Man’s Wisdom
We live in an information age. Nearly the entire knowledge base of our entire civilization is available at our very fingertips. Want to know a recipe? It’s just a few keystrokes away. Need to know how to do Linear Algebra or understand Quantum Mechanics? Google it. Whatever it is you want to know, you can find online in one way or another. We’ve even come to worship those with a supposed greater knowledge than ourselves. We call them Scientists and Pastors. Shoot, the wealthiest people in the world deal in some way or another with information whether it’s dissemination, analysis, storage, or creation; in our world today, information is king. Where does that leave faith in God?
It’s no surprise then that as a society we’ve become information addicts with little faith in God. We want to “KNOW” everything and we want to know it now. We’re so addicted to instant information that we carry around miniature computers with us wherever we go – we call them phones. We don’t even have to type. Just ask “Google”, “Siri”, or “Alexa” what you want to know or do and poof, there’s your answer served up in a few seconds.
The Numbers Of Knowing
Now don’t get me wrong, I love the technology and the ease of use. It truly is neat. I’m living in the movies I watched as a child. I geek out about it as you may be able to tell. I’m just very able to see the addictive nature of knowing everything all the time. I’m also able to understand that despite all the knowledge, faith in God is still most important.
Did you know the following:
- Most mobile phone users check their phones up to 63 times daily.
- Americans spend an average screen time of 5.4 hours on their mobile phones daily.
- 13% of millennials spend over 12 hours on their phones daily.
Now, I’ll grant you that these numbers may be off by a few points but even then we spend as a country almost a quarter of our day staring at our screen. Millennials, almost half! All so we can KNOW what’s going on, or know the latest information, or know anything. We are addicted to knowing!
Having All Knowledge
In 1 Corinthians 8:1-2 it says, “We know that ‘we all have knowledge.’ Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up. If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it.”
In other words, we may have access to all this knowledge and have the ability to know all things at any time but we don’t yet have the understanding to use that knowledge in wisdom. As the Word says, knowledge puffs up and love builds. Knowledge makes you full of yourselves while love allows you to use the knowledge to edify and instruct others. All the knowledge we have at our fingertips and we still don’t understand what it’s truly for or how to properly use it.
Faith In God
With all this knowledge we have today, we’ve created our own logical and analytical thinking. We base our decisions on what we think we know. Imagine if Abraham had decided to ignore God’s call (Genesis 12:1-7) and stayed in Ur because he knew such a journey was dangerous and foolish. To uproot his entire family and travel a total of 1,600 miles on foot to the land God promised. This would be the equivalent of walking with your family from Bangor, Maine to Tampa, Florida through some off the harshest and most dangerous terrain in the world. All along the way, you have to fend for yourself and your family. There are no Walmarts or Costcos. No 7-11s. If you want food, you have to hunt and gather. If you want water, you have to dig.
What would your friends and family say if God told you to sell everything? Pack up and head for Alaska. No job lined up, no place to live; nothing. I can tell you what they’d say. They’d call you crazy. They’d say you didn’t hear God and that you’ve made a mistake. Rarely, if ever, would they encourage you to jump into the deep end and go forth. How do I know? Because I’ve done it several times in my life. Each time I was scared, my friends and family said I was crazy, and I left with no safety net but God. I was foolish in their eyes. It wasn’t logical, wise, or realistic. And each time it was difficult. Each time God blessed my faithfulness to His call. Each time I grew in my faith in God and the knowledge of His love for me. Why?
1 Corinthians 1:25
“For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” Click To Tweet
In man’s ultimate knowledge and wisdom I was being foolish and weak. But God saw faith, and faith in God always trumps man’s belief that he knows better than God, and his belief in his own strength.
Where’s your faith in God if, and when, He asks you to do something foolish in man’s eyes? Have you ever taken a leap and got out of the boat when God asked you to go against all logic and common sense? Let me know and leave a comment here…
[ms-form id=1]