So teach us to number our days so that we may get a heart of wisdom. (Verse 12)
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, Who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith. James 1
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. James 3
Or, in other words, what's the point of living our lives if we live them stupidly. We have just so many years, months, weeks, days and minutes on planet Earth. So what are we going to do with them? Waste them? My hand is up as one who would take back several years if not days and weeks of time I've spent being unwise. At least it taught me that I'm not going to throw any more precious time down the toilet of temptation. I've learned, the hard way, where that swirling water leads. And it's smelly.
The point of our lives should be to get a heart of wisdom. Moses is remembering the bad old days in the desert when he speaks this prayer. The stupidity of the golden calf, the whining over the bad food, the grumbling about every possible thing that happened to the people in the desert. Of course, the very things that kept them in the desert! Had the first massive group of refugees from Egypt been wiser, Moses wouldn't just be looking over into a land he'd never visit. He'd be eating some of those huge grapes! But the people thought they'd be in the desert forever. Didn't trust God had a plan bigger than they could ever imagine. In the moment, out there in the wilderness with their iffy leader who kept disappearing up the mountain, all they could think was they'd be in the desert forever. Not just a season. It was stinking thinking that led to them getting just what they believed God for. It made them sin against the very One Who wanted health, wealth and prosperity for them. And it was right around the corner. In the process, God was teaching them how to wake up each day trusting His leading and fall asleep each night knowing He is good. That would be an important piece of wisdom when they had it all in the future. Not to forget how He'd provided for them out of nothing.
Instead of the whining and bitching, maybe we should shut our mouths and get wisdom! How you ask? That's right. Ask. It is one of the things God is most excited about giving us. He knows we can't go far down our path being stupid. And by stupid, I mean, trusting ourselves to know what only He can know. Like Pinocchio, finding ourselves at the fair because it sounds so fun then realizing the treachery of following after hedonism. Filling our vacuous souls to the brim with vaporous pleasure. All the while the meat of faith that sticks to our spiritual bones and grows us up is passed by because we just want to do our own thing. And we have that God-given privilege. But it's unwise. The pot saying to the potter: "Bug off. I don't want to be involved in what I was created for." Okay. But what a waste of days, months, years. To be going down the wrong road as fast as we can run.
Maybe wisdom sounds boring to some. It is first of all pure. Right there we have a problem, because we aren't pure. This is the thing we must love about our God. The very first thing we need to gain wisdom is something He provided in His Son. Our purity. For our sake He made Him to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 6). The miracle of our purity also reveals to us, through the Holy Spirit, the mind of Christ (For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2). We can think like God. Renew our minds. See Him leading us down the road He custom built for each one of us. That is a thrilling thought! God can grant me wisdom to see my way. A way He takes my hand and walks me down. Back to being a child of Israel in the desert when God provides every little and big thing we need only this time tabernacling in us. No Moses needed. God Himself, by the Holy Spirit, our GPS. If we'd stop complaining and whining, we'd get there so much faster. And we'd enjoy the journey more. Because gaining wisdom is also about the journey. The fruit of wisdom isn't gained simply by the getting there. That's the payoff. Starting with the purifying of our lives, we learn to be peaceable, gentle and open to reason. Not always having to be right...especially in our arguments with God. (Admit it. You argue with God.) Life in Christ teaches us mercy because we know we continue to need His. And when we understand all the stuff we're capable of, it should be easier to be impartial and sincere. There's no self-righteousness in wisdom. (See above on how you got pure in the first place.)
Moses ends this prayer like this: Satisfy us in the morning with Your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let Your work be shown to Your servants and Your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!
