This pause has been the hardest for me to “get.” I get wisdom, but the language around this pause is the impermanence of life and praying for wisdom to help us live like we were dying. I do appreciate that, but quite frankly I would do things if I was dying that I wouldn’t ever do now because of the practicality (I’d visit Vietnam, I’d self-publish my book, etc).
So I’ve prayed for for wisdom in the traditional sense. While I was searching for prayers on wisdom, I’d found many scriptures on wisdom and a study of Solomon would take weeks and months to understand what happened with his great wisdom, I happened upon this prayer we all know:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can;
And the wisdom to know the difference.
I will tell you, the wisdom that serenity prayer calls for is deep. I all to often find myself trying to change something that is beyond my control. That is one kind of wisdom – and wisdom of understanding your circumstances.
But the other, still deeper wisdom, is on relying on God’s wisdom instead of your own understanding. We can only see a situation from the ground perspective. Imagine how much different a city looks when you stand on the corner of a block or when you look out from the roof of a 45 story building. That’s what I need to realize is the difference between my understanding a circumstance and God’s – He sees where it’s all leading. My guiding scripture for this hour is from Proverbs 3 and is actually part of one of our children’s life verse:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will direct your paths.
I closed this hour praying, as Solomon did, when God asked what one thing he would ask:
Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil.
I certainly am not in a position to judge, and do not want to be, but if I could continually be His servant, with an understanding heart, that could discern between good and evil, then I would let that guide my decisions and my days.
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