THE WISDOM OF GOD

"And because of [God] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption."  (1 Corinthians 1:30 ESV)

When you're facing all the issues of life and you don't know what to do, accept the fact that you are human. We all are. We don't have the capacity to understand Almighty God. But you know what? We know Jesus Christ. He's the wisdom of God. And He put His Holy Spirit in us. So having access to the Holy Spirit and Jesus, we can face the challenges of today with the wisdom of God. 

-- David Jeremiah

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EVERY AGE HAS ITS OWN PROBLEMS

The Christian finds himself today thrown into a strange and difficult world, full of peril and anxiety. He knows Christ, he believes in Him, and he cannot forget what Christ has done for him in his own life. On the basis of this knowledge and faith [the Christian] seeks to understand and adjust to the terrible questions and uncertainties of the times. He knows it is unworthy of him as a Christian to bewail his fate and exaggerate the challenges in the midst of which he is thrown. Dangerous world? -- yes. Unprecedented difficulties? -- certainly. Tremendous challenges? -- of course. But God does not love him less, nor has [God] singled him out for trial in a special furnace beyond his power to bear or to subdue. He remembers what Paul told the Corinthians and he understands it to be exactly for him: "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it" (I Corinthians 10:13). Every age has its own problems, every age its own burdens and complexities, and throughout man is fundamentally the same, able to know and rest in the truth or to rebel... "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).

-- Charles Malik, former President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, in “Christ and Crisis,” 1962

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THE POWER OF GOD

God is great and God is powerful, but we must invite Him to be powerful in our lives.  His strength is always there, but it's up to us to provide a channel through which that power can flow.

Some of you feel beat up and drained.  Some of you feel like a victim who has been picked on so thoroughly that your bones are clean.  Some of you face daunting tasks and stiff challenges, and you're worried that you don't have what it takes to carry on.  I challenge you to act as though you are empowered, and see -- just test it -- if God does not send His strength your way.  Determine this very moment to walk in the direction God is asking you to go and just trust that He will grant you power along the way.

Paul urges us, "Your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."  (1 Corinthians 2:5)

-- Bill Hybels in “The God You're Looking For”

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PROBLEMS, TESTS AND CHALLENGES

"Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way." (James 1:2-4 MSG)

Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit. 

-- M. Scott Peck, M.D.


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