Wisdom A Matter of The Heart
James 3:13-18
When I was putting together this study, I started thinking of the heart, a little bit. And I looked at some facts about the heart itself, and there were some there that blew me away, and I just wanted to share a few with you.
We all know that the average size of the heart is about the size of your fist. Your heart will beat about one hundred and fifteen thousand times in one day. Isn’t that amazing? And you know, we go through our day and we don’t even think about it, we don’t even realize it. We hear it now and then, but we don’t really realize what’s really going on there. Each day, your heart pumps about two thousand gallons of blood. If you were to stretch out your vessel system that is in your body, it would extend over sixty thousand miles. That’s amazing! In an average lifetime, the heart will pump nearly 1.5 million barrels of blood. That’s enough to fill two hundred train tank cars.
We are truly wonderfully made, aren’t we? The heart is placed in a spot fully protected by our ribcage, and that is just one of the many organs in our body. The title of today’s message is “Wisdom A Matter of The Heart.”
There are three sections to today’s message – The Proof. The Problem. The Practice.
1). The Proof
James 3:13 (NLT)
13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.
“Wise” It’s a demonstration of a living faith, there is a notable presence of wisdom in your life. It is evident to see when someone has searched for godly council and begged and cried out to God for wisdom.
“Understanding” This is an invisible inner quality. Have you ever tried to explain something to somebody and you’re looking at their face and you can see that they don’t understand? And you go into more detail, and then all of a sudden you can see when they get it. So, while this is an invisible quality, it does come out in our expression sometimes.
“Prove it” James says. Not unnaturally. (not like a short scene in a movie) But it should be proven or shown or exhibited in regular day-to-day life, it should be welled up inside of you, leaking out on everyone around you, not an act or a show, but a way of life. It’s not like winning a spelling bee.
“Living” Living out what God has put in us with wisdom and understanding as a way of life, day-to-day, thought-for-thought.
“Honorable” Not in a way that we would ever receive any honor or credit. But what we do should bring honor and glory to HIS name, that our lives will attract people to him.
“Good works” Works that edify, encourage, spur others on, benefiting those who are around you. If a person does good works to bring attention to themselves, then we can rightly say they lack true wisdom.
“Humility” Power under constraint, having the means to or power to but being wise enough not to. You might even have the right to. Humility in its best sense is being wise enough to truly acknowledge who we truly are considering our HOLY and righteous God, who HE is, and living out that truth in our decisions and actions.
The spirit of humility reduces our need for self-justification and allows us to admit to, and learn from our mistakes or negative ego behaviors. The best way to learn the importance of humility is to allow your pride to get in the way unchecked and see the damage it causes to the relationships in your life.
1 Peter says God opposes the proud, but he favors the humble. God digs his heels in against the proud. God resists the proud.
“Wisdom” Not head knowledge, wisdom is putting into practice knowledge and know-how without bringing attention to yourself in a humble accurate view of yourself before a holy and righteous God. This is not “walking on eggshells” but we are acknowledging the need for God’s help to navigate through by what we take in throughout the day.
James says that you should show forth your wisdom by your manner of living. In reality, our manner of life (the way we conduct ourselves) does demonstrate our source of our wisdom. We truly are what we eat! What we have taken in truly comes out one way or another.
Godly wisdom is not something you can attain with your own effort. It is a gift from God! You can’t rent it. You can’t buy it. You can’t conjure it up. You must ask for it from God and specifically.
2). The Problem
James 3:14 (NLT)
14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying.
“Bitter” Regards his opponents as enemies to be annihilated rather than friends to be persuaded.
“Selfish ambition” Displays oneself rather than the truth. It’s more important to have a personal victory of your own opinion rather than the truth.
“In your heart” Don’t say that you can’t believe the things you think in your mind sometimes, but rather own up to the fact that those thoughts are an overflow of what’s filled in your heart.
Luke 6:45 (NKJV)
45 "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Proverbs 4:23 (NLT)
23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
Don’t cover up over-exaggeration. We blow things up so that this “thing” is so big, and so far out of proportion, that the truth and issue of the matter are covered under theatrical stuff. We avoid getting to the truth through exaggeration or blowing things out of proportion.
The use of anger is the same thing. It is a behavior that does the same thing. It causes the truth to be suppressed because the anger being displayed takes the focus off of the truth that needs to be talked about. Again, a diversionary tactic.
Foul language takes the focus off the truth or the matter that needs to be dealt with.
