Praying For Wisdom

Praying for Wisdom

We understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16

WHENEVER WE’RE DRIVING SOMEWHERE we’ve never been before, we seek directions. We plug the address into an app and let the virtual voice guide us. When we miss a turn, our guide recalibrates and gives us the next best route. We depend on information beyond ourselves because we want to arrive at the right place.

We often approach God like a guidance system, asking him for specific directions, and he is happy to give them. He loves directing the steps of his children. He has assured us that wisdom is available to us simply for the asking (James 1:5), and he has provided his Word as a lamp to our feet (Psalm 119:105). He wants us to get to the right place too.

But while we are often looking for the next step or even the full route, God has bigger things in mind for us. He wants to impart an entire worldview, a heavenly perspective on earthly things, a mindset that guides us even when the next step isn’t clear. He is far less interested in passing along information than he is in endowing us with his own mind. He wants us to be filled with his Spirit, think his thoughts, love what he loves, hate what he hates, and walk in his ways. He wants his values to become ours so that when we have to make a decision, it will come from a deep well of understanding. He wants us to live, think, dream, desire, and speak from a divine perspective.

So God has promised us more than wisdom and direction for the moment. He has given us the mind of his Son so we can change the way we see and think to the way he sees and thinks. We have access to the mind of Christ himself, the word of wisdom (logos) that laid the foundation of this world and sustains it in love. That’s an astonishing gift that we can hardly claim as rightfully ours, but it’s given to us anyway. Pray for its full revelation in you. Embrace the possibilities of heaven’s perspective. Ask for wisdom and believe that he is working it into your thoughts daily.

Common sense suits itself to the ways of the world. Wisdom tries to conform to the ways of heaven.