Study # 11
November 12, 1997
Harlingen, Texas
(Download Audio)
Thesis: IF the issue of agenda is settled (God's or Mine), the problem of wisdom is resolved by prayer to God.
Review: The proper response to stressful circumstances is...
- 1) To be committed to joy beyond the judgment.
- 2) To be committed to the awareness that the process is designed to yield that joy.
- a. By being genuinely aware.
- b. By being willing to permit the process to work.
Present Study:
- I. The Problems Associated With the Lack of Wisdom.
- A. Life is relatively complex.
- B. The Word of God is relatively complex.
- C. The motivations of life are relatively complex, and made more so by our rather high level of focus on self-interest (hedonism, materialism, humanism).
- D. Decisions result in consequences in time and eternity.
- II. The Command to Ask.
- A. The word translated 'ask' is a word that often has overtones of demandingness and relational distance.
- 1. This reduces the requirement of maturity in love...which is encouraging.
- 2. This does, however, insist upon a legitimate relationship (servant-child).
- B. The description of God establishes a necessary concept for asking.
- 1. He is the giving God.
- 2. His giving overcomes the absence of clarity.
- 3. His giving never comes with any attempt to create a sense of shame associated with ignorance.
- III. The Promise.
- A. This is a "you can bank on it" kind of covenant commitment.