Yelling and screaming. It suppresses the truth. It brings such discord into the conversation that all of a sudden, we’re not even thinking about the truth.
Procrastination is another way to avoid the truth. Maybe it will just go away if I don’t deal with it or work through it. These are all diversionary tactics to avoid the truth.
“Truth” The quality of being open and honest. Truth is free from being affected by any set of circumstances you might find yourself in. No deceit, exaggeration or let’s go all the way to even not leaving out any important information in a conversation.
“Boasting” Most all forms of boasting exalts the person doing all the talking by taking credit for all their accomplishments and simultaneously not giving God any credit. And even making more plans and vain glory without including God.
James 4:13-16 NLT
13 Look here, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit."
14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog--it's here a little while, then it's gone.
15 What you ought to say is, "If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that."
16 Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil.
“Lying” Anything in any form in words or an action that is not the truth.
Why do we lie? Let’s examine some reasons.
1). Defensive: The most common reason for lying to self-protect.
2). Vindictive: Some people lie intentionally to cause harm to others because they feel harmed by that person. It is a way of getting back at another person.
3). Disappointment: In order to avoid disappointing another person or even themselves, a lie might be told.
4). Manipulate: An abusive person constantly lies in order to continue their manipulation. If the truth came out, the abused might leave.
5). Intimidation: Sometimes a lie is told because the person feels intimidated by others.
6). Attention-seeking: Unfortunately, there are people who lie just to get the attention of other people.
7) Curiosity: This is a very childlike behavior that some adults don’t grow out of. Instead, they lie just to see what will happen regardless of the harm it might cause others.
8). Superior: For those with a larger-than-life ego and in order to maintain their superiority, they lie to make themselves look better than others.
9). Avoid: Some lies are done to get out of trouble or avoid any consequences. This is especially true with children.
10). Cover: Some people wear a mask and pretend to be something they are not. To maintain their appearances, they lie to cover up any attempt at revealing the real person.
If I am constantly in strife, constantly in turmoil, constantly stirred up, constantly bad-mouthing this person, that person, this thing, that thing, then that wisdom that I have is not of God.
What marks your life? What kind of wisdom comes from what you say and what you do?
James 3:15 (NLT)
15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God's kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.
We live in a fallen world, wouldn’t you agree? With that truth established, take a moment to think of all the sources of the information on a day-to-day basis that we are being bombarded, swayed, inundated with all day long. But, what do you expect? We live in a fallen world, so what kind of information do you expect from a fallen, deteriorating, every-man-for-himself world. If you watch the news you’ll see trouble, violence, unrest everywhere, pain, death, ninety percent bad news, at best.
So, James breaks it down to three sources of fallen world information.
Earthly: worldly standards, sources, everything is measured by worldly terms and worldly aims, having this life only in view.
Unspiritual: William Barkley states, “Unspiritual is almost like an animal kind of thing, the kind of wisdom that makes an animal snap and snarl for personal survival.”
Demonic: this wisdom is devilish by nature, and he delights to use it to wreak havoc and discord, personal offenses in your personal relationships, this wisdom is not from God.
(Our head) eyes and ears are the means and methods of how we take in information or gather information, both good and bad. So, the question is how do we process the information? What do we do with the knowledge we receive and where do we get it from? Does it just stay in your head?
When we gather knowledge and it stays in our head and we act upon it, that’s when we look back on that action and say, “Well, I thought it was the right thing to do.”
Jesus said as I quoted earlier, that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If you are a Christ-follower and you have surrendered your life to Christ, then you have given your heart to Jesus, and the Holy Spirit lives in your heart, not in your head.
Ephesians 3:16-17 NLT
16 I pray that from HIS glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.
17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him…..
So, if you take in information and knowledge in your head and we don’t let the Holy Spirit in our heart in order to filter, redirect, sensor, or help us to rightly divide the truth of the information that our head gathers, then we are literally responding in the flesh and not under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Does the Holy Spirit occupy your heart or have you allowed him to control your heart?
James 3:16 (NLT)
16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.
“Jealousy” Comes from insecurity, or if you have an eye to place value on other people compared to your sense of worth, this insecurity puts heavy strains on relationships and causes many forms of relational dysfunction.
“Selfish ambitions or motives” Opens up the door for so many relational dysfunctions. When you are selfish you can’t be trusted. When you’re selfish, you are uncaring and inconsiderate for those around you. When you are selfish you lose the power to influence others. Being self-FISH really stinks and you can smell it a mile away.
