How much time do you invest to understand? How important is it?
What you understand is what you can work with. What you don’t understand can control you, your life and even cause you to be a victim of your “self!”
You can turn the key in the ignition of your car until your fingers are numb. As long as there is no understanding that the tank needs gas, the engine needs oil or that the electronics of the car is malfunctioning, you won’t be going anywhere.
The light switch may be on the wall in the right place and move up and down just fine. If there is no light produced, then understanding that there is another issue is necessary if you are ever going to get light.
Everything you are doing or trying just isn’t working… Is it that everything is going wrong or is it that God is trying to re-direct you? You plan on doing one thing, but find yourself doing something else. Are you distracted or are you seeing answered prayers for God to direct you? In order to know these answers, you need some understanding, and then wisdom.
Knowledge is useless if there is no understanding of how that knowledge applies to living life, or to a certain situation. Knowledge how to fix one car may totally be irrelevant in fixing a different model. We need wisdom and understanding both!
There’s a scripture that says “Get Wisdom” and “Get Understanding.” Why?
Watching a webinar earlier this evening once again confirmed to me that unless we get past the surface actions and behaviors, we stay where we are in many aspects of our life. Growth and progress is impossible.
Save your money, get a new job, go to church, meet new people, think positive, start a business, change your attitude, get more education, etc. are great things to do. However, they can be like turning the key in the ignition or trying to turn on the light switch. We do this, we do that, we get help trying to change the end results, and yet we still find ourselves struggling or remaining in the same old place years later.
Discovering the light doesn’t come on when you turn the switch on may be the light bulb. However, there may be a short circuit in the wiring behind the light switch plate. On the other hand, the breaker may be off. If that doesn’t work, it could be a transformer has blown, or serious problems in a totally different location than the actual light or switch.
That’s the key point of this blog today!
I find it interesting that Proverbs 4 says “Wisdom is the Principal Thing”, so GET wisdom. Then it says “…and in all your GETTING (of wisdom), get understanding.” Isn’t wisdom enough?
I’ve discovered many scriptural references to wisdom AND understanding, indicating that they are two separate entities that compliment each other together.
How do you understand something, someone or some situation? What helps you understand yourself? What does it take for someone else to understand you? Observation, seeking, asking, talking to others, researching, listening and noting the end results. Often to understand something or someone, we must learn about that something or someone.
For simplicity’s sake, I like to say that understanding is knowledge of how things are working and why they are doing what they are doing. Including ourself. Wisdom is the knowledge of what to do about that knowledge.
*So if I have no light and it’s the light bulb, wisdom says as far as safety, finances and ability, I can fix it myself. If the breaker switch just needs to be turned on, wisdom says I can do it myself.
*However if it’s a short circuit in the wiring, just because I may understand the problem, doesn’t mean it would be wisdom for me to do it myself. It would be safer to get someone else to do it. In fact it may be illegal for me to do it.
*If it’s a transformer, I understand that I can’t be the one to fix it, but wisdom would say I can make some phone calls and find other ways to get light at this moment (flashlight, lattern, etc.).
That’s a key point many of us miss when dealing with life – sometimes the source, the root or the cause of the problem is not in the same location as where we see or experience the problem.
Are you trying to deal with things at face value? Praying for God to help you with the stress in your life is a good thing. However, it helps if you understand what is giving you the stress, and then ask God to help you deal with that in particular, as that is the real issue. Then listen for his instructions. His protection is usually by an instruction.
You can pray for God to help you because you just don’t have enough time in a day. However, God’s given us all 24 hours in a day. Understanding why you fill your day up like you do, understanding what your priorities are and why, understanding what your motive is behind feeling like you need to do all this in one day is what you really need. Once you get that understanding, then God can help you. He can give you wisdom on what you need to eliminate, re-arrange, replace, introduce or delegate in your schedule, so you have better time management. That means better life management. It will also mean you can manage your stress levels via your thought process and decisions to even eliminate the source of stress. Wow!
Understanding others can help us be more compassionate, empathetic, prayerful and effective in our time, efforts and relationships with people. Wisdom will help us make the wise choices and boundaries regarding that understanding. Wisdom will give us guidelines, insights and perspective on all those pieces of life’s puzzle, so we get a clear picture and can keep it together in it’s proper perspective and place. When things fit, and when we have understanding, there is no place for confusion. When we have wisdom, there’s no need for worry.
Get Wisdom…and in all your getting, get understanding. Ask and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened!