When Chaim met Olivia, it wasn’t exactly love at first sight. Initially, he thought she was bossy and opinionated, and she talked a bit too much for his taste, but it was easy to see how smart she was. Her smile was out of this world, and he found himself staring at her whenever she beamed those pearly whites. He and Olivia were both attending off-site training for their respective companies. It didn’t cross his mind to strike up a conversation with her until the last day of training, when they were randomly chosen to work together as a team. Even then, he kept it strictly professional. It was only when Olivia received the disturbing news that a delivery truck had hit her car in the parking lot that Chaim let his guard down and offered to help.
When he met Olivia, it had been almost two years since Chaim’s last relationship. He and his ex were both believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and had talked a lot about their future plans for a life together. He felt sure their relationship would end in marriage, but things didn’t work out that way, and he was devastated. For some reason, women don’t think that men feel heartbreak as deeply as their female counterparts, but this isn’t true. Some men feel it even more deeply. Chaim vowed that he would never let himself fall in love as intensely as he had in the past, but Olivia was quickly changing his mind. She didn’t have ulterior motives and was the most transparent person he had ever met. She perceived his walls, understood them, and never did anything to breach them. She was very patient. It was what Chaim needed, and this more than anything won his heart.
Some of us are born with an innate wisdom about certain areas of life. These are individuals that have a predisposition for assessing a situation and knowing exactly what to do. It seems to come very natural for them. For the rest of us, this wisdom must be acquired. As women, it may be challenging to admit to ourselves, but when it comes to relationships, most of us are in the “need to acquire” category. We can be very skilled with the ins and outs of ‘what to do’ and ‘how to do’ in other areas of our lives. We are bosses when it comes to handling certain challenges. However, a lot of us fall off the rails with understanding the patience required to handle the blessing of significant relationships that ultimately lead to marriage.
Proverbs 4:7(NLT) tells us, “Getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do! And whatever else you do, develop good judgment.” In contemplating this verse, we can identify the order that God has placed within it. 1Corinthians 14:33 tells us that our Heavenly Father is not the author of confusion and chaos. He is a God of peace and order, and everything He does has these two woven within them. The order He establishes for executing His statutes is to first get wisdom, because out of everything we could possibly do in life, getting wisdom of His Word is the most beneficial. Then, once we’ve taken care of that important part, the next piece is to develop good judgment. Notice that He did not command us to develop good judgement before getting wisdom. He created our brains and minds to work together in a certain way, and the order that He has set for acquiring wisdom and applying it masterfully is the one that works best.
God is more precise than any of us could ever possibly know. He tells us to make the practice of getting wisdom our number one priority because this is necessary to live the reality of our Christ identity. Getting wisdom firmly under our belts helps us to develop good judgment. In other words, developing good judgment is actually living the wisdom we’ve learned.
Sometimes, we judge a situation, relationship, or person based on our own understanding. This is problematic. Our Heavenly Father tells us in Isaiah 55:8(NLT), “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” God is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He knows everything there is to know. He knows the end at the beginning, and He knows the beginning at the end. Nothing escapes Him, absolutely nothing. He knows every situation we have encountered, and every situation we will encounter for the rest of our existence. That’s mind blowing, but it’s truer than true. We can’t know all that Heavenly Father knows. Our understanding and knowledge are acutely infinitesimal compared to His, and we can only have judge based on the wisdom He gives us.
A giant truth that has slipped by us is that we might have met the one for us a long time ago. We might have had a relationship in the past that in time could have been all that we wanted it to be. It was our destiny to positively impact this man’s spiritual growth in Christ, but we were impatient. We lacked the discipline to wait on God, and to depend on Him to help us be a blessing to this man’s spiritual growth. Instead, we put intimacy on maximum speed and derailed something that could have worked out. This is what a lack of wisdom and patience does.
The good news is that God is a God of second chances. He’s far more patient with us than we are with others, and ourselves. One of the great lessons of His wisdom is having the good judgment to wait on Him and not take matters into our own hands. We are never placed at a disadvantage by obeying God and trusting what He says. His Word teaches us that without His wisdom, we rob ourselves of living a truly fulfilling life. Without His wisdom, we are blind to the devices and tricks of the enemy, and this is something we can definitely prevent. Through Jesus Christ, God has made it possible for us to live a more than abundant life. This is what He wants for us, and if we will seek wisdom and knowledge from His Word in a greater way, we will both be and receive the blessings we desire for our lives.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Get Wisdom and Understanding”, written by KLizzie, edited by Reverend Fran Mack, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2022. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.