There is no other like our God!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©

in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
(Colossians 2:3 (NIV))

I don’t know about you, but I don’t know of anyone, no matter how smart they think that they are, who can claim to possess all wisdom and knowledge. In order for someone to know everything, they would have had to be in existence from the very beginning of time. They would also have to be able to see everything, both the physical as well as the spiritual. Humanity just doesn’t have that capacity.

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
(1 Corinthians 13:12 (NIV))

Only the Lord possesses all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Only the Lord has been since the beginning. Only the Lord is able to see and to know everything in both the physical and the spiritual.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
      neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
      so are my ways higher than your ways
      and my thoughts than your thoughts.
(Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV))

Why do we, as fallen humanity, seek advise and counsel from others who are no better off than we are? Why do we turn to other people who are limited in wisdom and understanding in order to seek out wisdom and understanding? We must turn only to the Lord!

There is none who can compare with the Lord! There is none who can provide wisdom, truth and knowledge. Only God is good! He is the Creator of all things. He knows our innermost thoughts and desires. He has numbered the hair on our heads. He created all things because He loves us!

Where do you turn for wisdom and knowledge? Why not go to the one true source? There is no other like our God!

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Do you understand real knowledge and wisdom?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;
(Philippians 1:9-10 (NIV))

Just what is real knowledge?

Several years, I went by my wife’s office only to find that her parking lot was roped off as a crime scene. This is where the police believe that a college professor parked while he went next door and killed his wife and two other people. This professor was supposed to possess knowledge. In fact, I understand that he was well respected in his field. Unfortunately, one moment of rash and erroneous decisions have made it so that he will never be able to practice his profession again. All of that knowledge and no outlet.

Human knowledge has its limitations. It has its errors in judgment and reasoning. It is flawed and no matter how much humanity claims that it can perfect human knowledge, there will always be circumstances that push us beyond our human ability to understand, reason and to respond.

All of us have become like one who is unclean,
      and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
   we all shrivel up like a leaf,
      and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
(Isaiah 64:16 (NIV))

With this truth before us, there is only one true knowledge. There is only one real knowledge. God is good and that Jesus Christ is His only begotten Son.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
(John 3:16 (NIV))

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
(John 1:1-5 (NIV))

When you gain knowledge, it is said that you are enlightened. Jesus is the light. Knowing Jesus and following Jesus will not result in senseless results of rash decisions based on false knowledge. Jesus will walk with you in all that you do. He will be with you. The knowledge of the Holy Trinity will be with you. He will give you wisdom. And, yes, there is a difference.

Do you know the real knowledge that God desires for you to know? Do you understand real knowledge and wisdom?

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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What is your definition of wisdom?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
(Proverbs 9:10 (NIV))

What is wisdom?

The world thinks of wisdom as a cunning or shrewdness in a particular area such as business. What passes as wisdom in this world is of no consequence in the eyes of God. The wisdom of the world is fleeting and foolish, for it passes in the blink of an eye. Even intellectual wisdom is fleeting. The “smartest” person in the world can lose it all in the blink of an eye if they are in an accident that causes brain damage.

Just what is wisdom?

True wisdom comes only from acknowledging that we are not “gods” of our own destiny and circumstances. We do not control our lives the way worldly wisdom claims that we do. What happens to worldly wisdom once that person dies without Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior? It may be remembered for a short time, but, it too will die and the person who was considered wise will spend eternity apart from God.

True wisdom acknowledges God and His mastery over all things. It not only says that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, it accepts Jesus’ authority as Lord and Master as well as Savior. With this acknowledgement and acceptance comes true wisdom, for the Holy Spirit will fill you with what is of God. The Holy Spirit proceeds with teaching and guiding you in all things that matter for eternity and not for the next few days, weeks, months, or years.

True wisdom focuses on the eternal Kingdom of God and not on the temporary personal kingdoms that we all try to establish for ourselves.

What is your definition of wisdom?

Copyright 1998 – 2018 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Do you possess wisdom and understanding?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
(Proverbs 9:10 (NIV))

The world seems to have knowledge and wisdom confused. The world bases its understanding of these concepts all on the limited understanding that humanity has been able to achieve. In the grand scheme of things, humanity still has very limited knowledge of everything that we encounter. Knowledge is growing rapidly, but we still have much to learn. Sadly, the more knowledge that we acquire, or think that we acquire, the less wisdom we show as a result.

