Nov 8

1 Kings 3:5-10
5 That night the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!”
6 Solomon replied, “You showed faithful love to your servant my father, David, because he was honest and true and faithful to you. And you have continued your faithful love to him today by giving him a son to sit on his throne.
7 “Now, O LORD my God, you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t know his way around.
8 And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted!
9 Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?”
10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom.

How would you define wisdom? One fifth grader defined wisdom as "being smarter than anybody else." Another said that wisdom was something only "grandparents and old people have." Still another said that wisdom was "knowing enough not to do stupid stuff." And another called it "a little voice inside your head that tells you what to do when nobody else knows what to do." Not bad, but what do you think wisdom is? Is it knowing more than anybody else? Is it the ability to avoid "stupid stuff? Or is it something else? King Solomon, who became famous in his time as a wise man, gives us a clue in the Bible. The third chapter of 1 Kings (in the Old Testament) tells the story of how God appeared to Solomon in a dream when Solomon became king. God asked him, "What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!" Now, if God made that offer to us, most of us would say, "A million dollars!" or "My own computer!" or something like that. But not Solomon. He said, "Give me an understanding mind so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong" (1 Kings 3:9). Solomon's words show that a major part of wisdom is the ability to "know the difference between right and wrong." You may be well educated. You may be the top student in your class maybe in your school. You may win thousands of dollars on Jeopardy! But if you want to be wise, you will seek "an understanding mind so that [you can] know the difference between right and wrong." No matter what else you may know, if you don't know right from wrong, you're not wise.

REFLECT: Based on Solomon's words in 1 Kings 3:9, from where (or from whom) does true wisdom come? Do you think a person has to be old to be wise? Do you think a person has to be educated to be wise? How does a person become wise? How can you increase in wisdom?

PRAY: The Bible says, "If you need wisdom if you want to know what God wants you to do ask him, and he will gladly tell you" (James 1:5). Spend a few moments in prayer, asking God for wisdom in specific areas of your life. You may want to start by praying the words that Solomon used in 1 Kings 3:9 when he asked God for wisdom: "Give me an understanding mind so that I can... know the difference between right and wrong."

Sorry, didn't really know what to get from this.

But I think in short, this teaches all of us to pray for unmaterialistic things.

I think in order to have riches, wealth, power, fame, etc, we would need wisdom.
It may not be the wisdom that Solomon asked for, but if you look at celebrities, politicians, etc, these days they obviously should have wisdom in some type of area whether it be knowledge on how to act, how to convince people to vote for them, and so on.
But we aren't famous. We're just mere human beings that love Christ. So we don't need their type of wisdom. We need God's wisdom, that'll help us strengthen our walk with God and spread God's love.

What i got from this message was the question What is wisdom.
Well, what i think of wisdom is this.

9 Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?”

from this i can tell that tell that wisdom isnt to be suuuper smart or to be right all the time. Its to know between rigfht and wrong. EVeryone has a choice in everything they do. and wisdom in my opinion is the decision u make. The right decision to make.Someone may have a iq of like 12312312 but whats the point of that? if he/she always makes the wrong decision. That isnt wisdom. He may be smart but he isnt wise.
Thats all i got gnite

Wisdom.. anyone who is wise knows they have much to learn.
Wisdom is so powerful.. but we take it for granted.
We thank ourselves for the things we do if we do them wisely, but you know who you should really be thanking?
God. Thank god for giving you the wisdom to do what you do and being able to do it well.

So I guess it's a matter of being humble because God gave you the talents and wisdom that you have, and without him, who knows where you would be?

I just came home a few minutes ago.....busy, busy, busy!

In today's devotion message it said, "No matter what else you may know, if you don't know right from wrong, you're not wise."
We can only realize what is the difference between right and wrong because of god. When troubles arise, you know what is the right thing to do but that doesn't always mean that doing the right thing will be easy. As humans, we try to look for an easy way out of things.
This sort of reminds me of what Yeni said on saturday. There's always two voices inside of our head whether we know it or not. That temptation is hard to get rid of and the right way doesn't look that fun. But we know what God wants and what satan wants. We just need to follow and listen to the voice that leads us towards God.

Good night everyone!
~Audrey~

Pa Ta Rick wrote:Someone may have a iq of like 12312312 but whats the point of that?

I laughed way to hard at that..

By earthly definition, wisdom may actually be being smarter, or the experience that comes with age, but as a Christian, I think the wisdom we're supposed to seek is a little different. The wisdom we want at our levels of maturity is not just being able to discern right and wrong, like that's primary. But our wisdom is determined by how we act on what we know to be right or wrong. Wisdom isn't just having an opinion on something, but it's making the right choices based on them. So when you ask for God to give you wisdom, practice it by making the right decisions.

9 Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong.
For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?”

The idea of wisdom is to distinguish what's right and what's wrong.
But this is according to God's Word, which are HIS morals.
Calling ourselves followers of Christ must mean we follow his morals, his perception.
The fruit of the spirit gives us GOD-like characteristics, allowing us to make that initial decision, based on scripture itself.
Wisdom comes through the bible, but it's only gonna do its part, just like how God waits for us halfway.
We need to make that stepping stone to him, to have that desire for wisdom.

I honestly think that wisdom is a God given trait.
We can't obtain wisdom without asking for God to bestow unto us.
That's like trying to get results on a math test, without studying. You need to work for it.
Wisdom comes with experience and who better has experience than God? The being that's been around since eternity.
Often times we'll find ourselves in ethical dilemmas where Wisdom is the key to solve such issues.
Ask God for wisdom, and I'm sure he'll give it to us.

being wise is really hard to be because being wise means that you are able to distinguish the difference between right and wrong, and on top of that you are clever. and how many times are you wrong? like pretty much everyday you are wrong about something. wisdom doesnt come to us naturally. its like practicing for worship for sunday, you have to practice in order to perform with your fullest capability. you need experience and God's guidance to become wise. follow his commands because he is the only one that can truly justify what is right and wrong. God will tell you one way or another what path you should take. we know that there are little voices in our head that speak of what God would want us to do, so just pray that you will be able to act on that and gain wisdom as you move on with your everyday lives.