The older I get, the more simple my prayer requests become. And I have noticed – especially as I lead this ministry to people with disabilities around the globe –I have noticed, working on the Disability Advisory Committee to the U.S. State Department… I have noticed that all I really want, all I truly need is wisdom. Oh, to be able to make the right decisions! Give the right advice! Know what to do in difficult situations! Know how to respond! That’s what I find myself praying for more and more: Lord God, please give me godly wisdom.
“But where can wisdom be found?” Job says in the 28th chapter of his book. “Where does understanding dwell? Man does not comprehend its worth…. It cannot be bought with the finest gold, nor can its price be weighed in silver…. the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.”
I love that picture… that thing about rubies. Have you ever seen rubies on display at a gem show or in a jewelry store? Picture for a moment a packing crate out in the middle of a sun-drenched field, filled to the brim with rubies, spilling over with dark and dazzling red stones of every size, cut in a million intricate and perfect facets. How they would flash and sparkle, like scarlet fire. Then imagine plunging your hand into that crate of rubies, bringing up a heaping handful, and letting the rare and precious stones—all cool, smooth, and clean—spill through your fingers.
Very nice, says Job, a man who certainly knew all about wealth and how to appreciate the finer things of life. But if you have a choice (Job would say), if you would have your druthers, trade the whole box full of those precious red stones for wisdom and never look back. For Job tells us that “The price of wisdom is beyond rubies.”
Wisdom, they say, is not the ability to figure out what God is doing in any or every situation. A lot of Christians think that, but that’s not wisdom. Wisdom is not the gift of reading God's mind or understanding His purposes. True wisdom – that is, Godly wisdom – is trusting God even when you can’t (or I should say, especially when you can’t) understand God's purposes. That’s real wisdom. And Job 28 says wisdom like that has a price. It will cost you something. It will cost you your time and your discipline; it costs you your pride or your logic, or your selfish inclination to be bitter when you’re in the midst of a trial or a test. Wisdom will cost you hours in the Word of God or hours spent travailing in prayer. Wisdom carries that kind of price tag. A price that is far beyond rubies. But I'm with Job. Trade the whole trunk full of precious stones for that wonderful common sense that is heaven-sent. That is Godly wisdom.
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JONI AND FRIENDS
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