The Daily Fountain Devotional of the Church Of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) 6 November 2021 – Determined To Be Wise
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TOPIC: Determined To Be Wise
READ: Ecclesiastes 7:15-29 (NKJV)
- I have seen everything in my days of vanity: There is a just [man] who perishes in his righteousness, And there is a wicked [man] who prolongs [life] in his wickedness.
- Do not be overly righteous, Nor be overly wise: Why should you destroy yourself?
- Do not be overly wicked, Nor be foolish: Why should you die before your time?
- [It is] good that you grasp this, And also not remove your hand from the other; For he who fears God will escape them all.
- Wisdom strengthens the wise More than ten rulers of the city.
- For [there is] not a just man on earth who does good And does not sin.
- Also do not take to heart everything people say, Lest you hear your servant cursing you.
- For many times, also, your own heart has known That even you have cursed others.
- All this I have proved by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise”; But it [was] far from me.
- As for that which is far off and exceedingly deep, Who can find it out?
- I applied my heart to know, To search and seek out wisdom and the reason [of things,] To know the wickedness of folly, Even of foolishness [and] madness.
- And I find more bitter than death The woman whose heart [is] snares and nets, Whose hands [are] fetters. He who pleases God shall escape from her, But the sinner shall be trapped by her.
- ” Here is what I have found,” says the Preacher, “[Adding] one thing to the other to find out the reason,
- Which my soul still seeks but I cannot find: One man among a thousand I have found, But a woman among all these I have not found.
- Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, But they have sought out many schemes.”
THE MESSAGE:
God’s word tells us that the most important thing we can do in life is to seek wisdom from God. Proverbs 4:7 declares: “Wisdom is supreme, therefore get wisdom… “The wisdom of God- the power to put our time and our knowledge to proper use – is essential to a meaningful and godly life. Solomon, in this text, laments his own iniquity (having many wives) as being more vexatious than vanities; it turned him away from God and his duty (verse 23-29). For these reasons, he determined to be wise (verse 23), and applied his heart to understanding (verse 25). Those who seek wisdom by their own efforts fail; God gives wisdom. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives generously to all without finding fault, (James 1:5).
Wisdom offers us long life, wealth, and honour but sin is a big hindrance to wisdom. “I discovered for myself a bitterness that surpasses that of death: The woman whose heart is full of snares and nets, whose hands are chains of bondage.. ” (verse 26). This woman is the personification of the seduction of immorality and wickedness; the exact opposite of the woman personified as wisdom in Proverbs 8:1-4. It takes a wise and God-fearing believer to overcome her. Sinners cannot find wisdom because they are ensnared by wickedness; those who please God receive God’s wisdom and escape a life of sin and helping them to prepare for rapture as in the case of the 5 wise virgins in Matthew 25:1-13.
PRAYER: “The truest wisdom is a resolute determination” – Napoleon Bonaparte.