“Disorder” Whether in a room full of people or just two individuals sitting having a cup of coffee, disorder evaporates instantly the positive energy out of the room. Disorder stops the flow of any teamwork dead in its tracks, it’s a breach of peace and usually just causes a big mess.
“Evil” It’s all around us, no doubt, but jealousy, selfishness, and disorder invite evil into our lives, our thoughts, and eventually our actions.
So, what do we do from here?
3). The Practice
James 3:17 (NLT)
17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.
So, let’s go through some practical steps to let the Holy Spirit filter, redirect, and take control of our thoughts.
“Pure” (Don’t check out on me.) A pure heart without alternative motives, asking God to reveal to you any ways in your heart that would disqualify you to be used by God in the circumstances. You have done all you can do. In other words, the things you have the opportunity to control, you have taken on the responsibility to act. (You have taken ownership.)
But what about the things I cannot control? Great question! The wisdom from above also gives you the ability to respond correctly to the things you cannot control.
So, you take ownership of the things that are yours. You write down all the things that you need help from God on. You put another column next to it and you say, these are the ones that I own. These are the ones that I need to deal with. These are my responsibilities. Then you put another column and say these responsibilities are God’s and God’s alone.
Once you’re done dealing with everything that is your responsibility, you can say, Lord, I don’t know anything else to do, you can move those things over to the “God only” category. And once they’re over there, we need to say, “God, I don’t know how to do this. Lord, I need you to help me navigate through this. I can’t do anything more about it, and if you don’t intervene, there is no way I am going to get through this.”
“Peace loving” A burden to make peace rather than be right or in charge.
“Gentle at all times” Trusting God in your wisdom because you know and trust that God is completely in control and all you need to do is hang onto him and enjoy the ride. You don’t have to fight; you don’t have to defend.
“Willing to yield” The keyword here is “willing”, giving way, having the understanding but the heavenly wisdom to let everything shake out by willingly yielding to the Holy Spirit to guide and direct you in your life.
Where I live, there is a freeway onramp. And there is a main part that goes south, and there is this little one-lane part that I get on quite a bit. And when you get going down this one-lane area where you are coming to merge onto the freeway, there’s a spot there where they put this big white stripe, and these arrows there, and then this triangular sign that says “YIELD”. Sometimes there is a car coming, and we pull up to that line, and we still have to make a decision. Are we going to yield and let this car go, or are we going to “punch it” really quick and get out in front of them? We have to make a choice, and that’s what being “willing to yield” is.
“Full of mercy” Fully understanding the mercy that God has poured out on your life, so you can pour it out on all those around you. God’s mercy is new every morning, but when you get up early to gather some up, be ready – it might not actually be for you! You might have the opportunity to give mercy on someone even when they have brought all their trouble upon themselves.
“Good deeds” Being a vessel of God to encourage people’s hearts, empowering them to act and strengthening their hearts.
“Always sincere” Not just because we have good moral standards, being sincere is a fruit of trusting in God to make things right when they are wrong. Being a trustworthy, sincere person comes from trusting in God. Jesus is trustworthy. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Seeking nothing but God’s glory and not using any other means to obtain it. No conversations that halfway reveal or conceal the truth. Sincerity never pretends to be what it is not.
James 3:18 (NLT)
18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.
“Peacemaker” A person who initiates peace takes the first steps, takes all the risk of being rejected to alleviate friction. It’s like an orchestra conductor that goes to each person in the group one by one to bring harmony to the music. There is a big difference between a peacemaker and a peacekeeper.
“Plant seeds of peace” Scattering seeds of peace and calm, being proactive to begin the peacemaking process, living without friction wherever you go rather than bringing friction into our day-to-day lives.
“Righteousness” right standing before God with confidence, doing what’s right in the place God has you. Living out heavenly wisdom that God puts into our hearts daily.
God’s wisdom is not just for you in the circumstances you need guidance in, but also to use that experience to share with others.
So, in closing, I beg you to pray for the wisdom from above. Ask the Holy Spirit to come into your heart and life, and give you guidance and direction, help and strength, and courage to do whatever is on your plate. And ask for it specifically. “I need help with this specific thing in my life, Lord. I am not going to get through this, Lord, unless you intervene unless you show yourself mighty in my life on your behalf.”
We need to have a heart that is not so much controlled by the Holy Spirit but occupied completely. We need to have a controlled heart, but it needs to be fully occupied.
