Welcome

We're talking about wisdom today.  So I thought I'd share some wise sayings that were passed on to me.

• "It is easier to get older than it is to get wiser."
• "The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth."
• "Age makes you godly because your wild oats turn into prunes and All Bran."
• "It takes at least 40 years to get your head together and then your body falls apart."
• "If God wanted people to touch their toes, he would have put them on our knees."
• "It's not hard to meet expenses... They're everywhere."
• "Kids in the back seat cause accidents."
• "Accidents in the back seat cause...  Kids!"
• "Some days you're the dog and some days you're the hydrant."

The Preciousness of Wisdom is Secret and Costly

I like to read stories to my three children.  One of the reasons why is that it's an opportunity to teach them a lesson without them knowing I'm doing it!  So in the twelve years that I've been a parent I've read my kids literally 100's of Bible stories, fairy tales, and other stories that teach wisdom.

Recently I read a story to my youngest child Briana.  She's 7½ and so she still likes to sit in Daddy's lap for story time. 

The story we read is called "The Three Wishes" and its about a man who was about to cut down a tree and met a fairy who gave him and his wife three wishes.  He couldn't believe it. 

He went home and sat by the fire to think.  His wife was taking a long time to make dinner and so he groaned, "I'm so hungry I wish I had a big sausage right now!"

Suddenly a gigantic sausage fell down the chimney!

"What's the meaning of this?" demanded his wife.

The woodman told her the whole story and she complained, "You are a fool!  I wish that stupid sausage was on the end of your nose!"

And the sausage flew up and stuck onto his nose.  No matter how hard they tried they couldn't pull it off.  Finally, the wife smiled, "Well, you don't look so bad that way."  And she started thinking about how she'd like to use the last wish.

But the man beat her to it and quickly wished the sausage off his nose.

The sausage landed in a dish on the table and the woodman and his wife ate it for supper right then.  Even though they gained no riches, royalty or luxuries they thought it was the best sausage they had ever tasted.

It's a silly story, but it teaches us a serious lesson that happiness is not in getting what you wish for, but in learning to be content.

Amazingly, a story something like this actually happened in real life and was recorded in the Bible.  There was no giant sausage though!  And it was God who appeared, not a Fairy.  And only one wish was given.  It happened to Solomon when he was a young man, before he became king.

God appeared to Solomon one night and said to him, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you."  Can you believe that?  God visits Solomon, perhaps as angel, and says, "I'll do anything for you that you want!  You've got one wish."

What would you ask for?  Wealth?  Honor?  Success?  Health for you and your family?  Solomon didn't ask God for any of these things.  He asked for wisdom (2 Chronicles 1:8-12).  And he became the wisest man who ever lived. 

Solomon wasn't just smart or skilled.  He knew how to apply his knowledge and abilities to life.  That's wisdom: The ability to apply what you know in real life situations.

But there are many different philosophies and approaches to life claiming to be wise.  We want to learn God's wisdom.  We want to understand God's ways for living a good life. 

Solomon sought God's wisdom too.  And he described his search and what he learned in the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible.  How many of you have ever read Ecclesiastes?  Raise your hands.  Did it cheer you up?  It didn't?  You mean Ecclesiastes doesn't lift your spirits!  I actually like Ecclesiastes.  I find it refreshing because it helps me to re-focus on what really matters in life.

I'm serious.  I remember a time in my life when I went through a depression.  It was 1987 and I was two years into studying for my doctorate in Psychology.  I was worn out by the demands of graduate school and working to pay for it.  I was doubting my abilities to become a Clinical Psychologist.  I was questioning my calling from God.  And I was newly married and rather overwhelmed by some painful issues from my childhood that were triggered by being emotionally intimate with my wife.  I was depressed.

I sought help from a Psychologist, talked to friends, prayed, and read Ecclesiastes.  You think I'm crazy don't you?  Not for seeing a Psychologist I hope.  A lot of you have done that and know it's a wise thing to do.  But reading Ecclesiastes when you're depressed?  Wouldn't that just make you more depressed?  God used it to validate my feelings.  I had some things to be depressed about.  I needed to grieve.  I needed to connect more deeply with God and other people.  I needed to question and refine my calling from God.  I needed to live by God's wisdom, not the world's.

