Failure, Wisdom and the Glory of God

I'm so glad you are here! I hope during your visit you get a glimpse of God's heart for we become what we are gazing at.  My desire is to be a blessing to you so I've made theses Resources  and tools available to you and write a Weekday Devotional (my home page) to provide insights from God's Word. 

Have you ever processed failure as a gift? It is. A beautiful gift because it opens the door for widsom. For until we fail, often times we don't see where we need to get wisdom.

But from my limited perspective it seems like the Christian culture so often doesn't embrace failure but instead points the finger at God for something not happening. And this is what I'm learning, God so highly values wisdom that He allows really excellent things to fail for lack of it. Here's what I mean. Say you're organizing a bible study or missions trip. You put together the logistics of when, where and what, but don't use wisdom in recruiting so nobody ends up going. God will allow you to experience failure of not seeing anyone come for the purpose of driving you to get wisdom. Just to be clear, this is not always true, there are occasions when God does the miraculous, but by and large wants us to function by wisdom, not passivity.

Here's another example. 
I have gone on and lead several missions trips, and raised support for all of them. And Austin and I, since we are missionaries are supported by an incredible team of monthly supporters. In only one of the many of my missions trips, God did the miraculous and provided $2,000 in 5 minutes through a means I am totally unaware of and had zero effort in. And though a cool story, it is not the norm, nor how God wants us to live. You may have heard of the Heavenly Man or other people who went to live as missionaries in other countries but would never make their financial needs known. God always came through for them in providing what they needed but this is again not the norm of how God wants us to function. Time and time again we have seen God raise support for the people who put effort into raising it, the people who got wisdom on how to raise it in the most effect way. This is walking by faith. It is putting your actions where your heart is. 

Proverbs 2-5 practically shouts at us how important getting wisdom is. But getting wisdom takes a whole ton of effort, it takes intense pursuit. Getting wisdom is putting effort into learning the "practical how to's". Knowledge is knowing information, wisdom is knowing how to use the information you have. But there is no wisdom apart from the Lord, so we need to walk with Him, partnering with Him, letting Him lead us as we seek and learn. This looks like prayer, Lord, how would I ______? Lord, what is the next step? as you are moving forward, actively seeking answers.

But why?
Because it glorifies God. God is wise and when we are successful through the use of wisdom we show the world what He like. And because His wisdom is a delight and there is so much joy in discovering, and that discovery leads to "Wow God!" moments, the fear of the Lord, being in awe of Him. It's like that moment you learn something new, say biology, and your mind is blown about how amazingly intricate God is, that is the fear of the Lord which comes from wisdom, what He passionately delights in.

How does this relate to blogging and statistics?
There are a couple funny pulls in blogging. The pull to not care about statistics because we do it for the Lord and the pull to find approval, affirmation and acceptance in them. Could I propose we tie these together. Wisdom looks at stats and tries to learn how to grow a blog readership without using as a means to finding self-worth. Do the good action of growing in wisdom but with the right attitude of finding our acceptance and approval in Christ alone.

Try, yes, try my dear friend. By the strength and empowerment of the Holy Spirit give your best effort and know that failure is a gift from God to show where we need wisdom. When you fail, recognize it as an area that needs more wisdom and pursue the answers, pursue wisdom. Pursue it as though you were searching for gold.

"If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed but skill will bring success." Eccl. 10:10 Basically saying, if you see there is something you're not greatly skilled at and it hinders what God has called you to do, stop and sharpen up. Get wisdom.

Is there an area God has blessed you to fail in? Seize the gift and get wisdom.

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I'm over at The Better Mom, My Daily Walk in His Grace, We Are That Family, Raising Homemakers, Pause on the Path, Finding Heaven, Women Living Well, Some Girls Website