TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 23RD NOVEMBER 2022)
“Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was approaching. Jesus looked up then, and seeing that a vast multitude was coming toward Him, He said to Philip, where are we to buy bread, so that all these people may eat?
But He said this to prove (test) him, for He well knew what He was about to do.” John 6:4-6 AMPC
WELCOME TO THE 327TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
We thank the LORD God for giving us another day to be alive and well. It is out of His mercies that we are not consumed. He has been faithful and merciful and our lives are the evidence.
Yes, the LORD has been speaking to us about practical wisdom. It has been 23 days of drinking from this stream of life on the same. The latest we have seen is practical wisdom on holy living. Practical wisdom has been defined to us as the application of the knowledge of the Holy One to our everyday life.
We have seen the knowledge of the Holy One that we need to apply in our quest to live morally pure lives. Today we will be going further into other definitions of practical wisdom. Most of our lives are physical or practical lives, making it impossible to succeed on earth without practical wisdom. It is my prayer that we find something helpful today in Jesus precious name.
There will always be consequences whenever and wherever practical wisdom is not applied. The consequences of not applying practical wisdom to life situations can even be death and unredeemable destruction. Our lives are full of wounds and injuries we got when we took decisions without applying practical wisdom.
For some, the wounds and injuries have been healed and now the scars have refused to go. Once a while they remind us of how foolish we were. It is therefore important that we keep updating our knowledge and keep seeking for wisdom.
Practical wisdom for the child of GOD is not just the application of the knowledge of the Holy One to our everyday life, but knowing what is good, right, or best given a particular situation.
IT IS KNOWING THE RIGHT THING TO DO IN ANY SITUATION OF LIFE.
It is knowing what right thing to do when you are face to face with lack; knowing what right thing to do when you are sick; knowing what right thing to do when you are disappointed; knowing what right thing to do when you are angry; knowing what right thing to do when you are having marital problems; knowing what right thing to do when you are being tempted or going through the trials of faith.
Yes, it is knowing what right thing to do when you are pregnant and need help. You do not go fighting those who offend you at that time of your life. It is knowing what right thing to do when you are in trouble, pain, sorrow, hardship, the worst days of your life, or when you are succeeding, excelling or experiencing the best days of your life.
Practical wisdom is knowing what right thing to do when you are facing career failure. It is knowing what right thing to do when you are failing on your job, schooling, running a home either as a husband, a wife, father, a mother, or a house manager. It is simply knowing what right thing to do when faced with real life situations and events.
You see, we may always know what to do when we are faced with real life situations and events but we do not always know what RIGHT THING to do. It is when we do the right thing that we will get the desirable result not when we do anything that may seem good in our sight at that time. Our devotional text says;
“Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was approaching. Jesus looked up then, and seeing that a vast multitude was coming toward Him, He said to Philip, where are we to buy bread, so that all these people may eat?
But He said this to prove (test) him, for He well knew what He was about to do.” John 6:4-6 AMPC
This scripture made it clear that Jesus knew well what He was about to do in the situation that He found Himself but He spoke to Philip about it just to test him. That is exactly what practical wisdom is all about. It is knowing what right thing to do when faced with a life situation.
IN SIMPLE TERMS, IT IS COMMON SENSE AND THE PROPER APPLICATION OF THE SAME.
Any real-life situation will consume you if you do not take the right decision in your quest to bring it under control. Many people are suffering because they wake up in the morning, pass through their day, and go back to bed without taking the right decisions in life.
You will never live a hardship free life if you do not know the right decision to take when faced with the situations of life. When we say practical wisdom, we are referring to the ability to use your experience and knowledge to make sensible decisions when faced with real life situations and events. It is something that transcends having ideas and theories. It has to do with putting them to work when faced with real life situations and events.
Knowledge is only useful to the person that has it if it can be put to work, especially when faced with real life situations. Like we have always said, it is what is in our heads that puts us ahead. If we do not make use of what GOD has put in our heads, especially when faced with real life situations, we will remain behind in life.
There are a lot of people who go to Church today and return home to face real life situations and events without knowing what to do about them. Before you know it, they will begin to apply the ways of this world to solve them; some will even be sinning against God and doing what is not right in His sight to arrest the situations.
