TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 26TH NOVEMBER 2022)
“I will fetch my knowledge from afar; I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker. For truly my words are not false; One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
Behold, God is mighty, but despises no one; He is mighty in strength of understanding.” Job 36:3-5 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 330TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
The source of life for the 330 days we have seen this year is God and His amazing grace. I do not deserve to be alive, I think you too, but God kept us alive nevertheless.
Yesterday night I heard with rude shock about the death of one of the vessels of God in the gospel music industry of Nigeria, Sammy Okposo, a man I consider a pace setter in so many things slumped and died in his home. Details of the cause of his death still sketchy. I said to myself, what a life. It could have been me, it could have been you, it could have been anyone.
We are not alive because of our righteousness, which many of us no longer have, or do not have at all. We are alive because of God’s mercies.
I keep wondering what might have made a man we have never heard was sick, slump in his own home on a Friday morning and died. There is so much pressure these days, especially for married men who decided to be responsible, returning home after the day’s work and be a father and a husband. Most are married to women who do not appreciate that.
Maybe that is why most married men these days no longer want to stay at home and be that responsible. Because you find rascal husbands being taken care off properly by their wives, because despite their rascality they still will not want to lose them. They love them and treat them like babies, they go about gathering stay at home prayers for them, even if the men have multiplied partners and even kids outside marriage.
But you find responsible husbands not enjoying even a bit of what some of these rascal husbands enjoy.
YOU FIND MANY NOT APPRECIATED BY THEIR WIVES.
Most treated very badly, for very little mistake the make. You find their phones being checked while they are not having any affair with anyone. You find some of them with wives who want them to defile themselves sexually with other women by making sure they are exposed to beautiful women who come in as house helps or friends or even sisters.
Doubtlessly, this man, the late Sammy, must have gone through a lot after coming out to confess his sin and do what most of us will never do publicly. It was not long ago that he escaped a terrible accident. Indeed, the devil hates those who confess their sins publicly because they are doing the right thing. Death seems to have been knocking at his door, maybe because of putting his life right. We pray the LORD comfort all he left behind.
When women go through stuff in the home front, they can shout about it, but when men go through, they lack words to express themselves. Those who do the society do not take them seriously.
If the society keeps treating men that way, especially responsible ones, the world might wake up one day to find that there are no men for women to marry, but just to sleep with and then go their way. Even responsible and chaste ones will no longer want to settle down with any women for fear of what might happen if they do.
It is my prayer that we learn from the painful experiences around us and begin to apply practical wisdom in our relationships. Which brings us to the next source of practical wisdom we want to share – experience.
We have been on a 30-day journey of faith with the Cry of the Holy Spirit on practical Wisdom. Today is the 26th day and we are wrapping up the journey with sources of practical wisdom. For two days we have been looking at Education, today we will be looking at experience. People have said experience is the best teacher. I believe that is because of the practical wisdom it should bring to our minds.
Our devotional text is a verse of the Bible that came out of a conversation that Job had with his friends in his days of adversity.
THERE IS A LINE THERE THAT CAPTURES WHAT EXPERIENCE SHOULD DO TO ANY WISE HEART.
The entire text says;
“So Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, answered and said: “I am young in years, and you are very old; Therefore, I was afraid, and dared not declare my opinion to you.
I said, ‘Age should speak, And multitude of years should teach wisdom.’ But there is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.
Great men are not always wise, nor do the aged always understand justice.” Job 32:6-9 NKJV
The line that says “multitude of years should teach wisdom” is the line that suggest what experience should to when it comes to sourcing for practical wisdom. Yes, there is a lot of practical wisdom that can be out sourced from experiences if we know how to apply our hearts unto wisdom.
The word experience has been defined as one or more events or occurrences that leaves an impression or impressions on someone.
It all depends on the kind of experience, the impression could be a new perspective to life, a loss of trust in something or someone, a phobia for something, a new attitude, a new demeanor, a new personality, or an impartation of practical wisdom.
In simple terms, the impact or impression can be negative or positive. The word experience also means practical contact with something, someone, or real-life situations that leaves an impression on someone. It is also observation of facts or events that leaves an impression.
All that can be a source of practical wisdom.
One of the best definitions I found in my study is the one that defined experience as knowledge or skill acquired from doing, seeing, feeling or sensing things. This is the definition that suitably present experience as a source of practical wisdom. The import is, the things we have all gone through in life should be a source of practical wisdom for us.
THE THINGS WE HAVE SEEN, FELT, DONE OR SENSED IN LIFE SHOULD FORM A FOUNTAIN OF WISDOM FOR US.
They should help us in making the right decisions in real-life situations. But sadly, for most of us they do not. We just forget to learn from our life histories hence repeating our bad decisions and recycling our problems.
The truths remain, if we do not learn from our private histories, we will keep repeating our wrong decisions. If we keep repeating our wrong life decisions, we will keep recycling our problems, and blaming them on demons. The greatest lessons in life sometimes will come from the private lessons we undertake from our personal life experiences.
Learn to take private lessons from your personal history. It will help you in the area of practical wisdom.
Sometimes God initiates that by allowing us to recall a bad past so that we can recall what created it and learn from it. He will allow our minds to slip back into those painful memories just to initiate a season of taking private lessons from the experiences. But most of us do not realize it. We rather slip into regrets and a sadness that clouds our minds, thereby defeating the purpose of the recall.
There are times also that GOD initiates this thought process to prevent a re-occurrence of a problem that occurred in the past.
You know God leaves in the future as well as the past and the present. So, if there is a very bad future lying ahead that will be created by the repeat of a decision that created it in the past, He will make us recall the bad past so that we can take some lessons from it and not repeat the wrong decision that created it in the past.
All these tells us how God uses our experiences to help us to move away from recycling our adversities to recycling our prosperity. Yes, God wants us to be recycling our prosperity so that it moves form generation to generation. That is the mystery of generational blessings. When we recycle the right decisions in life, they help perpetuate our prosperity.
BUT WHEN WE RECYCLE THE WRONG ONES, THEY PERPETUATE OUR ADVERSITY.
Yes, the Bible says we should not remember the former things that God will do a new thing. But there is a balance to that because God will help us remember the former things, not for us to live in the past but for us to draw lessons from it so that we will not destroy a glorious future that He is about creating for us.
Our life experiences remain a major source of practical wisdom. If we treat them well, and draw lessons instead of regrets from them, we will be able to allow them to fulfill a divine purpose in our lives.
The divine purposes of experiences are fulfilled when God takes the worst of our lives in our personal histories and turn them into the best for our lives, creating a glorious future.
Finally, I want to submit to you that while God is not the author of bad experiences, we will definitely have them because this life is not perfect. But when they happen, we are not to ignore the decisions that created them. We are to draw lessons from them so that we will not perpetuate our adversities.
There are two kinds of experiences, our personal experiences in life and other people’s experiences in life. Both can be sources of practical wisdom.
To learn from other people’s experiences, you have to listen to their stories and sometimes read autobiographies. But you do not do that without having the revelation of God’s blueprint for your life else you will end up copying other people’s lives and wrecking your own like it almost happened to me.
The experiences of others are for our example and if they are written in form of autobiographies, they are for our admonition. It is my prayer that God will use these few lines to add to the building blocks of our faith in Jesus precious name. Amen and amen!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“ Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” 1 Corinthians 10:11-12 NKJV