Ecclesiastes is misunderstood by most people.  They think it's message is that life is meaningless and depressing.  But what he shows is that life without God is meaningless.  He demonstrates that the world's wisdom is to live for things like wealth, pleasure, fame, or knowledge - This is depressing!  It's empty and like chasing the wind. 

In contrast he says that God's wisdom is to fear God and obey Him as the Lord and to enjoy Him and the pleasures, relationships, and work that He provides - This is delightful!  It's of eternal value and it's available right now!

God's wisdom is so precious.  But we have to search for it to find it.  We have to dig down deep into our hearts and relationships and God's Word to uncover it.  Then as we find God's wisdom we need give it our all to apply it to our lives.  It's expensive.  We have to invest money to grow in wisdom, but more than that we have to invest our time and our hearts.

Jesus said it like this: "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.  When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it." (Matthew 13:44-46)

God's Wisdom is Rejected as Foolishness

As Christians we can't think of wisdom without thinking of Proverbs in the same breath.  Solomon wrote thousands of Proverbs, which are in our Bible.  The theme of the book of Proverbs is:  "The Lord gives wisdom" (Proverbs 2:6). 

In high school I was told that there's 31 chapters in Proverbs and that to learn what God's wisdom is I should read the chapter corresponding to that date.  So I've done this.

Interestingly, Solomon personifies wisdom as a woman.  Now men, don't be surprised about this!  Especially if your sitting next to your wife or girlfriend!  God chose to reveal wisdom as feminine.  In Proverbs wisdom is a "she." 

And she is calling and calling, but few people listen to the important things she has to say.  Ladies, isn't that exactly how you feel with the men in your life?  You have so many valuable things to say that for men go in one ear and out the other! 

In Proverbs 1 we read: "Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out.  But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand. calamity overtakes you like a storm. distress and trouble overwhelm you. Then they will look for me but will not find me since they hated knowledge and did not chose to fear the Lord" (Proverbs 1:20,21,24,27-29).

Why do so many people refuse to listen?  Why is it that even you and I struggle to accept God's wisdom, the way that He makes for us?

Because God's ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9) and His wisdom seems crazy and ridiculous compared to what is commonly thought of as wisdom (1 Corinthians 1).

To Grow in God's Wisdom you Must Become "Foolish"

Let's look at four of the most important themes in Proverbs which are not listened to by most people.  Jesus taught these same wise principles to live by and yet they all seem foolish according to the thinking of most people. 

Here are the four surprising ways to grow in God's wisdom:

1. Fear God.  2. Deny self.  3. Feel pain.  And 4. Be needy.

1. Fear God:

We like to think that God is a nice guy whose only purpose is to bless us and give us what we want.  He's there to help us when we ask, but otherwise we just live as we please.  "It's my life, my body, my money, my time and I can do whatever I want.  I don't answer to anyone but me."

Even many Christians tend to think this way.  We've tried so hard to avoid the "Hell, fire, and brimstone" messages that came from pulpits and damaged people in the past that we've overreacted in the other direction.

We've lost the teaching of the Bible that, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Psalms 111:10 & Proverbs 9:10).  In fact, throughout the Bible it's taught and modeled to us to approach God with a certain fear or reverence. 

For instance, have you ever noticed that in the Bible when people have an encounter with God's holiness and glory that they become so scared that they fall down or hide?  Or that when people in the Bible are visited by angels they tremble in fear?

We're to respect the Lord.  How could we think it'd be otherwise? 

If after this meeting you were going to go out for dessert with President Bush, you'd be nervous - excited and scared.  He's surrounded by armed bodyguards and Secret Service personnel.  He's the most powerful man in the world.  If he wanted to he could help you or harm you.  And you've never met him before so you'd worry, "How should I act?  What should I say?  What is he asks me a question and I look stupid?  This is such an opportunity!  I don't want to blow it."

How much more is it appropriate to approach God with reverence and awe!  If we don't tremble when we first meet God then we haven't really met Him.  He's the Creator and we're His creatures.  He's the King and we're His subjects.  He's the Master and we're His servants.  He's the Potter and we're the clay.  He's our all-powerful Lord and the Holy Judge that we stand before.  He's in control; we're not...

