AP

Proverbs 8:14-17  Counsel and sound judgment are mine;  I have insight, I have power.  By me kings reign and rulers issue decrees that are just; by me princes govern, and nobles – all who rule on earth.  I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.

It is so encouraging to read these words and just quietly let them sink into my muddled, anxious mind.  The dominant culture that surrounds me, and keeps on impacting me every time I watch or listen to the news, causes me to be anxious about where we are heading as a society.

So it is good to let ‘Wisdom’ come into the debate and just remind me where the real power actually lies.  The phrase that jumped out to me first was ‘I have power’, and then the essential corollary: “By me kings reign and rulers issue decrees that are just; by me princes govern, and nobles – all who rule on earth.”  How comforting this is – and the One making this claim is none other than ‘Wisdom’, who “was formed … at the very beginning, when the world came to be” (verse 23), who “was there when he [the God of Creation] set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth” (verses 27-29), and who was “rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind” (verses 30c-31)!

How good is that!  It sounds a lot like the best thing for me to do instead of being ‘anxious’ about what is happening around me that seems out of control, is to ‘seek’, and therefore ‘find’ this wisdom, and to pray in this frame of mind.  I guess this is just what the apostle Paul is telling me to do when I read Philippians 4:6-7: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  That sounds a much better option than wasting my time and effort on being anxious, especially when I have already found it to be true in so many circumstances!  Yes, I will certainly specialise in the prayer option!  God knows what he is doing in every part of the world he runs (i.e. all of it), and I can trust him to do it well – so I’ll just keep talking to him about it!  Will you?

– Bruce Christian