If you truly stop to look at the root meanings of the two words, things start to make sense.

Knowledge basically means possessing the facts or details about something or possessing an understanding about how it works.

The next definition is what seems to go away when we start acquiring more facts. Wisdom, at the core of its meaning, implies good sense or common sense.

What is it about humanity that makes us lose good sense when we think we gain a little understanding? A good case in point is the idea that some people have that they can explain away the parting of the Red Sea. They think that they possess enough knowledge to know how it was accomplished, and therefore, it wasn’t an event caused by God. These individuals lack the wisdom to realize that God made everything, so He is going to use what He made to have it do whatever He wants it to do. They also lack wisdom in other areas. What these individuals fail to acknowledge is that this event didn’t happen when someone was sitting on one shore and simply observing the waters. They fail to possess the wisdom to realize that this event took place just at the right time to allow the Israelites to cross on dry ground. Most even fail to have enough wisdom to acknowledge that God even exists!

I have known people who possess knowledge about the world, but have no wisdom or good sense. I have known people who are wise beyond their years, yet they possess no worldly knowledge. The people that truly stand out to me are the ones who possess wisdom because they fear the Lord and they also possess understanding because they have spent the time to get to know the Lord. Is this the type of wisdom and understanding that you seek?

Do you possess wisdom and understanding?

Copyright 1998 – 2018 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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What does your diet consist of?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
(Matthew 4:4 (NIV))

We think that we know this passage. We hear it quoted so often, though, that I think we may miss the deeper meaning to these words.

We read them and understand them for the surface meaning where we need more than food to survive. We need the Word of God, and we need God.

I would venture to say that there is also an extended meaning to these words. A meaning that takes what we understand and takes it that one step further.

Is bread physical? Can you see it? Can you touch it? Can you taste it?

Is God physical?

He is exactly opposite. He cannot be seen. He cannot be touched. He cannot be experienced in any of the ways that our physical senses are used to experiencing things. God is spirit. We must encounter Him as He is. This does not mean that God cannot manifest Himself in physical ways, but it does mean that He is primarily in a realm of existence that we do not experience in our physical existence.

We must seek Him beyond the physical realm that we know. We must seek Him in His realm.

Man is like a breath;
his days are like a fleeting shadow.
(Psalm 144:4 (NIV))

In our physical existence, we are here only for a short time. Even in our short, physical existence, God loves us. He wants us to be with Him. He has overcome our physical existence by sending Jesus to the physical world.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
(John 3:16 (NIV))

We can, and must, reach out to Him in the spiritual realm. We experience God by allowing ourselves to reach beyond the physical and take small glimpses of the spiritual.

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
(1 Corinthians 13:!2 (NIV))

When we live “on every word that comes from the mouth of God,” we begin to see the reflection clearer.

What do you live on?

Copyright 1998 – 2017 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Just how much wisdom can the clay possess?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

You turn things upside down,
as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to him who formed it,
“He did not make me”?
Can the pot say of the potter,
“He knows nothing”?
(Isaiah 29:16 (NIV))

We think that we possess so much knowledge. We think that we can think and reason and overcome anything. Society has gotten to the point where too many people look at flawed reasoning and accept it simply because it is professed as scientific. These same people who claim scientific reason are the very same ones who reject faith because it can’t be explained by science. Even when there is no scientific evidence to support their position, they claim that human intelligence will eventually be able to unlock the scientific explanation for everything. It appears to me that they have placed their faith in the wrong place. They have placed it in the ability of the creation to know more than the Creator.

We have become the very essence of the words written of in Isaiah. I know that not each and every one of us is like that, but our society has become much more human-centric in the grand scheme of things. We have become a society that is saying that we, as the clay, know more than He who cast the clay and created these earthen vessels that we inhabit. How can humanity, which cannot even determine how many hairs are on our head, claim to know more than God, or even claim that there is no God?

And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
(Matthew 10:30 (NIV))

Our so called wisdom has made us foolish in the eyes of God. Our wisdom and our ways are nothing close to the truth.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
(Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV))

It appears that we have come to the point where we must pray earnestly that we do not get so wrapped up in our own so-called intelligence that we forget who created us. True wisdom is knowing God and knowing your relationship to Him through Jesus, His Son.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight.
(Isaiah 5:21 (NIV))

Spend time daily within God’s Word and your wisdom and understanding of the ultimate truth will grow.

Copyright 1998 – 2015 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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