Some of you might be starting to tune me out about now.  Gee.  Dr. Bill isn't sounding very therapeutic.  I'm hurting and I need comfort.  I have some struggles and I need God's help.  I don't need to be scared of God.

Hang with me a minute.  Let me tell you a story. 

A number of years ago I was helping a man with sexual addiction and depression.  I'll call him Clay.  We'd made great progress with Clay's depression.  He learned to bond and receive care.  He grieved losses.  He worked through anger and became assertive.  But he kept relapsing into his destructive sexual behavior in spite of regular psychotherapy, 12-Step Recovery, and learning about his sexual addiction.  He knew his sexual addiction was hurting himself badly - we'd talked about it many times - but still he continued to relapse.  What made this especially distressing to both of us was that Clay was a committed Christian who read his Bible, prayed, worshiped regularly, and even had been active in ministry. 

One day I decided to take a different approach with Clay.  I had noticed that he had this nice guy view of God I just mentioned.  He viewed God as like a Cotton Candy Vendor.  He thought God only wanted to be sweet to people and to bless them; His God didn't get angry over sin or discipline people.  (Of course, to come up with a theology like this he had to explain away about half of the Bible.)  So we looked at what the Bible taught about the fear of God, not just Old Testament Scriptures of God disciplining people, but also New Testament passages.  Like.

• Jesus cleansing the temple with a whip to kick out the merchants who were taking advantage of the poor and needy. 
• Jesus verbally blasting the religious leaders for their hypocrisy. 
• Annanias and Saphira falling down dead in the Lord's presence for lying to God. 

Slowly he became convinced that God does get angry over our sin because it is rebellion against his Lordship and, more than that, it's an adulterous betrayal of His husbandly love for us.

Then we talked about how the women he took advantage of sexually were being damaged by him in.  That each time he had sex with one of these women he was violating one of God's beloved daughters, leaving her rejected, discarded, and ashamed.  Even their readiness to trust in God's faithful love was being hurt.

Finally, Clay broke down and God broke through.  Clay cried and cried and cried.  And he trembled at the gravity of his badness and God's just anger.  He told God he was sorry for his sin, his abuse, his hypocrisy.  He realized that he had hurt himself, so many women, and most of all God, His Father.  He was filled with deep regret and sorrow. 

But then he started to feel a good feeling too: Love.  Deep inside where he needed it most he sensed God's love for him.  He was forgiven!  God was merciful and gracious to him!  "Amazing grace how sweet the sound. How precious did that grace appear when we first believed."

From that day forward he didn't have immoral sex again.  He had more work to do in his recovery and growth of course, but the most important step had been taken: He learned to fear God.

He realized that Jesus wasn't just gentle and kind.  Jesus and the God of the Old Testament were one and the same.  Jesus taught, "Don't be afraid of people even though they can kill you.  Fear God who can throw your soul into hell!  Then, because you've acknowledged God before people, you'll discover that you don't need to remain afraid of God because His watchful eye is on the sparrow and He cares for you more than many sparrows (Luke 12:4-9).

So the beginning of wisdom is to fear God, to surrender our lives to His Lordship.  And when we reverence God with a holy awe as Clay finally did then we discover a most beautiful thing, the most wonderful truth known to man: "God's perfect love casts out all our fears!" (1 John 4:18). 

We don't need to fear people and we don't need to remain afraid of God.  God is love!  His throne is a throne of grace and through our faith in Christ we can approach God's throne with confidence that God cares about our needs and will help us.

When we reverence our Almighty Lord who is holy and loving we'll see the wisdom in obeying His words in the Bible.  We'll see that if there's a way through our problems it's the way that God makes and so we'll rely on Him and His resources when we're depressed or struggling with compulsive behavior or just needing to make a decision. 

2.  Deny Self:

We tend to think that life is about making money to buy stuff, experiencing excitement and good feelings, looking good to impress people, getting people to like us, achieving things to prove we're important, doing good to get God to give us what we want.

• But Jesus said that those who try to be first will end up last (Mark 10:31). 
• He explained that if we spend our lives trying to get whatever we want we'll lose our souls.  The only way to save our souls is to go against the current of our indulgent culture by denying selfish desires and giving up frivolous wants for Him (Luke 9:23-24).
• He taught us to seek God first - His kingdom and His righteous - and then God will take care of all our needs (Matthew 6:33). 

