Wisdom Is Ageless

God has been so gracious and abundantly merciful to me my entire life. One of His amazing gifts to me is how He teaches me. Wisdom only comes from God. And in His sovereignty and loving-kindness, He chooses different vessels to speak His righteous words of truth. One time, God used a donkey, another time a child; and He's also chosen to use a 98 year old woman who's mind is sharper than most people my age.

We have to be careful to pay close attention to what we hear. Is it wisdom from heaven or something that sounds "good", but it's only purpose was to tickle our ears? It's always assumed that wisdom comes from the aged, the mature, those who have lived a long life. But as it was proved in Job's time (Job 32:2-4), it is proved now, wisdom is ageless.

Just because we reach a certain age doesn't mean we have wisdom. Just because someone's a child doesn't mean they don't have wisdom. Just because someone has a trail of very impressive initials after their name, it doesn't mean they have wisdom. Just because someone is popular, it doesn't mean they have wisdom. Just because someone has a "name" in this world, at work, or in church, it doesn't mean they have wisdom.

Through the years, God has taught me profound truths through my children since they were 2 years old...yes, I said two years old. How much wisdom can a two year old have? As much as God supplies; and that's why we stand in awe of Him.

Recently I had the wonderful blessing of having lunch with a precious 18 year old daughter of God (well, really almost 19, she'd want me to tell you that :-D). Here name is Abby.

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom...But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

~ James 3:13, 17

God used Abby to teach me more about His grace, His love, and that I still had some very judgmental thoughts and attitudes about people. Thankfully, I don't anymore and I thank God for that! I thank God for Abby.

A couple of months ago, this precious princess of the King of Kings wrote a note on Facebook. It's entitled A Run with God. It's amazing. It's refreshing. It's transparent. It's exhorting. It's full of God's wisdom. And why does God bless us? So that we can bless others with what He's given us. And that's what I'm doing now. ♥

May we always keep our eyes, ears, minds and hearts open to God and His voice alone, so that we may never miss all that He teaches us - through whomever He chooses.

Read and be blessed.

**By the way, I got her permission to share this with you due to it's very personal nature. **

A Run with God

It has been a very rough month for me; I just started up school for the first time in 2 years, and it’s kind of hard to get back into the swing of things.

I’m struggling my way through things trying not to get stressed out or down...and then I find out that I’m failing one of my classes. I may not pass.

This morning I woke up feeling the lowest I’ve felt in a long time! I started thinking about work, school, relationships and things I have hanging over my head that I need to get done, and I just had the feeling of “I want to give up, this is too hard”. I started feeling angry, depressed and asking God “Why are you letting me fail? I thought You wanted me to succeed.”

I decided I was going to go for a run to try and make myself feel better. I got outside and started running, it was cloudy and the wind was blowing against me so strong that I felt like I was getting absolutely nowhere! I was running up-hill, against the wind and thought, “This is impossible. Forget running I’m just going to turn around and be depressed inside the house…” then all of the sudden, the wind changed directions and started pushing me up-hill. The sun started shining, and I looked down to see the song I was listening to is called “Devotion”. So I asked myself “Where is my devotion?” Why am I blaming God for the things going wrong in my life?

When things started getting busy and difficult I began pushing God aside…I stopped going to Bible study, reading my Bible, skipping church because I wanted to sleep or study. Why should He help me when I’m ignoring Him? God wants us to realize that we can’t make it through life without Him; that everything good that happens to us is because of Him. He will pull back and stop blessing us to get our attention and say “Hey Abby, why are you trying to do this without Me? Haven’t you learned your lesson by now?”

When things are busy and hard, that’s when God needs to be at the center of our life, because we can’t succeed without Him. I’m not saying God is a good luck charm…you know, read your Bible before a test, or go to church because He’ll make life easier. I’m simply saying to really put Him first in your life and listen to Him and things will be so much easier.

While I was running I started thinking about a little child in a big mall, a daddy is holding his child’s hand and saying “Stay close to me so nothing will happen to you. Hold my hand so you don’t get lost.” The little child looks around the mall and gets distracted and says “Wow that looks like fun. Oh I want to go play with that kid. Why do I have to hold your hand? Nothing bad is going to happen to me! I can walk by myself and cross the street by myself I don’t need you….”

How many times have you seen a little kid start to dash into the middle of a street or a parking-lot and the parent has to say “Stop! Come hold my hand.” Without a parent the child would have probably been killed or seriously injured. It’s just the same as God saying, “Stay close to Me so nothing will happen to you. Hold My hand so you don’t get lost.” God wants to take care of us and protect us because we tend to wander away thinking we don’t need Him.

I pictured myself as a child in the mall wandering away from my daddy. Lost, tons of people swarming around me not caring what happens to me, feeling so alone and scared. We wait until things look hopeless to turn to God! Like when someone’s sick, when you’re breaking up a relationship, or when you’re failing a class at school. We wait until everything’s falling apart to say “Help me I need You!” The little child in the mall cries out “Daddy where are you? Why did you leave me? Why did you let me get lost?” Although we can’t see Him Jesus calls back to us “My child, you left me. You let go of My hand to go your own way. I wanted to guide you from here to there, but you walked away from me and got yourself lost. Just follow my voice and follow my directions.” We say “Where are You? Why are You hiding from me?” He simply says “I’ve been here the whole time waiting for you. I’m not hiding from you, I’m waiting for you…search for Me and you’ll find Me”.

Luke 11:9
“So I say to you: Keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking and the door will be opened for you…”

It’s sometimes hard to find Christ in the midst of all the confusion from day to day. It’s a tough road to follow…but when we find Christ He’ll take our hand and guide us and walk that difficult road with us.

I challenge each and everyone one of you to take a run with God, and to stop and think about your own life. Are you walking with Christ? Or are you still being a stubborn child and saying “I can do this…I don’t need to hold your hand.” Please run against the wind no matter how hard it is. Fight against the trouble, crowds and the distractions in life. Though the things of this world seem important now, they will not be so important someday. Run as hard as you can!! And when things look the hardest so that you just want to give up or walk away from it, turn to Jesus and let Him carry you the rest of the way. You’re never a failure to Christ! He’ll always give you a “thumbs up.” I promise you He wants to hold your hand, walk with you and make your hard times easier. All He wants from you is your love and devotion.

Psalm 37:4
“Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.”

by:
Abby Hulkenberg