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Day 18

BEG FOR WISDOM!

• JESUS WANTS US TO “BE WISE” IN WHAT WE DO AND WHAT WE SAY

GOD’S WORD:  “Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave.  As you enter the home, give it your greeting.  If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you.  If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.  I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.  I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.  “Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues.  On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.  But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say,  for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

(Matthew 10:11-20, NIV)

REFLECTION-DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Why is it so important that I ask for “wisdom” from the Lord as to where he wants me to meet and where to stay in his service?

2. What does “asking for wisdom” have to do with deciding on those who are most worthy to receive the word of the Lord?

3. What does it mean when Jesus said this: “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves”?

1. What does it mean when Jesus said this: “Be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves”?

2. What does an effective approach to others have to do with “begging for wisdom”?

3. Why could Jesus say this: “Do not worry about what to say or how to say it; at that time you will be given what to say”?

4. How might wisdom from the Lord relate with this statement: “It will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you”?

• JESUS PROMISES WISDOM TO THOSE WHO ARE “LIKE LITTLE CHILDREN”

GOD’S WORD:  At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.  Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

(Matthew 11’25-27, NIV)

REFLECTION-DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Who would qualify as most “wise and learned” in the eyes of unbelievers?

2. How did Jesus explain “wisdom and learning” very differently than the unbelieving world defines these things?

3. What does it mean that the “Father reveals wisdom to little children”?

4. What is the true foundation of those who are most wise; “what do they know” that many others do not understand?

5. Why is it so important that I ask for “wisdom” from the Lord?

• THE LORD’S BROTHER JAMES TAUGHT US TO “PRAY WITH PURE MOTIVES”

GOD’S WORD: If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. (James 1:5-7, NIV)

REFLECTION-DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Why is it so important that I ask for “wisdom” from the Lord?

2. What does it mean to “ask for wisdom”?

3. What does it mean when the Lord promises to give to me “without finding fault”?

4. What does it mean to ask “believing without doubt”?

5. How does the Lord feel about a believer who is “overwhelmed with nagging doubts”?

6. Why might it be that the Lord withholds blessings from his children “when they have serious doubts”?

GOD’S WORD:  You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:2-5, NIV)

REFLECTION-DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How does the Lord feel about his children “praying from selfish motives”?

2. How is selfishness totally opposed to the “nature of spirituality and holiness”?

3. How seriously do I take this statement, “You do not have, because you do not ask God”?

4. If I really got serious with prayer, “what might I ask” from the Lord?

1. What might be some kinds of “wrong motives” when I ask the Lord for “good things”?

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