GOOD TO KNOW

"HE HAS SHOWERED HIS KINDNESS ON US,

ALONG WITH ALL WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING."

EPHESIANS 1:8 NIV

God is the perfect Father; He showers His children with kindness not because we deserve it, but because He can do nothing else. The unbeliever might say, "but doesn't He issue warnings and corrections; isn't there ugliness in this world all around us?" Of course the answer to all three questions is yes, but the warnings and corrections are born of His unfailing love for us, while the ugliness of this temporal world is born of man's own sin nature, which is born of His independence from God.

It is sin that stains the good intentions of men and women apart from God. Our best intentions our best efforts are meaningless and futile apart from the blessings of God; for example, the parent who refuses to punish the child that they love. That parent often lives to see that child's life destroyed due to the lack of self-control and recklessness at the hands of the enemy who seeks to destroy us all, unless that child should first turn to God who is ever ready to restore him.

Father God's kindness does not come as a trickle or sporadically; He showers us with kindness. His kindness reaches places within us that ourselves cannot even touch, just as a shower of water completely immerses you.

God's kindness alone would be enough and yet God says, "No, there is more . . ." "HE HAS SHOWERED HIS KINDNESS ON US, ALONG WITH ALL WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING."

When God offered Solomon of old the possession of anything in all of His Creation, Solomon chose the wisdom. Wisdom is the knowledge to understand the heart and ways of God. How can creation begin to understand its Creator? We can only begin to understand the heart and the will of God as God Himself grants us that ability. Such understanding makes all life right. The ability to be raised-up above the obstacles that block our view, the troubles that hinder our hearts, the worries that cloud our minds; to begin to understand His ways which are higher than our own, oh dear friend, what a blessing, and that blessing is called wisdom. Don't the "whys" of life help us to understand the "don'ts"?

And while Wisdom allows us to better know our God, Understanding helps us to better know ourselves we can rely upon our mind, but God says our minds have been corrupted by sin: He says we need our minds renewed. We can rely upon our hearts, but He reminds us that our hearts are deceitful above all things; our hearts will lie to us, so where do we find our direction for life? We need Understanding, which comes from God.

Look at the promise we have before us his day. What does God say? What does He promise? "HE HAS SHOWERED HIS KINDNESS ON US, ALONG WITH ALL WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING."

So today let you and I accept these gifts with grateful hearts, let us each one say, "YES LORD, SHOWER ME IN YOUR KINDNESS AND WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING, THAT I MIGHT LIVE MY LIFE THIS DAY IN A WAY WHICH BRINGS GLORY TO YOU! AMEN!"