisdom[1], especially biblical wisdom, is the capacity to recognize what is true, right, or lasting and to put that understanding into practice in your daily lives. The definition of wisdom in the dictionary is the capacity to discern or assess what is true and right. You will know that you are truly wise when you accomplish that.
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What Is The Meaning Of Wisdom In The Bible?
To navigate life successfully, we require God’s true wisdom since using our understanding to judge what is genuinely suitable is difficult. To discern and choose wisely, we need God’s wisdom. Otherwise, we are just bumbling around doing whatever we want or what we believe is best (which is not always the greatest).
Knowledge begins with the fear of the Lord, but fools despise wisdom and knowledge. The first step toward understanding is to fear the Lord; from there, God may start to give us insight through Christ, whom the Bible claims to be wisdom.
Wisdom For God
The Bible offers a slightly different definition of “divine wisdom.” However, to define wisdom that comes from above as pure, then peaceful, gentle, willing to give, full of kindness and good fruits, without partiality and hypocrisy, according to James 13:17, is also without hypocrisy.
The terms “pure” and “without prejudice” differ significantly from our earthly understanding in this passage. Humans are not pure by nature. By God’s grace and Jesus’ death on the cross, we have been made new and holy as Christians, but as ordinary people, we are not perfect.
We are flawed beings that are far from flawless. Even very “excellent” people, those whom everyone praises for their virtues and upright conduct, harbor imperfections in their souls. We cannot have pure intelligence without God if we are not pure ourselves.
Additionally, we need to be more unbiased. Our perspectives are somewhat distorted due to our life events and personalities. Our point of view tints all we perceive about the world. As a result, we lack the total objectivity of heavenly wisdom when evaluating situational insight and making decisions. The only exact and objective lens through which to view and assess life’s circumstances is the wisdom of God.
Why Do We Need Wisdom?
Wisdom plays a significant role in our lives because it enables us to handle situations in the best way possible to achieve the best outcomes that a person seeks while taking into account all the potential opportunities that may arise to alter the priority order and thereby alter goal-seeking behavior.
A wise person, in their decision-making, achieves their goals quickly and without haste, reducing the time and effort required to complete the different tasks of daily living and deal with any challenging situations that may arise.
A person who lacks wisdom risks getting into unpleasant situations and taking quick, irresponsible actions that he may regret. Or decisions are made solely on impulse without rigorous thought, planning, or understanding of the outcomes; all the wisdom we know guards against such pitfalls.
As practical wisdom cultivates positive traits, it strives to shape a person’s personality in the way everyone hopes for him. The human psyche aids in overcoming challenges, handling various situations logically, and achieving the most remarkable outcomes on an individual and social level.
Developing Wisdom
Empathy for others is one of the essential elements of wisdom. It is altruism and the ability to collaborate. It makes sense: The wise person considers how their actions will affect those around them when deciding and choosing courses of action.
This capacity to consider the neighborhood, the relationships, and the bridges around you is crucial since none of us live in a vacuum. Furthermore, wisdom is always about making choices that consider their broader implications and how they will affect the people around us and us. To desire wisdom is another step toward obtaining it.
Accept Uncertainty In Life
The capacity to handle ambiguity well is another aspect of wisdom. Humans naturally seek certainty and clarity. Thus, wisdom’s maturity enables us to overcome this urge and find methods to make decisions, take action, and be constructive even without much clarity.
It is comparable to agile expertise, where tiny steps and gradual advancement enable us to continue on a journey where we are not stalling or falling behind and make continuous progress despite adversity. The greatest human wisdom is the combination of genuine understanding, situational awareness, and the essential resolve that gives the highest chance of achieving the planned moral goal.
Where Does Wisdom Come From?
The fear of the Lord is the beginning and the end of wisdom. It is a profound, enduring, pure reverence and respect for the Lord and His word, the Bible, rather than a dread of being hit by lightning or killed.
Because obedience usually results from fear, God has said that He prefers obedience to sacrifice. Knowledge often follows when someone obeys what they know to be accurate, but sometimes obedience comes before understanding. Respect for God and awe of Him and His Word are the foundations of wisdom. That is the beginning of wisdom, and actual knowledge can never exist in a place without respect for the Lord. It’s simply not feasible.
How To Ask God For Wisdom?
God delights in bestowing understanding upon His children, and He delights in our requesting His wisdom. Remember clearly, Solomon? Solomon asked knowledge to govern God’s people when, as king of Israel, he could have prayed for anything—wealth, popularity, etc.
Solomon’s prayer amazed and pleased God. When we pray for wisdom from God, we acknowledge that we cannot navigate life successfully on our own and require His assistance and precise direction.
The first step is to ask God for factual knowledge, but to hear Him when He provides it to us, we also need to learn to recognize His voice. The Holy Spirit searches for the deep things of God as well. God’s voice and all that He communicates to us are heard and recognized by the spirit. In other words, we are obligated to pursue wisdom and develop our understanding if we connect with Jesus Christ.
The more often we practice this, our spirit will be strengthened, and our bond with God will be closer. The more connected we are to God’s perspective, the easier it will be for us to distinguish His voice from all the other sounds competing for our attention. The only way to navigate this long life successfully is through God’s wisdom.
Ways To Get Wisdom
Wisdom is a quality that cannot be inborn but must be learned through experience. Anyone open to experiencing new things and thinking about the experience has the potential to learn. You can become wiser by studying as much as possible, reflecting on your experiences, and putting your knowledge to the test.
1. Attempt new things. When you spend all of your time indoors doing the same thing, wisdom is difficult to come by. You become wiser when you put yourself out there and give yourself a chance to grow, learn from your mistakes, and reflect on the experience.
It is a terrific way to get life experience and travel to new areas. Taking a vacation to a different city or driving to the town over, for example. Instead of going to your favorite chain restaurant, dine at a place well-liked by the neighborhood. Every time you can, go for the novel over the tried-and-true.
2. Talk to people with different ideas and backgrounds from your own, and take note of whatever you can pick up from them. Try to avoid judging people based on your limited perspective. The ability to empathize with others will increase your wisdom.
To learn more, get better at listening and ask lots of questions. Rather than allowing your thoughts to wander, pay close attention to what others are saying. Every conversation will enable you to learn more about others, broaden your perspective, and consequently mature.
3. Making difficult decisions is one of the best ways to gain wisdom. For instance, disable the GPS when traveling to work. Find your location by using the brain that God gave you. Refrain from using the internet to seek information when attempting to learn something.
Make things difficult for yourself so that your mind has to think creatively. Because technology makes some jobs so much simpler, it is one of the leading causes of diminished cognitive performance. Try using traditional ways if you wish to learn more wisdom. Work hard at it.
Conclusion
Knowing and accepting that the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord is the basis of wisdom. His wisdom becomes your wisdom as you revere and respect God, live in awe of His presence and might, make the decisions He instructs in His Word, and love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
You can become wise by reading the Bible. Hold it at the forefront of your thoughts and heart and follow it. You will experience a profound change in yourself, your life, and your day as you receive understanding from God’s Word. In reality, God has made sure that everyone has access to intelligence.
