Wisdom, Insight, Understanding

I'm reading through Kings in my morning devotions now. This morning focused on the wisdom given to Solomon. I wish I could have just a thimblefull of that wisdom. Chapter 4, verse 29 of 1 Kings says, "God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore." I wonder what that felt like - to not only be smart, but to have the insight and understanding to know how to use that wisdom? We've all heard of people who are "book smart" but don't have much common sense. Then there are those who might not be very book smart, but they're "street smart." I've known some of those people. They know how to put the pieces together, learn from others, and they have the ability to go far in life.

Wisdom is wonderful, but if we don't have insight and understanding as to how to use it, it may not help us very much. I love the King James Version which has the words "wisdom...understanding exceeding much...and largeness of heart." I think we need all three in the body of Christ. Along with knowledge we need to understand (or at least try to) one another and see the situation. But where would we be with all of this and no largeness of heart? It always comes down to the heart doesn't it? Are we law...or grace filled? Are we full of our own knowledge or do we try to see things from others point of view with a loving heart?

I thought about the opposites of those words - ignorance, blindness and narrow-mindedness. I think the last one scares me the most. It's human nature to only see things from our own point of view - but when we refuse to expand that view, we lose the love. We become law-filled instead of grace-filled.

Jesus blew that notion out of the water! He had the wisdom - He was fully-God for goodness sake. But He used that wisdom in love. He reached out to the unreachable, He touched the untouchable, He loved the unloveable. And it made those with tunnel-vision very angry.

My prayer for all of us is for God to bless us with just a little bit of the wisdom He gave Solomon. But more than the wisdom, I pray for "understanding exceeding much" and "largeness of heart."

Love,

SB