Unfortunately, Jesus' teaching that we deny ourselves has been confused and misused to damage people. 

To deny yourself does not mean to negate your self, to be selfless and have no sense of self at all.  God wants us to be self-aware, not empty.  It's part of spiritual maturity to know what we feel and need and value and to be able to set boundaries and act based on our sense of self. 

• I like to say, "You can't deny a self that you don't have."

And denying self does not mean that your self is all bad or that everything you want is bad.  We're created wonderfully in God's image.  Yes, the sin that we've inherited and chosen has damaged God's image in us, but through faith in Jesus we're cleansed and made into new creatures.  We've been given new hearts that want to follow God.  Our deepest desire is for God. 

• God doesn't want us to deny our new natures! 
• He doesn't want us to deny our hearts' longings to be with Him and to do His will.

So what does it mean to deny yourself?  It means to be true to who God has made you to be: Be yourself before God and depend on His grace instead of trying to control life or trying to impress people or God with an ideal self. 

And denying yourself is resisting desires that are sinful, things that would hurt you, others, or God.  It means to sacrifice dreams and opportunities that, though they're not bad in and of themselves, are less than God's best for you.  Seek God's will and let Him live through you.

We all struggle with this.  One way is with compulsive behavior. 

For instance, I helped a woman who I'll call Rhonda.  Rhonda was bulimic.  Often she would overeat and then purge through laxatives or exercise.  She was a pastor's wife and thought she needed to look good all the time, but inside she was a mess.  She lived on a roller coaster of anxiety, anger, depression, and shame and everyday she took her two young children on a crazy ride with her.  Normal problems like her kids squabbling or getting behind on the laundry or a friend being grumpy with her would send her into a tailspin. 

She felt out of control and she was.  She tried to get in control with her perfectionism, but she could never measure up.  She tried to control her kids and her husband to get them to love her and do what she wanted, but that just created conflict.  So she used food.  When she felt tired, lonely, or needy she binged on food.  When she felt anxious, angry, or emotionally overloaded she purged.

I showed her that it was her emotional self that was out of control.  And that she was acting out of her unmet needs and emotional pain by trying to control people and things - especially food. 

God's way of wisdom for her to gain sanity and stability was to learn to "talk out" her feelings with a caring person instead of to "act out" these feelings with food. 

She needed to learn to process or digest her life experiences in loving relationships.  So that's what she did with me, her therapist, and in her Overeaters Anonymous group, and with her prayer partner until eventually she was no longer bulimic.

It's the same with overeating, alcohol abuse, re-current sexual immorality, co-dependency, or any other compulsive behavior. 

We need to learn to deny ourselves the impulsive, selfish, unhealthy, and ungodly things that tempt us. by connecting with God's care through people. 

And we need to resist acting out destructive behaviors. through the acceptance, care, structure, and accountability of regularly talking out your struggles and learning from others.

3. Feel Pain:

Jesus' teaching on pain is paradoxical: "Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4).  And again and again the Bible repeats this message as God tells us to rejoice in our trials and endure suffering. 

We don't like this message do we?  No, we don't believe that pain can be a blessing.  We want healing, growth, love, and happiness now, without pain or difficulty.  "Just put a frozen dinner in the microwave."  No waiting.  No hassles.  Western society today is surely the most impatient and least tolerant of struggle that has ever existed.

We need to learn from the parable of "The Butterfly's Struggle" shows us:

A man found a butterfly's cocoon. There was a little hole in the cocoon and so he looked inside.  He saw the butterfly's head start to push through the hole, but the hole was too small.  The butterfly struggled and struggled to get out, but he couldn't.  It was agonizing for him to watch the butterfly's painful struggle of trying to fit his body through the tiny opening.  It seemed that the butterfly was trapped.

So the kind man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and carefully enlarged the opening in the cocoon and so the young butterfly came out easily.  And the man smiled as he waited for the young butterfly to flutter off into the garden.
But the butterfly wasn't happy.  He stumbled along on the ground and then fell.  He had a swollen body and small, shriveled up wings.  The man kept waiting for the butterfly to rise up into the air, but tragically, the delicate butterfly spent its last few days in misery flopping around on the ground.  He was never able to fly. 

