Pastor Sabrina Slimmer
Keymar Wesleyan Church
(10/1) Where is your faith? How do you know you have faith, better yet how can you tell if someone else has faith? In the book of James we read the author James (The brother of Jesus) making a bold statement; "If faith has no deeds to show, by itself is it dead." James is not asking a philosophical question, he is making a theological statement. Faith without action is not faith.
This statement should ignite a fire in us or at the least make us stop and question ourselves. Is my faith evident enough in my life that others notice it? In other words, are the things I do showing that I have faith in the saving hope and grace of Jesus? See we are asked to do more than just boast about our faith. Our faith is to be Lived out. Faith therefore becomes more than just us saying we have it, it becomes an action, something we do.
The bible tells us that faith without works is a dead faith. Not that we are saved by our works but that it is through what we do that people are able to see the evidence, the proof of the faith we continually talk about.
I have a pastor friend who said, "Mercy always changes the story." Remembering that it was mercy given to us that changed our story when we accepted Jesus Christ, and when we show mercy to others we show evidence of our faith becoming more like Jesus. There is a difference between knowing about the love of God and applying the love of God.
Albert Einstein once said "Any fool can know. The point is to understand." We can hear about the love of God, and we can read about the love of God and we can know that God loves us and forgives us, but that does not mean we apply it to our lives or that we even understand or totally grasp what it truly means to be loved, and forgiven by God.
The definition of wisdom is the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of experience, knowledge, and good judgment. The key is we can only apply what we have learned, and only when we understand it.
When I was 16 I got my drivers permit and had to take a drivers ed course in school that had practical driving skills time in a car with an instructor. That instructor taught me how to drive safely, three point turns, and how to parallel park. The instructor taught me the how-to, the knowledge, but what he couldn’t give me was his wisdom from years of his driving experience. Wisdom is gained by experiences.
In my senior year of high school I was in a horrible car accident that happened due to black ice on the road. I fishtailed for a while thinking I could straighten it back out with the knowledge my driver's ed teacher gave me. I did not have enough experience in driving before this happened and I ended up spinning my car into the side of a mountain, rolling and flipping my car.
Knowledge reminded me to turn into the spin, wisdom later taught me that rear wheel drive would have straightened me out had I stepped on the gas instead of the brakes. Here’s the difference between knowledge and wisdom. I knew in my head what to do, but I did not know how to properly apply it. My knowledge that night was man given, and I know there are many things our parents have passed down as far as wisdom goes that we do retain and become useful.
But, it is said that a truly wise person is a good person, and a truly good person is someone from the very beginning who wisely chooses to give God His proper place in his or her life.
There is a difference between human wisdom and divine wisdom. I, with my accident, was left with pain and frustration, but God given wisdom enables us to lead a good and true and satisfying life.
Have you ever known someone who claimed to be wise, but acted foolishly? Just as you can identify a tree by the type of fruit it produces, you can evaluate others and your own wisdom by the way you act.
Wisdom Is the ability to see life from God’s perspective and then to know the right course of action to take. Wisdom comes from knowing and trusting God; it is not merely the way to find God. Knowing God will lead to understanding and then to sharing this knowledge with others.
Proverbs 1:7b gives us a warning. It’s a warning to not turn away or ignore good wisdom and discipline when it is given - it reads "Only fools despise wisdom and discipline."
We can all agree that one of the most annoying types of people is a know it all, an opinion on everything, closed minded to anything new, hates to be criticized in helping them grow, resents discipline, and refuses to learn.
One of the wisest men in the Bible Solomon calls this person a fool!
See The problem is - Knowledge is plentiful, but wisdom is scarce. Wisdom is more than just knowing a lot, it’s an attitude that affects every aspect of life.
Our foundation should be to honor and respect God, to live in awe of His power, and to obey His word. Faith in God should be the controlling principle for your understanding of the world, your attitudes, and your actions.
When we are "all in" so to speak for God. Our attitudes, actions, behaviors, and motives begin to change. We go from knowing God loves us to giving God’s love because He first loved us.
But God doesn’t want us to just know and hold on to His love. He wants us to understand, have the wisdom that it is more than we can ever imagine and give it away! So where do we find it, how can we identify it and begin to understand it?
If you want wisdom, then you must decide to go after it. It takes determination! Yes the road will get difficult, and it will become a daily choice between two roads - the foolish or the righteous. Nothing else is more important or more valuable than to seek and gain wisdom from the Lord.
We don’t have to wait for God to appear to us. We can boldly ask Him for wisdom today though prayer.
It doesn’t matter if you're new or have seeked Him for years. The word tells us to search for it daily.
To learn more about Keymar Wesleyan Chuch visit them at www.keymarwesleyan.org or better yet, join them for Sunday service at 1011 Francis Scott Key Hwy, Keymar
