Wise Choice

"It is knowing God personally, hearing His voice and trusting His love for us that brings maturity, and maturity in faith will manifest the answer."

OUR LIVES ARE SO SHORT, and we waste them on minutia, on emotions and experiences that gratify for a moment, but which hold no lasting value. Not that we should avoid joys and interests or not use our talents. One who is gifted to sing should sing. And it’s okay to watch a football game if that is your entertainment. But that flash of anger which causes us to overreact, or the temporary high of some spur-of-the-moment action, are regretted later.

No one's perfect. I used to say this to my mother, much to her annoyance. What mom wants to hear such from their young child, especially on repeat? It becomes an excuse. However, in this context, no one is perfect. Mistakes are made by everyone. Or I should phrase it this way as well—one Man is perfect. That Man is Jesus Christ. God in heaven is perfect. We are told to seek perfection, to be perfect as He is perfect (Matthew 5:48). The man Job is called perfect, yet he had to repent and pray for his friends in order to be healed. Perfection is more properly defined as maturity. We are to grow up in spiritual understanding and stop making rash incorrect choices. God has provided forgiveness through Jesus Christ, but for us to rely on it so that we can remain foolish is just that, foolish.

Oh, grow up! We say that about people. My husband and I used to watch the television show C.O.P.S. a lot, and it was filled with foolish people who made instant decisions because it felt good and to heck with the rules. There was a price to be paid for their behavior, in the end. Some people would rather be immature and foolish than mature because, at least, the choice they made was their own and not one forced on them. Doing right because it’s right is called obedience, and obedience requires submission to authority. This is where many people struggle. No one’s going to tell them what to do.

The book of Proverbs has many descriptions of foolish people. The foolish man is pictured as lazy. He avoids honest work and tries to get by without making much effort. He is filled with pride over his lack of achievement and is eager to talk about himself. He tells everyone everything he knows, but he does not speak in wisdom or in truth. In fact, the man of wisdom is often contrasted with him. Jesus said a wise man built his house upon a rock and a foolish man built it upon sand, the contrast there being one man chose obedience to Jesus’ words (He is the Word), and the other man chose to use his own knowledge and common sense. Then, when the storm came, the house built upon Christ survived it.

The storm is anything which tries to knock you down. It could be a health issue or a family problem, trouble at work or something accidental that hit you by surprise. Circumstances of life sometimes derail us, but the Spirit of God within us guides us through them and the Word of God spoken by us will bring us strength and hope. It is hearing the Word that gives us faith, but not simply hearing the words aloud as by rote. Faith comes from relationship. It is knowing God personally, hearing His voice and trusting His love for us that brings maturity, and maturity in faith will manifest the answer. Jesus spoke to those with “great faith,” “little faith,” and “no faith.” What made the difference between them was their understanding of who He was and what He came to do. The Roman centurion understood what authority was and recognized it in Jesus. Jesus spoke and the centurion’s servant was healed, Jesus saying in that moment that He hadn’t seen such great faith in all of Israel. Clearly, at some point, the centurion had not only heard of Jesus but matured where many of the Jews had not.

“Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3)

God does not condemn us for our lack of understanding nor for not being as perfect as we will be. Growing up is a process which requires time to be completed, and even the apostle Paul at the end of his life was having to make decisions based on His relationship with God and His knowledge of spiritual truths. We will only become mature, or perfect, through continued effort, through time reading and putting God’s Word in our hearts, and through growing in our awareness of the Spirit. We must see ourselves through God’s eyes and refuse to stay where we are and who we are and, instead, reach forward toward what Philippians 3:14 calls “the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” This is the goal of our maturity. Through our spiritual growth, we reach the level of what God has planned for us and are seen by Him as fully mature and lacking nothing.

This man will hear that he has been “good and faithful” in all that the Lord has asked of Him, and such is my own heart, no longer to live for myself but for Him who called me, who equipped me, and to at all times be obedient to such great love.

“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:” (Ephesians 4:11-13)

“I press forward, constantly toward the goal of Christlike perfection—one day to experience the ultimate prize for which God has called me heavenward—the joy of seeing him face to face.” (Philippians 3:14)


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com