Day 29. James 1:5

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

What can I say about this verse? I was socially awkward and would commit one faux pas after another, embarrassing my friends and anyone who would dare to be my friend. Have I changed now? Not much, but I know at least to keep my mouth shut these days.

This verse gave me the courage to approach the LORD to seek wisdom. And I have noticed that when I base my decisions on the wisdom of God, yes, I have lost a lot of things… I am not going to say that when I based my decisions on the wisdom of God, I saw only victory and prosperity. No, it is the other way around. But I have also learned so much about me, none of them very flattering. But the wisdom of God also reminds me often that despite all these things, the LORD loves me.

And there are times where I had based decisions on my own wisdom and I had seen good things happening to me. But they have also made me go away from the LORD, be puffed up with pride and being really mean to people.

It took a while to understand that the wisdom of God, first makes me understand who I am. I mean, truly who I am and it makes me to abhor my own self. Yet, I am so grateful that the LORD has given wisdom to me.

Nobody is perfect

If you cannot make yourself what you would  wish to be, how can you bend others to your will? We want them to be perfect, yet we do not correct our own faults. We wish them to be severely corrected, yet we will not correct ourselves. Their great liberty displeases us, yet we would not be denied what we ask. We would have them bound by laws, yet we will allow ourselves to be restrained in nothing. Hence, it is clear how seldom we think of others as we do of ourselves. – Thomas Kempis, in “Imitation of Christ”.