Mon.’s Devo -True Wisdom and Understanding

Read: Job 28:1-30:31; 2 Corinthians 2:12-17; Psalm 42:1-11; Proverbs 22:7 My favorite quote of Job’s today is “Now I am mocked by young men whose fathers are not worthy to run with my sheepdogs.” Job would have made a great country song writter. *** Job explains all the ways man has discovered to find treasures in the earth yet wisdom and understanding are hard to find. They can only be found in God. They are more valuable than all the gold and silver and precious metals found under the earth. God created and rules the earth with his wisdom. To fear him is true wisdom and to forsake evil is real understanding. *** Job laments the glory of his past. He used to be esteemed among the people on the earth. Everyone respected him and honored his opinion. Now they laugh at him and despise him. He lost his family, his honor, and his position. In their place he has depression, embarrassment and heart ache. He feels he has lost his standing with God and God isn’t answering his prayers. *** In contrast, Paul looks at his life like a parade in God’s triumphal procession. Walking with Christ is compared to a sweet perfume where its fragrance permeates everywhere we are. It is received differently depending on the heart of the one who smells it. To some it is a sweet aroma of life and to others it is the smell of death and doom. That is the power of the gospel preached with sincerity and Christ’s authority. *** In our Psalm today, David feels much like Job does yet he puts his hope in God. *** Lord, we put our hope in you. We seek your wisdom and understanding and refuse to be discouraged. We will live to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. We will see the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God.