Going to church and enjoying every bit of corporate fellowship and returning back home to face real life situations without knowing what to do can be very frustrating. Sometimes you even doubt if the power and presence of the LORD that touched you during the service was real.
The truth is, if you are in a good church, it was real. It is just that you lack common sense to apply to your real-life situation. You do not know the right thing to do to change your situation. Do not fall back to the sinful way of getting things done else you will not get to your promised land. The right thing is not always the sinful way that looks promising before you.
LET WHAT HAPPENED TO THE NATION OF ISRAEL ON THEIR WAY TO THE PROMISE LAND BE AN EXAMPLE TO US.
The Bible says;
“And they all drank the same spiritual (supernaturally given) drink. For they drank from a spiritual Rock which followed them [produced by the sole power of God Himself without natural instrumentality], and the Rock was Christ.
Nevertheless, God was not pleased with the great majority of them, for they were overthrown and strewn down along [the ground] in the wilderness.
Now these things are examples (warnings and admonitions) for us not to desire or crave or covet or lust after evil and carnal things as they did.
Do not be worshipers of false gods as some of them were, as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink [the sacrifices offered to the golden calf at Horeb] and rose to sport (to dance and give way to jesting and hilarity).
We must not gratify evil desire and indulge in immorality as some of them did—and twenty-three thousand [suddenly] fell dead in a single day!
We should not tempt the Lord [try His patience, become a trial to Him, critically appraise Him, and exploit His goodness] as some of them did—and were killed by poisonous serpents; Nor discontentedly complain as some of them did—and were put out of the way entirely by the destroyer (death).
Now these things befell them by way of a figure [as an example and warning to us]; they were written to admonish and fit us for right action by good instruction, we in whose days the ages have reached their climax (their consummation and concluding period).” 1 Corinthians 10:4-11 AMPC
This scripture tells us what the generation of Israelites that left Egypt did in reaction to all they faced in the wilderness. They did not just wake up and start doing the bad things stated here, they did them because they faced real life situations and events that they did not handle well.
They took the sinful path in handling them instead of the common-sense path, resulting in all the bad things they did. You know, when Israel left Egypt, they were on their way to the promised land.
BUT THEY HAD A WILDERNESS TO GO THROUGH.
They also had the presence of GOD as the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day to be with them. They were full of hope and joy but never knew that there were rigors of life on the way that will require that they apply common sense to in other to overcome them. They thought the finger of GOD will do everything.
So, when they came face to face to real life situations and events that characterized their own wilderness experience, most times they cried and decided to go back physically to Egypt, other times they just went back to the Egyptian ways resulting in the things we read in 1 Corinthians 10:4-11.
It is like you and I deciding to go back to the ways of sin and of this world to solve our real-life situations. They Bible said for most of them, their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. They never made it to the promise land.
For us in Christ, it is practical foolishness to engage in the ways of this world to solve realm life situations. We are to engage God’s way of dealing with them to solve them. The presence and power from GOD that touch us in Church should be tapped into through prayers for guidance and wisdom. It should be our source for the common sense we may need to solve our problems.
I know there are bad churches that are just money-making machines, political parties, social clubs and metaphysical cults, but there are also good churches.
If you find yourself in one, make use of it properly; because if we keep going to a good church, and keep hoping for the best, without drawing from the presence of GOD that we experience there, the common sense we need to apply to the real-life situations and events that surrounds us, a day will come when we will return back to Egypt to copy their ways, start withdrawing from GOD, becoming offended, or stop going to church altogether out of frustration.
Understand that, when faced with real life situations and events, it is the sense you apply that will save you not the power or presence that touched you when you were in church. The power and presence should give you the common sense to apply if you channel your faith in that direction through prayers for wisdom.
I believe enough for the day have been shared.
Life is all about what you know and how you use it to ruin or raise yourself on earth. If you do not like what you are seeing in life, check the decisions you have been making and the kind of sense you have been applying to the real-life situations that surrounds you.
You are today the kind of sense you applied yesterday, and you will be tomorrow the kind of sense you apply today. Ask God for wisdom for practical living. You may also need to observe those who are succeeding and learn one or tow things from them.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him.
Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind.
For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything [he asks for] from the Lord,
[For being as he is] a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute), [he is] unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything [he thinks, feels, decides].” James 1:5-8 AMPC