We need a fully surrendered life to Christ. God has the solution for the things that are going on in your life. Jesus said he came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly.
We all know that the average size of the heart is about the size of your fist. Your heart will beat about one hundred and fifteen thousand times in one day. Isn’t that amazing? And you know, we go through our day and we don’t even think about it, we don’t even realize it. We hear it now and then, but we don’t really realize what’s really going on there. Each day, your heart pumps about two thousand gallons of blood. If you were to stretch out your vessel system that is in your body, it would extend over sixty thousand miles. That’s amazing! In an average lifetime, the heart will pump nearly 1.5 million barrels of blood. That’s enough to fill two hundred train tank cars.
We are truly wonderfully made, aren’t we? The heart is placed in a spot fully protected by our ribcage, and that is just one of the many organs in our body. The title of today’s message is “Wisdom A Matter of The Heart.”
There are three sections to today’s message – The Proof. The Problem. The Practice.
1). The Proof
James 3:13 (NLT)
13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.
“Wise” It’s a demonstration of a living faith, there is a notable presence of wisdom in your life. It is evident to see when someone has searched for godly council and begged and cried out to God for wisdom.
“Understanding” This is an invisible inner quality. Have you ever tried to explain something to somebody and you’re looking at their face and you can see that they don’t understand? And you go into more detail, and then all of a sudden you can see when they get it. So, while this is an invisible quality, it does come out in our expression sometimes.
“Prove it” James says. Not unnaturally. (not like a short scene in a movie) But it should be proven or shown or exhibited in regular day-to-day life, it should be welled up inside of you, leaking out on everyone around you, not an act or a show, but a way of life. It’s not like winning a spelling bee.
“Living” Living out what God has put in us with wisdom and understanding as a way of life, day-to-day, thought-for-thought.
“Honorable” Not in a way that we would ever receive any honor or credit. But what we do should bring honor and glory to HIS name, that our lives will attract people to him.
“Good works” Works that edify, encourage, spur others on, benefiting those who are around you. If a person does good works to bring attention to themselves, then we can rightly say they lack true wisdom.
“Humility” Power under constraint, having the means to or power to but being wise enough not to. You might even have the right to. Humility in its best sense is being wise enough to truly acknowledge who we truly are considering our HOLY and righteous God, who HE is, and living out that truth in our decisions and actions.
The spirit of humility reduces our need for self-justification and allows us to admit to, and learn from our mistakes or negative ego behaviors. The best way to learn the importance of humility is to allow your pride to get in the way unchecked and see the damage it causes to the relationships in your life.
1 Peter says God opposes the proud, but he favors the humble. God digs his heels in against the proud. God resists the proud.
“Wisdom” Not head knowledge, wisdom is putting into practice knowledge and know-how without bringing attention to yourself in a humble accurate view of yourself before a holy and righteous God. This is not “walking on eggshells” but we are acknowledging the need for God’s help to navigate through by what we take in throughout the day.
James says that you should show forth your wisdom by your manner of living. In reality, our manner of life (the way we conduct ourselves) does demonstrate our source of our wisdom. We truly are what we eat! What we have taken in truly comes out one way or another.
Godly wisdom is not something you can attain with your own effort. It is a gift from God! You can’t rent it. You can’t buy it. You can’t conjure it up. You must ask for it from God and specifically.
2). The Problem
James 3:14 (NLT)
14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying.
“Bitter” Regards his opponents as enemies to be annihilated rather than friends to be persuaded.
“Selfish ambition” Displays oneself rather than the truth. It’s more important to have a personal victory of your own opinion rather than the truth.
“In your heart” Don’t say that you can’t believe the things you think in your mind sometimes, but rather own up to the fact that those thoughts are an overflow of what’s filled in your heart.
Luke 6:45 (NKJV)
45 "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Proverbs 4:23 (NLT)
23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
Don’t cover up over-exaggeration. We blow things up so that this “thing” is so big, and so far out of proportion, that the truth and issue of the matter are covered under theatrical stuff. We avoid getting to the truth through exaggeration or blowing things out of proportion.
The use of anger is the same thing. It is a behavior that does the same thing. It causes the truth to be suppressed because the anger being displayed takes the focus off of the truth that needs to be talked about. Again, a diversionary tactic.
Foul language takes the focus off the truth or the matter that needs to be dealt with.
Yelling and screaming. It suppresses the truth. It brings such discord into the conversation that all of a sudden, we’re not even thinking about the truth.
