A Christian Worldview from Silicon Valley

In yesterday’s message we learned that Paul both thanked God for the churches in and around Ephesus and that he prayed for them. Specifically we see that he prayed that they might be given “a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him [God].”

Note that he did not pray that they might learn to be wise or that they might somehow attain wisdom through their own efforts, but that God would give the church a spirit of wisdom and revelation. So we can see that God is not only the source of wisdom, he is the dispenser of wisdom as well.

In Isaiah we read these marvelous words: “And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” You may recognize that as a prophecy about Jesus, and you will know from your study of Jesus that he did indeed possess a spirit of wisdom and understanding. You will also notice the similarities in Isaiah’s prophecy and in Paul’s prayer.

But there is an aspect to wisdom that we often forget, and it is phrased beautifully by C. S. Lewis in his book The Pilgrim’s Regress. The lines go like this:

“And what is this valley called?”

“We call it now simply Wisdom’s Valley: but the oldest maps mark it as the Valley of Humiliation.”

Every blessing,

Lewis

This entry was posted on Monday, January 21st, 2008 at 8:27 pm and is filed under Reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.