FROM THE SERVANT GENERAL
OUR THEME FOR 2025
(Part 6)
THE WISDOM OF GOD
October 13, 2024
Today’s reading:
Wisdom 7:7-11
Psalm 90:12-17
Hebrews 4:12-13
Mark 10:17-30
What is the foundation for our hope? It is God. And since “all things are possible for God” (Mk 10:27b), then in God we can have endless hope, no matter how seemingly impossible our present situation is. Our hope abounds.
But it should be obvious that for this to be the case, that we need to put our faith and trust in God. We allow God to take over our lives. We submit to His holy will. We put on His mind and heart. We look to His wisdom.
How do we take on the wisdom of God? First and foremost, we need to pray. We pray without ceasing. We persevere in prayer. “Therefore I prayed, and prudence was given me; I pleaded and the spirit of Wisdom came to me.” (Wis 7:7). With the Spirit and wisdom of God, all good things open up to us, according to God’s will. “Yet all good things together came to me with her” (Wis 7:11a).
When we pray, it is important that we delve into the word of God, the Bible. Since our hope is in God, we need to be right with God, to be attuned to His ways and values. There are those who pray but are deceived by their own desires, thoughts and emotions. Now “the word of God is …. able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.” (Heb 4:12). It purifies our intentions. It guides us along the right paths. It puts our hope not on worldly things but solely on God.
Second, since we know God is with us, even as we encounter trials and woes in life, we endure in affliction, and even rejoice in hope. “Make us glad as many days as you humbled us, for as many years as we have seen trouble.” (Ps 90:15). Each new day is a day of hope, of renewal, of reversal of negatives in life, of expectation. “Fill us at daybreak with your mercy, that all our days we may sing for joy.” (Ps 90:14).
Third, we must know that the wisdom of God is oftentimes counter to the wisdom of the world. The world’s values are all around us, presented in attractive packages, such that we might already be veering away from God’s ways as we seek to find happiness and fulfillment in life. Like the rich young man, we seek the Lord as we look “to inherit eternal life” (Mk 10:17). We know of the commandments (Mk 10:19). But beyond just being good people, God calls us to holiness and perfection. If we want this (and we should!), we are to let go of worldly values and even goods so that we “will have treasure in heaven” (Mk 10:21). Jesus’ disciples found this hard and even impossible. “Then who can be saved?” (Mk 10:26). Salvation is possible only with God (Mk 10:27).
When we do leave everything behind and follow Jesus (Mk 10:28) for the sake of the gospel, we can expect to be blessed tremendously, much more than we can imagine (Mk 10:29-30). But such blessings include persecutions. This is where we need to cling more to Jesus, not just for blessings including material rewards on earth, but so that we can endure in affliction until we pass on from this valley of tears. We “receive a hundred times more now in this present age …. and eternal life in the age to come.” (Mk 10:30).
Due to the love and plan of God, the wisdom we find in God’s word, the teachings of Jesus—our hope abounds.
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