Wisdom and Scarcity

Ken was a man born so far back in the country that a town of 4000 looked like the big city to him. He was raised on camp meetings and revival meetings. "The old sawdust trail" was not a metaphor for him. They would literally walk up a sawdust covered aisle to go to the altar at the front of the "church" (read tent) to pray. The highest education he ever achieved was Grade 8. He spent much of his life working in the lumber camps, drawing logs out of the forest with teams of horses. To me, he was an "old timer" in the truest sense of the word.

Over the years I have had a number of opportunities to pray with Ken. A standard phrase in many of his prayers was "make us wise unto the things of God." That is not a prayer I hear very much these days. I hear prayers for wisdom when we are unsure of a decision we need make. That is an appropriate prayer, but it is a different prayer than, "make us wise unto the things of God."

My friend Ken was essentially praying Paul's prayer found in Ephesians 1:17-21

17 "I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him" (NRSV)

Paul says if God answers this prayer, four things will happen

• the eyes of your heart will be enlightened (vs 18)
• you will know the hope of your calling in Jesus (vs 18)
• you will know what riches that your inheritance in Christ brings (vs 18)
• you will know what the resurrection power looks like in your life (vs 19)

I know that I often live with a scarcity mindset. It often feels like I don't have what I need to meet the challenges of life. I often feel like I am scrounging to meet the demands of the stressors in my life. I often pray for God's help, and God's strength to meet the challenges. I often pray that God will change circumstances or meet the needs that I cannot meet. Those are appropriate prayers. Those are prayers that show my dependence on God.

But that kind of dependence while good may not be the best that God has for us. A dependence that comes out of our of scarcity is the poor step sister to the dependency that comes out of an enlightened heart, that is full of hope, that gets the full extent of our inheritance in Christ, and knows what resurrection power looks like. That kind of dependence acknowledges that we do not have what it take, but "Christ in us, the hope of glory" is more than sufficient for all our todays and our tomorrows. He is going to come through.

That kind of dependency comes when the prayer for the spirit of wisdom and revelation is answered. My friend had it right. A great prayer to pray is, "Make us wise unto the things of God."