WISDOM

Proverbs 16:23—A wise man’s heart guides his mouth, and his lips promote instruction.

I get the "heevy-jeevies" whenever I walk into an antique store or specialty shop with my children. When the manager hangs signs next to items that say, "Do not touch," or "If you break this you pay for it," one can always count on the fact that those are precisely the first items kids will grab. Now to be fair to my children, they have never broken anything in a store. Still, one can never be too careful.

If you were to look real closely at certain people you would find that God has hung a sign just above the heart that says, "Don’t touch--Character work in progress." Unfortunately many of us have a savior complex. We don’t take the time to pray and ask God if we should intervene with help because our 9-1-1 spiritual pager is beeping. We assume that if someone we know is in trouble it is our God-assigned task to step in and problem-solve. Beware, to intervene without God’s approval is presumptuous.

Wisdom is trusting that God knows best what a person needs and that best may not include our services. Wisdom is a willing heart wed to a discerning mind. If the Holy Spirit authenticates our good Samaritan impulse—wonderful. If not, don’t get in the way of His work—He’s never made a mistake.

Inspiration

There are times when a person needs to be handled by God, not by his fellow man, and part of the gift of human wisdom is to know how to be reverent with what he does not understand.—Oswald Chambers in Conformed to His Image