Tag Wisdom

Praying for Our Leaders

Todd R 1 Comment

King David was known as a man who sought God’s will in all things, even though he often failed.  The Psalms record many of his prayers for God to guide him and make him a good leader.  Psalm 26 is one of these prayers, and verses 8-10 include good objectives for any leader:

“O LORD, I love the habitation of your house
            and the place where your glory dwells.
Do not sweep my soul away with sinners,
            nor my life with bloodthirsty men,
in whose hands are evil devices,
            and whose right hands are full of bribes.”

Sometimes we may not know how to pray “for kings and all who are in high positions,”[1] as Paul suggests, but in this cry to God, David gives us at least 3 things to pray about.  He lists qualities he wanted to pursue, and some he wanted to avoid.  Praying for these things is good for any leader.  Therefore, on the model of Psalm 26, we can pray for the leaders of our countries and communities today.

We can pray for political leaders who:

  • worship God (who “love the habitation of your house”)
  • do not seek violence and vengeance (who are not “bloodthirsty men”), and
  • are not corrupted by money (whose hands are not “full of bribes”)

All leaders can use our prayers today!

[1] 1 Timothy 2:2

Mountain Bullies

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It’s almost universal to human experience that big and strong people bully smaller and weaker people.  Those with position, influence and power use what they have to take advantage of those who don’t have what they have.  Centuries ago, David imagined in Psalm 68:15-16 that even the mountains do the same:

“O mountain of God, mountain of Bashan;
            O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan!
Why do you look with hatred, O many-peaked mountain,
            at the mount that God desired for his abode,
            yes, where the LORD will dwell forever?” – Psalm 68:15-16

The mountains of Bashan, of which Mount Hermon is the tallest, are northeast of Israel and are much taller than Mount Zion, where God had chosen to be most fully present with His people.  In David’s picture, size is what matters: the bigger mountains hate the smaller mountains, even knowing that God is there.  The big bully the small, and perhaps they do so because they know God is there.

Photo by Kalen Emsley on Unsplash

Likewise, people who are well-off in this world often look down on Christians, God’s chosen people.  It is rare for the rich, famous, or powerful to publicly testify about Christ, and so we often get excited when athletes, celebrities, or politicians make their faith public.  We say to each other, “did you hear so-and-so is a Christian?”  It can make us feel like it’s more reasonable and accepted to follow Christ when this happens.  It feels good to identify with the rich and powerful.

But what if this rarity of seeing faith in the rich and powerful is intentional on God’s part?

Throughout Scripture God doesn’t identify with the rich and powerful; He identifies with the widow and orphan, with the lonely and outcast.  He favors the weak and the exploited.

In 1 Corinthians 1:26, Paul wrote to the church in Corinth: “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.”  The first century isn’t much different than to today: the “wise”, powerful and noble rarely testified about Christ.  Next Paul wrote: “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are…”

Why?  “…so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”

Back to Psalm 68, where we found the mountains of Bashan ridiculing God’s mountain of Zion, David ends with these verses:

“Ascribe power to God,
            whose majesty is over Israel,
            and whose power is in the skies.
Awesome is God from his sanctuary;
            the God of Israel—he is the one who gives power and strength to his people.
Blessed be God!”

I’ll rejoice over a public Christian testimony wherever it comes from, but I remember that God doesn’t need the help of the movers and shakers of this world.  His power is “in the skies” – way above the mountains that bully His Mount Zion.  He is glorified more when His power enables the weak to love Him and love their neighbor.

We might sometimes feel alone and ignored, like we’re not part of the “in crowd” or successful, but that might mean we’re God’s type of person!  No celebrity endorsement required.

“Ascribe power to God”

Wisdom for the Task

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What are the most challenging parts of your life?  Maybe your job has been difficult recently.  Maybe you have a ministry that has been exhausting or frustrating.  There may be difficult people or relationships in your life.  It could be anything, but we all have difficult tasks at times.

Photo by Adrian Swancar on Unsplash

King Solomon was given a very difficult task by God, to govern His people Israel as their king.  Solomon knew this job was too big for him, saying in 1 Kings 3:7-8, “O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in.  And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude.”

Solomon’s response was not to despair or give up, but to rely on God, in verse 9 asking him to “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”  God answered Solomon’s prayer and gave him wisdom that made him world-famous.  The wisdom that only comes from God.

But this wisdom isn’t just for kingly or other grand duties.  Just as Solomon did, we can all pray for God to give us wisdom to manage our lives better – those hard jobs, difficult relationships, challenging ministries, and other things.  God doesn’t always solve our problems or remove our difficulties, but He does want to help us live wisely in the midst of them.  If He has given us things to manage, He will also give us the resources to manage them, including wisdom.

Therefore, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”  (James 1:5)

Grandpa Solomon’s Retirement Advice

Todd R 2 Comments

Have you ever asked yourself what Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, and author of much Biblical wisdom, would have to say about modern retirement?  Probably not, but I’m going to write about it anyway, because Solomon actually had some relevant advice.