Procrastination is another way to avoid the truth. Maybe it will just go away if I don’t deal with it or work through it. These are all diversionary tactics to avoid the truth.
“Truth” The quality of being open and honest. Truth is free from being affected by any set of circumstances you might find yourself in. No deceit, exaggeration or let’s go all the way to even not leaving out any important information in a conversation.
“Boasting” Most all forms of boasting exalts the person doing all the talking by taking credit for all their accomplishments and simultaneously not giving God any credit. And even making more plans and vain glory without including God.
James 4:13-16 NLT
13 Look here, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit."
14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog--it's here a little while, then it's gone.
15 What you ought to say is, "If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that."
16 Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil.
“Lying” Anything in any form in words or an action that is not the truth.
Why do we lie? Let’s examine some reasons.
1). Defensive: The most common reason for lying to self-protect.
2). Vindictive: Some people lie intentionally to cause harm to others because they feel harmed by that person. It is a way of getting back at another person.
3). Disappointment: In order to avoid disappointing another person or even themselves, a lie might be told.
4). Manipulate: An abusive person constantly lies in order to continue their manipulation. If the truth came out, the abused might leave.
5). Intimidation: Sometimes a lie is told because the person feels intimidated by others.
6). Attention-seeking: Unfortunately, there are people who lie just to get the attention of other people.
7) Curiosity: This is a very childlike behavior that some adults don’t grow out of. Instead, they lie just to see what will happen regardless of the harm it might cause others.
8). Superior: For those with a larger-than-life ego and in order to maintain their superiority, they lie to make themselves look better than others.
9). Avoid: Some lies are done to get out of trouble or avoid any consequences. This is especially true with children.
10). Cover: Some people wear a mask and pretend to be something they are not. To maintain their appearances, they lie to cover up any attempt at revealing the real person.
If I am constantly in strife, constantly in turmoil, constantly stirred up, constantly bad-mouthing this person, that person, this thing, that thing, then that wisdom that I have is not of God.
What marks your life? What kind of wisdom comes from what you say and what you do?
James 3:15 (NLT)
15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God's kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.
We live in a fallen world, wouldn’t you agree? With that truth established, take a moment to think of all the sources of the information on a day-to-day basis that we are being bombarded, swayed, inundated with all day long. But, what do you expect? We live in a fallen world, so what kind of information do you expect from a fallen, deteriorating, every-man-for-himself world. If you watch the news you’ll see trouble, violence, unrest everywhere, pain, death, ninety percent bad news, at best.
So, James breaks it down to three sources of fallen world information.
Earthly: worldly standards, sources, everything is measured by worldly terms and worldly aims, having this life only in view.
Unspiritual: William Barkley states, “Unspiritual is almost like an animal kind of thing, the kind of wisdom that makes an animal snap and snarl for personal survival.”
Demonic: this wisdom is devilish by nature, and he delights to use it to wreak havoc and discord, personal offenses in your personal relationships, this wisdom is not from God.
(Our head) eyes and ears are the means and methods of how we take in information or gather information, both good and bad. So, the question is how do we process the information? What do we do with the knowledge we receive and where do we get it from? Does it just stay in your head?
When we gather knowledge and it stays in our head and we act upon it, that’s when we look back on that action and say, “Well, I thought it was the right thing to do.”
Jesus said as I quoted earlier, that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If you are a Christ-follower and you have surrendered your life to Christ, then you have given your heart to Jesus, and the Holy Spirit lives in your heart, not in your head.
Ephesians 3:16-17 NLT
16 I pray that from HIS glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.
17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him…..
So, if you take in information and knowledge in your head and we don’t let the Holy Spirit in our heart in order to filter, redirect, sensor, or help us to rightly divide the truth of the information that our head gathers, then we are literally responding in the flesh and not under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Does the Holy Spirit occupy your heart or have you allowed him to control your heart?
James 3:16 (NLT)
16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.
“Jealousy” Comes from insecurity, or if you have an eye to place value on other people compared to your sense of worth, this insecurity puts heavy strains on relationships and causes many forms of relational dysfunction.
“Selfish ambitions or motives” Opens up the door for so many relational dysfunctions. When you are selfish you can’t be trusted. When you’re selfish, you are uncaring and inconsiderate for those around you. When you are selfish you lose the power to influence others. Being self-FISH really stinks and you can smell it a mile away.