The fruit of wisdom! We are right smack dab in the middle of His best for us! The work of our hands is blessed. There is favor and we are humble. Because we learned in the journey that God's love and mercies are new every morning. A morning that may be the dawn of the only day we have left. Embrace it. Rejoice and be glad in it and all the days that our Father gives thereafter. For the journey is as important as the destination because it is there we gain a heart of wisdom without which the promised land becomes a land of forgetfulness.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, Who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith. James 1
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. James 3
Or, in other words, what's the point of living our lives if we live them stupidly. We have just so many years, months, weeks, days and minutes on planet Earth. So what are we going to do with them? Waste them? My hand is up as one who would take back several years if not days and weeks of time I've spent being unwise. At least it taught me that I'm not going to throw any more precious time down the toilet of temptation. I've learned, the hard way, where that swirling water leads. And it's smelly.
The point of our lives should be to get a heart of wisdom. Moses is remembering the bad old days in the desert when he speaks this prayer. The stupidity of the golden calf, the whining over the bad food, the grumbling about every possible thing that happened to the people in the desert. Of course, the very things that kept them in the desert! Had the first massive group of refugees from Egypt been wiser, Moses wouldn't just be looking over into a land he'd never visit. He'd be eating some of those huge grapes! But the people thought they'd be in the desert forever. Didn't trust God had a plan bigger than they could ever imagine. In the moment, out there in the wilderness with their iffy leader who kept disappearing up the mountain, all they could think was they'd be in the desert forever. Not just a season. It was stinking thinking that led to them getting just what they believed God for. It made them sin against the very One Who wanted health, wealth and prosperity for them. And it was right around the corner. In the process, God was teaching them how to wake up each day trusting His leading and fall asleep each night knowing He is good. That would be an important piece of wisdom when they had it all in the future. Not to forget how He'd provided for them out of nothing.
Instead of the whining and bitching, maybe we should shut our mouths and get wisdom! How you ask? That's right. Ask. It is one of the things God is most excited about giving us. He knows we can't go far down our path being stupid. And by stupid, I mean, trusting ourselves to know what only He can know. Like Pinocchio, finding ourselves at the fair because it sounds so fun then realizing the treachery of following after hedonism. Filling our vacuous souls to the brim with vaporous pleasure. All the while the meat of faith that sticks to our spiritual bones and grows us up is passed by because we just want to do our own thing. And we have that God-given privilege. But it's unwise. The pot saying to the potter: "Bug off. I don't want to be involved in what I was created for." Okay. But what a waste of days, months, years. To be going down the wrong road as fast as we can run.
Maybe wisdom sounds boring to some. It is first of all pure. Right there we have a problem, because we aren't pure. This is the thing we must love about our God. The very first thing we need to gain wisdom is something He provided in His Son. Our purity. For our sake He made Him to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 6). The miracle of our purity also reveals to us, through the Holy Spirit, the mind of Christ (For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2). We can think like God. Renew our minds. See Him leading us down the road He custom built for each one of us. That is a thrilling thought! God can grant me wisdom to see my way. A way He takes my hand and walks me down. Back to being a child of Israel in the desert when God provides every little and big thing we need only this time tabernacling in us. No Moses needed. God Himself, by the Holy Spirit, our GPS. If we'd stop complaining and whining, we'd get there so much faster. And we'd enjoy the journey more. Because gaining wisdom is also about the journey. The fruit of wisdom isn't gained simply by the getting there. That's the payoff. Starting with the purifying of our lives, we learn to be peaceable, gentle and open to reason. Not always having to be right...especially in our arguments with God. (Admit it. You argue with God.) Life in Christ teaches us mercy because we know we continue to need His. And when we understand all the stuff we're capable of, it should be easier to be impartial and sincere. There's no self-righteousness in wisdom. (See above on how you got pure in the first place.)
Moses ends this prayer like this: Satisfy us in the morning with Your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let Your work be shown to Your servants and Your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!
The fruit of wisdom! We are right smack dab in the middle of His best for us! The work of our hands is blessed. There is favor and we are humble. Because we learned in the journey that God's love and mercies are new every morning. A morning that may be the dawn of the only day we have left. Embrace it. Rejoice and be glad in it and all the days that our Father gives thereafter. For the journey is as important as the destination because it is there we gain a heart of wisdom without which the promised land becomes a land of forgetfulness.
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