Proverbs 2:1-11
When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul,discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you,
Your focus determines your reality.
Whatever you pursue becomes the lens thru which you see life. Your brain is built for, among other things, association. This is a lot of what mind mapping is about. Your brain is always making associations. So whatever you have filled it with, and are filling it with, will be referenced as you navigate thru the story that is your life.
For instance, I spent a huge amount of time on Star Wars as a child. So I still see much of life with that as my reference point. This is not all bad as George Lucas invoked a lot of universal and religious truth into his films. But much more so, I want to see life thru God’s perspective as much as it is possible for a human being that He created is able to. And He has given us paths to such a perspective. His word, His Son, His Holy Spirit, His people…
As long as you have desire, and therefore, the willingness to do the work of the pursuit of wisdom, you can and will find more and more the “mind of God” because He has made Himself available to all who seek Him. We have as much of God as we want to have. And as we do pursue Him and His wisdom, our nature actually changes, our brains rewire, and we start seeing the world and everyone in it thru God’s perspective. His perspective of love becomes ours. His desires and our desires begin to match up. [This is why seeking God above all else in life brings us everything we want, because we will no longer want what we don’t/can’t have.] We start seeing the precious jewel at the core of all people more than our frustrations with them. This is the renewing of our minds.
And this requires work to be done on our part. This is not difficult, but it is challenging because it does take time and effort and focus. But doesn’t anything that is worth anything call for these three? The number one reason for not pursuing wisdom is probably good ol’ plainĀ laziness. I have yet to meet someone whose life circumstances literally kept them from seeking God.
Think of wisdom as the skill to live life well. Who wants to live life well? Most everybody I would say. But how many are willing to do what it takes to live life well? Very few it seems from the evidence of a lack of purposeful action. We have plenty of knowledge, but a deficit of action.
Mark 5:35-43
And they laughed at Him.
He put them all out.
Those who believe see great and miraculous things. We see what we want to see, what we are ready to see. In this story, Jesus seemed to only let in the ones who believed, to see the miraculous raising of this young girl from the dead. Those who laughed at Him were made to go outside.
Our Father is at work and speaking everywhere. If only we would lift a finger to pull back that curtain, we would see another world, quite literally. But we are content, or so we think, to sit in a darkened room with the curtains closed making light of the idea that there is more. But there is much more. If only we have the eyes to see.
Not only can we pull back that curtain, we can enter that world we now see. God is in the mundane and the annoying, if only you choose to look! That thing that broke..is it really just merely an inconvenience? Or is it yet another chance to encounter the living communicating God? That person that gets on your every nerve..is that really all that is there? Or is YHWH presenting Himself in that form to grow you into the person He created you to be?
Life is way more than what we see. It is how we see. Wake up! Stop laughing, and look below the surface of every moment and interaction, for God is there, loving you, calling you to move closer to Him. But only if you are aware and accept, for He does not force His way into your heart.