The Bible tells us how to grow patience. James 1:2-3 tells us patience grows in the mixed soil of faith and trials. In other words, patience increases through the times that we desperately need it. So what about wisdom? Both Psalms and Proverbs state that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If that is the root, then how do we nurture the plant? I am afraid the answer is the same. Wisdom grows in the potting soil of trials, when we have no idea what to do, in the times that we desperately need it.
I am in one of those growing seasons. I have prayed for wisdom because God has promised to give it, but He does not pour it in our ear while we sleep. Wisdom is like a muscle and, like all other aspects of becoming Christlike, we have to work at making it stronger. And it becomes stronger when we stretch and strain to reach the right decision, to say the right thing, to fan a fading flicker of faith until it can dispel the darkness. Wisdom is not a destination, it is a journey. And we do not reach it, we just read the signs along the way that show we are getting closer. When you can be content and faithful on that journey, knowing you will never arrive--that's wisdom.
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