“Disorder” Whether in a room full of people or just two individuals sitting having a cup of coffee, disorder evaporates instantly the positive energy out of the room. Disorder stops the flow of any teamwork dead in its tracks, it’s a breach of peace and usually just causes a big mess.
“Evil” It’s all around us, no doubt, but jealousy, selfishness, and disorder invite evil into our lives, our thoughts, and eventually our actions.
So, what do we do from here?
3). The Practice
James 3:17 (NLT)
17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.
So, let’s go through some practical steps to let the Holy Spirit filter, redirect, and take control of our thoughts.
“Pure” (Don’t check out on me.) A pure heart without alternative motives, asking God to reveal to you any ways in your heart that would disqualify you to be used by God in the circumstances. You have done all you can do. In other words, the things you have the opportunity to control, you have taken on the responsibility to act. (You have taken ownership.)
But what about the things I cannot control? Great question! The wisdom from above also gives you the ability to respond correctly to the things you cannot control.
So, you take ownership of the things that are yours. You write down all the things that you need help from God on. You put another column next to it and you say, these are the ones that I own. These are the ones that I need to deal with. These are my responsibilities. Then you put another column and say these responsibilities are God’s and God’s alone.
Once you’re done dealing with everything that is your responsibility, you can say, Lord, I don’t know anything else to do, you can move those things over to the “God only” category. And once they’re over there, we need to say, “God, I don’t know how to do this. Lord, I need you to help me navigate through this. I can’t do anything more about it, and if you don’t intervene, there is no way I am going to get through this.”
“Peace loving” A burden to make peace rather than be right or in charge.
“Gentle at all times” Trusting God in your wisdom because you know and trust that God is completely in control and all you need to do is hang onto him and enjoy the ride. You don’t have to fight; you don’t have to defend.
“Willing to yield” The keyword here is “willing”, giving way, having the understanding but the heavenly wisdom to let everything shake out by willingly yielding to the Holy Spirit to guide and direct you in your life.
Where I live, there is a freeway onramp. And there is a main part that goes south, and there is this little one-lane part that I get on quite a bit. And when you get going down this one-lane area where you are coming to merge onto the freeway, there’s a spot there where they put this big white stripe, and these arrows there, and then this triangular sign that says “YIELD”. Sometimes there is a car coming, and we pull up to that line, and we still have to make a decision. Are we going to yield and let this car go, or are we going to “punch it” really quick and get out in front of them? We have to make a choice, and that’s what being “willing to yield” is.
“Full of mercy” Fully understanding the mercy that God has poured out on your life, so you can pour it out on all those around you. God’s mercy is new every morning, but when you get up early to gather some up, be ready – it might not actually be for you! You might have the opportunity to give mercy on someone even when they have brought all their trouble upon themselves.
“Good deeds” Being a vessel of God to encourage people’s hearts, empowering them to act and strengthening their hearts.
“Always sincere” Not just because we have good moral standards, being sincere is a fruit of trusting in God to make things right when they are wrong. Being a trustworthy, sincere person comes from trusting in God. Jesus is trustworthy. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Seeking nothing but God’s glory and not using any other means to obtain it. No conversations that halfway reveal or conceal the truth. Sincerity never pretends to be what it is not.
James 3:18 (NLT)
18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.
“Peacemaker” A person who initiates peace takes the first steps, takes all the risk of being rejected to alleviate friction. It’s like an orchestra conductor that goes to each person in the group one by one to bring harmony to the music. There is a big difference between a peacemaker and a peacekeeper.
“Plant seeds of peace” Scattering seeds of peace and calm, being proactive to begin the peacemaking process, living without friction wherever you go rather than bringing friction into our day-to-day lives.
“Righteousness” right standing before God with confidence, doing what’s right in the place God has you. Living out heavenly wisdom that God puts into our hearts daily.
God’s wisdom is not just for you in the circumstances you need guidance in, but also to use that experience to share with others.
So, in closing, I beg you to pray for the wisdom from above. Ask the Holy Spirit to come into your heart and life, and give you guidance and direction, help and strength, and courage to do whatever is on your plate. And ask for it specifically. “I need help with this specific thing in my life, Lord. I am not going to get through this, Lord, unless you intervene unless you show yourself mighty in my life on your behalf.”
We need to have a heart that is not so much controlled by the Holy Spirit but occupied completely. We need to have a controlled heart, but it needs to be fully occupied.
We need a fully surrendered life to Christ. God has the solution for the things that are going on in your life. Jesus said he came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly.