A New Year’s Resolution

                                       James_1-5  

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.  1 Corinthians 13:12

RECOMMENDED READING:  Proverbs 2:1-6  “My son, if you receive my words,And treasure my commands within you,2 So that you incline your ear to wisdom,And apply your heart to understanding;3 Yes, if you cry out for discernment,And lift up your voice for understanding,4 If you seek her as silver,And search for her as for hidden treasures;5 Then you will understand the fear of the Lord,And find the knowledge of God.6 For the Lord gives wisdom;From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;”

COMMENTS:  What is your New Year’s resolution or goal you set for 2019?  Most set goals like losing weight or spending more time with family or getting back into regular church attendance or achieving a specific goal they had been working towards.  For some it may be simply living another year or completing recovery from an illness or surgery.

Well, today’s devotion and scripture from Proverbs reminds us of the importance of seeking God’s wisdom and making acquiring wisdom a dominant goal for each new year and for 2019.

 Solomon was asked by God, when he became king as a boy after the death of his father.   Solomon was grieving his father, David’s, death and felt unprepared and unequipped and too young to become king.  He saw how his father was loved and respected and how God’s influence guided and helped his father.  I’m sure he wanted to be like his father and felt overwhelmed.  He could have asked for wealth and a way out of the responsibilities being thrust on him.   He could have but he didn’t.  HE ASKED GOD FOR WISDOM TO LEAD AND GOVERN HIS PEOPLE RIGHTLY AND IN A MANNER GOD WOULD APPROVE AND SUPPORT.

David exampled many examples of what not to do, but he also left Solomon many good examples and wise council.  He also exampled how to repent and seek God’s mercy and forgiveness too.

God granted Solomon’s request for wisdom in a way beyond his expectations and then granted Solomon wealth and power and respect and love from his people beyond his expectations or even what his father enjoyed.

Solomon started out strong and delivered a prayer, at the dedication of the temple God enabled and directed him to build, that demonstrated great wisdom and insight and was even prophetic for generations from then even today.  I invite you to  read and meditate on the preparation,  prayer, dedication message of that Temple in Jerusalem and God’s response are recorded in 2 Chronicles 5-7.  I get inspired every time I read and meditate on that scripture passage.  I invite and encourage you to set aside time and do so soon too as will I again.

So what is wisdom and why is it so important?  

 

Well, Webster’s Dictionary defines wisdom as:

“ 1.ability to discern inner qualities and relationships : INSIGHT                      

2.good sense : JUDGMENT

3.generally accepted belief challenges what has become

4.accumulated philosophical or scientific learning : KNOWLEDGE

5.a wise attitude, belief, or course of action

6.the teachings of the ancient wise men”

 

How does scripture define wisdom?

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding”    PROVERBS 9:10.

 

 Four Types of wisdom identified in scripture: 

  1. Perfect wisdom of God demonstrated at creation and by creation until the fall.
  2. World wisdom – man’s laws and regulations
  3. Solomon’s wisdom – recorded in proverbs
  4. God’s wisdom to man – recorded in the bible
    1. Matthew 5 – Beatitudes (poor in spirit, comfort for grieving, meek, hunger for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, pursue righteousness, falsely persecuted.)
    2. Things God hates (Proverbs 6:16-19) – proud, lying, murder of innocent blood, wicked imaginations, mischief, being a lying witness, sowing discord.

 

So, I am discovering that defining wisdom is not as simple or easy or as brief as one would think.   Wisdom is more than knowledge or following laws or rules but includes these.  It is more than avoiding don’t but includes these. 

But wisdom starts with a healthy respect and awe for God.   The house with 7 pillars of wisdom mentioned in Proverbs 9 are not defined sufficiently in Proverbs 9.  Instead, wisdom can only be defined by prayful reading and meditating on Proverbs plus the Gospels plus Paul’s letters plus Psalms plus…  In otherwords, wisdom can best be studied by studying scripture and by seeking and having fellowship with God.  Truth is best we can do is imitate the wisdom we see in others and is described by those who witnessed it in Christ unless we  allow the Holy Spirit to indwell us and  exercise that wisdom in and  through us.  We should expect God’s wisdom to be vast and beyond our comprehension since it comes from Him.  However , we can expect His Wisdom comes with relationship with Him and will grow and expand as our relationship with Him grows.  

So how would I describe or define wisdom? 

  1. AS THE EVIDENCE OF A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD AND HIS ABIDING HOLY SPIRIT INDWELLING IN THE BELIEVER.
  2. Make Christ-like choices (WWJD) after seeking the Holy Spirit’s council first and confirming with scripture.
  3. Never facing temptation alone but always behind Christ following His example of following of knowing and using scripture and not our own wisdom or strength.
  4. Wisdom is not earned or bought or taken but true wisdom comes with obedience with and being in relationship with Christ. Wisdom comes by seeking His Wisdom through prayer and studying His Word and following Him.   
  5. Wisdom is a lifelong quest and is a daily life giving gift from God like air or water or food is to the body. It cannot be stored and used without being plugged into His Holy Spirit.   An electric lawn mower does nothing without being plugged into a good electric source.  Neither can we exercise God’s wisdom without being plugged into Him. 

 

So, what is the best resolution we need to make in 2019.  Is it seeking a slimmer wasteline?  No but is a worthy goal.  Is it going to church regularly? No, but moving in right direction.  Is it to read the bible daily and pray daily?  Getting warmer.  Is it studying Christ’s life and doing what Jesus would do – following his example?  Getting warmer.   Is it studing what the bible says about wisdom and following that instruction?  Getting warmer.  IT IS BEING IN FELLOWSHIP WITH AND OBEDIENCE WITH CHRIST AND THEN SEEKING HIS WISDOM AND HELP IMPLEMENTING THAT WISDOM EACH AND EVERY DAY.  Then doing all the above things will have value and benefit, but doing them without a personal relationship with Christ falls short of being enough.                                                    He who has a constant longing for wisdom will persistently pray for it.
D. Edmond Hiebert

If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 333 blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present.

You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily.  My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/                                                                             Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to   explore and use my devotional blog materials.

My hope and prayer are, my blog and devotional materials will become a source of encouragement and tools in ministry for you.

 

Published by donsdevotions

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Don McDaniel - Who am I? Hello everyone and welcome to my devotional journal blog. In order to get acquainted and help you get to know me a bit better before considering following my blog, let me give you some background. I am a 74-year-old male and a retired engineer. I worked for a major supplier of underground mining equipment for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2012. Arlene and I have been happily married since April 1978 and have two grown – married children, one granddaughter and 2 step grandsons. I joined the local United Methodist church at age 12 after accepting Christ as my Savior at age 10 during revival services in that same church in 1961, so I have been a “Born Again” Christian all my teen years and adult life. Christ has helped and guided me all that time. He guided me in choosing my wife and life’s career. My life journey has included regrets and failures, but God has picked me up and protected and spared me from life threatening consequences and dangers more times than I can recall or count. But many I do recall and encourage and motivate me to trust and follow Christ with more passion than ever. Christmas 2011 our daughter gave Arlene and I each a devotional journal. Journals were books with devotion for each day and space to give personal impressions and thoughts related to each devotion. Her desire was to have a lasting legacy she could refer back to and share with her children and grandchildren especially after we are gone. I was touched by that gesture. My parents and Arlene’s were devout Christians, so we would have greatly treasured having that from them, so we felt a sense of urgency to honor her request. I finished my journal first and returned it to our daughter the following Christmas. I’m glad I did it then because Parkinson’s has caused my hand writing to deteriorate since then. The exercise was such a blessing for me. Discipline of keeping journal helped me gain a deeper walk with Christ and greater discipline in honoring my time of prayer and devotion with Him each day. So, I decided to continue the practice but since I could not find a paper journal I liked, I decided to create my own. I had already been receiving electronic devotions by email every day from several sources, my favorite being “Turning Point” from Dr. David Jeremiah. What I decided to do was to include devotional scripture but add my own thoughts and comments only so there would be no issue of copyright infringement. Creating and maintaining journal by computer also addressed my deteriorating handwriting ability. I started an electronic devotion journal January 1, 2013 and have been faithful to that practice every day since. I prayed about method and level of distribution. My initial intent was to only share it with my two children by email, but quickly discovered others in my family, my church, and friends from work (both retired and still working) who knew me and wanted to be included in distribution when they learned what I was doing. I now distribute by email my daily journal at the beginning of each month to over 150 friends and relatives. God has richly blessed and encouraged me. I am concerned with the state of our church and nation, and world for that matter, believing we are living in the end times the prophets of old and Christ have talked about in scripture, so time is short. I desire to be true to my Savior and a witness to help others come to a saving knowledge of Him and equipped to share His Good News too. If my journal can encourage and help others, I believe God wants me to share it. I struggled, for a time at first, because I know many others keep similar journals but only for their own edification and do not want to share them because they are private. However, Christ has stirred my heart to share it as a witness tool. Our son and daughter have a long-time friend who grew up with them who we also befriended nearly 25 years ago. He had a lot of family problems, so would gravitate to our family as a refuge and eventually thought of us as his adopted parents and he as our adopted son. We lost contact with him for some time when he grew up and left home. He traveled around the U.S. and eventually ended up in Ukraine where he resided for next 10 years. He had to return to the US to renew his visa and took opportunity to recommend I begin a blog of my devotions and helped me set it up. He is also an active blogger and has been an email subscriber to my journal for several months, so he has been suggesting I expand my distribution by starting a blog to get broader exposure. After reflection and prayer, I concluded God was in this, so he is helping me set up my blog site. This brief autobiography is my first entry. He returned to Ukraine, then resided there until circumstanced made him decide to move back to US with his young son. This biography was my first post February 29, 2016 . I have published 600 posts from 2016-2023 automatically sent to all my Facebook friends, published on WordPress to be accessible to anyone curious or seeking a deeper walk with God. I decided to take a sebatical to prepare for a new chapter. In 2014 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease which affects patient ability to walk, drive, do physical work, and eventually talk. By mid 2023 it became evident our home for last 42 years (previously owned by my parents for previous 44 years and by my mother's grandparents for 39 years before that) would eventually not meet my needs so we decided to sell it and move into 1st floor of a duplex we also owned that was the town school from 1855-1913. Likewise, the property was requiring more maintenance that I was no longer able to keep up with. 2023 involved selling our home and moving into apartment next door and then in early 2025 an opportunity to move closer to our daughter and granddaughter in Kentucky which was completed in May 2025. For a number of months I have been seeking direction seeking God's direction and timing to return to blogging as my journey with Parkinson's continues to unfold with God's guiding hand in mine. I hope and pray my devotions will continue to be a blessing for you. God certainly has become closer and more real to me since started this blog in 2016. I have spent time with Him studying scripture and praying and listening and writing this journal. I will continue seeking God’s help and will welcome your input to make this site as meaningful as I can and true to God, who is motivating me to create and maintain it. I will also welcome input in order to make format more meaningful going forward. Don & Arlene McDaniel In His Service, Email: mcdanieldonald769@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Don1951 If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 600+ blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present (https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/link-to-dons-devotional-journal-entries-2013/ ) You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials.

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