Since this blog is not a source of income, I have a day job which happens to involve helping companies help their employees save and invest for retirement.  In American culture, retirement has in some ways replaced heaven as the future we hope for.  Advertisements promise retirees can do all the things they dreamed of doing during their working years.  Travel.  Relax.  Read those books you’ve been putting off reading.  If you can, buy a yacht.  After all, if you’ve worked so hard for it, you deserve it, they say.  Like many marketing schemes, something good and prudent (saving for retirement) is wrapped in a lot of gloss to get you to do something you might not do otherwise.  Sacrifices made now are worthwhile because of a later reward.

A photo I took from a Florida beach over the Atlantic near sunrise. I’d like to retire here, but heaven is better.

Thinking about this, I made the connection that Solomon[1] when writing Ecclesiastes was acting in the role of a wise, Godly grandfather in a way that offers a sharp contrast to the story of retirement that goes unchallenged in our culture.

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon lays out an argument that he lived almost the exact life pictured in our retirement ads but learned to regret it.  While still a very young man, he had the power and wealth to try anything he wanted.  He planted vineyards and drank a lot of wine.  He built gardens and pools and acquired many servants and property.  He also had 700 wives and 300 concubines.[2]  He could have everything he desired – everything the retirement ads would show you if they could be R-rated – but he ended up disappointed.  Ecclesiastes is his advice to those who come after to not repeat his mistakes.

While a blog post can’t cover all of Ecclesiastes, I must add that Solomon did encourage us to invest for the future, but also not to place all our bets on one specific vision of the future: “Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.  Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.”  (Ecclesiastes 11:1-2).  A long, healthy and prosperous retirement is one possible future among many, but eternity with God is a future certainty.  Earlier in the book, Solomon writes: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)  God gives us a sense of what He has planned for us, but not many of the details.  We should not foolishly ignore the future, but we should not cling to one future we desire at the cost of the present God has given us and the future He already knows everything about.

Solomon encourages everyone – young and old – to live more in their own moment, enjoying the gifts God has given them and sharing those gifts with the people around them.  While Solomon is encouraging the young to not repeat his own mistakes, he is also encouraging the old to share their perspective.  In both cases, Solomon is telling us not to stress too much about what may or may not happen, but to invest what we have in light of what will be meaningful in eternity.  Joy comes from enjoying the relationships and things God has blessed us with now, not from sacrificing the now in light of a false vision of retirement.

Solomon recommends joy in God’s provision, and so I close with this quote, and pray that we all experience joy and thankfulness in the gifts God has given us today.  Don’t keep them to yourself.

“Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.  Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.  Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.” – Ecclesiastes 9:7-10

[1] I’m going to proceed for the sake of argument that Solomon is the author of Ecclesiastes, although I know some debate that and it’s not explicitly stated.
[2] 1 Kings 11:3

The Desires He Delights to Give

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Does God give us what we desire, or does He decide what we desire?  Some of my earliest prayers I remember (I was probably about 6) are ones asking to wake up the next day with my room full of all the toys I wanted.  Naturally, I never woke up to a room full of toys.  God probably knew I would only ask for more, and if I kept up that attitude toward prayer, there would never be enough.  That doesn’t mean I only prayed that prayer once…I learn slowly, but He is patient.

This sort of prayer isn’t limited to minor things like toys, nor do I think it is unusual.  While his mother was suffering from cancer, a nine-year-old C.S. Lewis prayed earnestly for her to be healed.  When she wasn’t, and cancer took her from him, his faith was shaken for years.

In my case, in later life, after understanding Christianity somewhat better, one of the first Bible verses I set out to memorize was Psalm 37:4, which says:

“Delight yourself in the LORD,
       and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

But I still wondered: are the desires what He gives us, or is the fulfillment of desires what He gives us?  I now believe it is both.  In the times I genuinely seek Him, I find that He molds my desires, so they become more aligned with His character.  I also find that He directs those desires toward what will fulfill them.  While that fulfillment is not always immediate, I learn to trust from what He does fulfill that all will be made right in eternity, and I also learn patience and peace.

When we truly delight in Him, we end up finding out that what we desire is righteousness; we also find out that He provides all the righteousness we desire and need.  We find those desires fulfilling rather than frustrating, we find that fulfillment durable rather than fleeting, and therefore find ourselves content rather than anxious.

However, we don’t always delight in Him, or seek to desire what He desires, and we find ourselves conflicted and unfulfilled.  Reflecting on his prayers for his mother’s healing, C.S. Lewis later wrote what he had wrong:

“I had approached God, or my idea of God, without love, without awe, even without fear. He was, in my mental picture of this miracle, to appear neither as Savior nor as Judge, but merely as a magician; and when He had done what was required of Him I supposed He would simply – well, go away.”[1]

Elsewhere Lewis wrote: “God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.”  By experiencing disappointment and death in this world, perhaps He is teaching us that death and disappointment are all that this world has to offer.  Sometimes this is the only way to get us to let go of the world and embrace eternity with Him, even while we sojourn here. Sometimes He lets us down easy when the toys do not appear; sometimes He lets us experience significant pain.  All in His wisdom.

Therefore, since He is both Savior and Judge, as well as all-wise:

“Commit your way to the LORD;
         trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
         and your justice as the noonday.” – Psalm 37:5-6

Keep Driving Toward Morning, dear fellow travelers, and today, pray we will find our delight in Him.

[1] Lewis, C.S.  Surprised by Joy (1955).  P. 21