God is wise.
Knowledge is having all the information on something. God’s knowledge is perfect; He has all the information and understanding of all things. God is also wise. Wisdom is using knowledge to make right choices. Wisdom is choosing the best course of action or the best response to a given situation.
1 Corinthians 1:25 “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
What does this verse say about human wisdom compared to God’s wisdom?
Job 12:13 “With God are wisdom and might; He has counsel and understanding.”
Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heaven are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
What does this mean about our ability to understand God’s ways?
God sees everything from beginning to end. That is His infinite (never ending), immensity (huge beyond understanding), immanence (with us), and omniscient (all- knowing) attributes all working perfectly together. Since God sees the end, and is good and wise, He always chooses the perfect way to get to the perfect end. All of God’s actions are done in perfect wisdom, first for His own glory, and then for the highest good of His people.
“God is infinite in wisdom. He always knows what is best for us, and He knows the best way to bring it about.”
1 Thessalonians 4:3 says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification”.
Sanctification is the change that God does in our lives to make us more and more like Christ. Sanctification is the lifelong process of getting rid of sin and replacing it with Christ like love. That is God’s desire for us. He uses His wisdom to accomplish this goal.
God knows perfectly, with infinite wisdom, what combination of good and bad circumstances will help us become more like Christ. Because God is good and wise and all-powerful, He uses all things and all people, whether good or evil, to make us more like His Son.
“God in His infinite wisdom knows exactly what adversity we need to grow more and more into the likeness of His Son. He not only knows what we need but when we need it and how best to bring it to pass in our lives.”
When have you made an unwise choice? Maybe you really love chocolate and on Easter morning you ate so much chocolate that you got a stomach ache? We don’t always make wise choices. We see the immediate pleasure of something that will make us happy and think more will be better.
Think about what happens if you break your arm. When the bone in your arm is broken, it is no longer lined up correctly with the rest of the bone and cannot heal properly unless it is fixed by a doctor. A doctor will have to “set” the bones by moving the two pieces of bone to line up correctly. This is extremely painful! However, it would be much worse to leave the bones not connected and not lined up. If we don’t go through the painful process of having the doctor set the bones and then cast the arm for 6 weeks, we would not have the full use of our arm for the rest of our lives. To go through the painful experience of setting the bones, we need to think about the future and the benefit that comes from having our arm healed correctly. You have to see that a few minutes of intense pain are worth the benefit of having a healed arm. Thankfully, our parents and doctors are willing to allow us to suffer in the moment to produce a much better future. As kids we may be so focused on not wanting pain right now that we would foolishly miss out on having the use of our arms for the rest of our lives.
God sees all of eternity! He sees the good that hard things in our lives will produce. We do not have God’s knowledge and wisdom. We would always prefer that life be easy and comfortable. We would not choose to have suffering or trials in our lives. God’s ways are not our ways! God is His wisdom, gave us the beautiful gift of eternal life through the painful and awful death of Jesus on the Christ. We simply do not have God’s mind. We must choose to trust His wisdom.
What is your life has been a challenge or a hardship?
How might God’s wisdom and goodness be bringing about something good out of this hard circumstance?
Getting to know God in relationship:
How will you talk to God differently and read His word differently because of this attribute?
Written by Wendy Wood, CHCC counselor