Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The mocker seeks wisdom and finds none,
    but knowledge comes easily to the discerning.
Stay away from a fool,
    for you will not find knowledge on their lips.
The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways,
    but the folly of fools is deception.
Fools mock at making amends for sin,
    but goodwill is found among the upright.

• Proverbs 14:6-9

“A girl sat in the circle of the Bible study and listened to the lesson being taught. When asked what she thought, she replied, “This is stupid.” She folded her arms across her chest and leaned back in her chair. She tuned out the rest of the lesson, and afterward she vowed never to return. A friend of hers said that she was being closed minded, but she said, ‘I don’t have time for this junk. I want to know how to live better, just like everybody else, but I don’t think this helps at all.’ The girl never gave the group a second chance.
“It is interesting how some people can find the answers they are seeking in churches, while others seem unaffected. Partially, it has to do with the attitude we come with. If we are open to God and are willing to give Him a chance to disclose Himself, we will find Him. But if we come skeptically and we scorn His power to change lives, then we block His effectiveness. For every attempt He makes to reach us, we come up with some excuse to explain it away, and we come away as empty as when we arrived. If we come before God unwilling to listen to His Word, then we will never find wisdom, but when we are open-minded and willing to hear, God will grant us the knowledge we so desire.”

• Dan and Nancy Dick, Daily Wisdom from the Bible

Are these seekers of wisdom really seeking wisdom?  Too often, those that say that they are seekers prefer the easy fix?  They do not change their lifestyle; they just take another pill.

Circumstances have forced my wife to change her lifestyle.  As a result, she has cut the dosage of a couple of her pills in half, and maybe that is too much medicine.  It is possible to change your lifestyle.  And God can help with that.

I wrote recently about contrition.  If we do not go to God humbly and willing to accept Him on His terms, we are simply fooling ourselves in thinking that we have “tried God.”

“God trying” is a trick Satan plays on our minds.  He makes us think that we tried God and God failed, but the truth is that in those cases, we never made an unconditional surrender to God.  In fact, we held back everything, resisting God, and as I remember it, we stand leaning against the door as if we are saying, “God, slip some Hope and Joy under the door, but if You try to open the door, You will have a fight on Your hands.”

Yes, I have been there.  Trying God out for the weekend might be fun, but the feeling is lost by early Monday morning.

And the girl in the quote above did not even do that much, but she will be convinced that since she “wasted” an hour at the Bible study, she had “tried God,” and God failed.

And although many argue that Christianity is simply a placebo effect, healing due to a belief that healing took place, but it is like many things, if you have the wrong attitude, you do not get anything out of the experience.

If my wife and I were to be given a trip to New Orleans (airline tickets, motel, ground transportations and game tickets) for the Sugar Bowl between my alma mater, Ole Miss, and the Baylor Bears, as if anyone would do that, we would have a wonderful time.  I would be “into” every part of the trip, except for the coffee.  My wife would love the food, the market, the freshly made pecan praline, the coffee and beignets at Café Du Monde just down from the market, but maybe not the football game.  It all depends on the attitude we bring to the event.

God wants us to want Him, seeking Him because He IS, not because of what we might think we are getting out of the deal.  It is not that God is holding back until we come through with our end of the bargain.  God is waiting for us to truly want Him, on His terms.

And once that attitude changes within us that we truly seek wisdom, wisdom will be granted… and so much more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.