Author Elizabeth Elliot tells the story of a woman, Gladys Aylward, who was dissatisfied with her appearance. Growing up, Aylward said her two grievances in life were that her hair was black while her friends had golden blonde hair and that she stood at a mere four feet ten inches tall, much shorter than her companions.

Yet later in life, God called her to be a missionary in a country—Shanghai—where all the women stood her height and had black hair. It was then that she looked to God and proclaimed "Lord God, You know what You are doing!"

As God leads us through different circumstances in life, how often do we wait to see Him work around us until we acknowledge that He does indeed know what He is doing? While words that tell us 'He is in control' comfort us, we must always look within our hearts and ask: "Do I believe this even when I don't understand—when His way of control is not the way I would control things? We have to trust in His wisdom even though we can't fully comprehend it."

Our pursuit of godly wisdom—whether we understand it or not—pleases the Lord. James tells us that when we ask for wisdom, it will be given to us generously and without reproach (1:8). What we must realize in our pursuit of wisdom is that wisdom begins with holy fear. Holy fear is not like human fear—its intent is not to scare us away from God but to lead us closer. In understanding God's supreme holiness, we see more of our need to submit to Him. This is the point where wisdom begins.

We cannot know completely the wisdom of God, but He has given us His Spirit so that we can discern His will and choose paths of righteousness. Our maturity in Christ grows as we trust, and obey, Him more and more. Therefore, our wisdom stretches to new depths also.

It's a profound cycle that only God could have created: in order to obey Him, we need His wisdom. In order to grow in His wisdom, we need to obey Him with what He has already provided.

Joshua knew the wisdom of God. (Deuteronomy 34:9) He knew God wanted him to take Moses' place leading the Israelites, and he followed through with decisiveness. Joshua wasn't perfect, but he was committed to surrender to the Lord's leadership because he longed for God. That kind of devotion, the kind that inspired Joshua to take charge when God gave the command, only comes from a close relationship with the Savior.

Your willingness to obey depends entirely on your relationship with the living Christ. In order to devote yourself to a lifetime of obedience, you must:

• Be with God. Your time spent with him will result in sharp discernment and definite commitment.
• Wait upon God. Joshua 5:14 says, ". . . And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him ,'What has my lord to say to his servant?'"
• Receive a word from God. When you spend time with God and wait on Him, you will hear from Him.
• Get the will of God. When Joshua heard God speak to him, it became clear what was important. In verse 15, God told Joshua, Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy. Of importance to God was Joshua's submission.

The latter half of verse 15 says, "And Joshua did so." Because of his obedience, Joshua received direction from the Lord. He could have questioned God: "Sandals? Lord, what do sandals have to do with tearing down the walls of Jericho? " But Joshua did not question. Because of his faith, he simply obeyed.

Just like Joshua, our intimacy with, dependence upon, and submission to the Lord are vital to our pursuit of godly wisdom.

December 2000 - By Brooke Redwine