The man was so sad to see the butterfly die this way.  The butterfly's wings never unfurled their beauty.  The garden missed a beautiful fluttering creature of God's.  Many flowers didn't receive the pollinating they needed. 

What the man did not realize was that in his haste to release the butterfly from his painful struggle to get out of his cocoon, he had actually stunted his growth process. He thought he was being kind, but he had killed him. 

The butterfly's struggle through the small opening was actually God's way of forcing fluid from his body to his wings.  Yes, it was painful and tiring for the butterfly to work at freeing himself from the cocoon, but the struggle strengthened its delicate wings for flying. 

It's the same for you and I.  Growth is painful.  There are no shortcuts in the spiritual life.  Beautiful dreams from God take flight only through faith and struggle.

I think that every person who has sought my help as a psychologist has wanted me to take their pain away ASAP.  They see their painful struggle as a problem to be fixed when in reality it's a part of their self that needs to be known and loved. 

Getting people to accept their problems is one of the hardest parts of my job as a Psychologist.  I try to help them see that the symptom they want gone is a part of their soul that needs care.

For instance, Rick was frustrated by his panic attacks.  But the criticism and pressure he applied to himself when he was scared only made his anxiety worse.  He was fighting against what he needed. 

So I showed him this and recruited him to join me in accepting the panicky boy inside him who was afraid of upsetting other people. 

• He needed grace, not pressure and judgment. 
• He needed support and encouragement to face his fears
• He learned to verbalize his values and say no and disagree when it's how he felt instead of walking on egg shells and trying to make people happy by telling them what they wanted to hear. 

He gained strength and he felt more peace inside and then his panic attacks subsided.

Here's another example.  Louise hated being depressed.  She wanted to be "up" all the time and she could force herself into a more excited state for awhile, but then she'd go crashing down.  She needed to see that she was rejecting her sad parts and forcing them to rise to her expectations, which only made her depression worse.  She was depressed because she was isolated.  She had people in her life, but no one who knew what was really going on with her. 

• When she opened up and embraced her sadness her depression lifted
• When she stopped turning her anger inward against herself she found new energy for positive actions.

4.  Be Needy

I think I've gotten pretty good at helping people to embrace their pain.  If this is true it's only because it's so hard for me to do myself!  Often the only way I'm able to embrace my own pain is by depending on care from Christ's Ambassadors. 

Last time I spoke here I told you that my life verse is 2 Corinthians 5:20: "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making His appeal through us.  We implore you on Christ's behalf: be reconciled to God." 

To help people connect with God as their Friend brings me great joy.  And yet, just as much as I am Christ's Ambassador I need ambassadors for Christ in my life.

It's the same for you.  You and I are dependent not only on God, but also on the Body of Christ.  We need each other.  Some of us - because of wounds and immaturity from childhood that we continue to struggle with - need more than others, but we all need care from other people.

We think we need to be big shots in life, superman and superwoman.  We want to be strong, independent, self-reliant, successful.

But Jesus said, "If you want to enter God's kingdom then you must become like a child" (Matthew 18:1-4).  What does it mean to become like a child? 

- Needy, trusting, eager to learn, poor- no money! (in spirit, Matthew 5:3), hungry  all the time! (for God and his Words, Matthew 4:4, 5:6)

He also taught that we must be "born again" (John 3).  What does that mean?  Have you ever thought about what it means to be born again?  

- New life from Holy Spirit, spiritual re-birth, start over, re-growing up, developmental process. 

We need to bring our needy, child-like parts to God and people in the Body of Christ to receive God's help.

Here's an example of how I accepted my neediness and got help embracing my pain:

This happened just the other day.  I was anxious about a presentation I was making to a committee.  I came up with the idea to do a two-day seminar on "Giving Soul Care in Jesus' Name" as a Pre-Conference to the International Conference on Care & Kindness at the Crystal Cathedral, which will be in March of 2004. 

The more I thought about teaching principles of soul care to care-givers, lay counselors, and people in ministry the more excited I became. 

But when I thought about "selling" my idea to the committee I felt anxious.  I trembled, my eye twitched, butterfly's fluttered in my stomach, and my heart raced ahead.  

"Why am I so anxious?" I thought, frustrated with myself.  "What's the matter with me?  I know I can give a good seminar.  The committee values my work, as I've spoken at this conference and done a good job every year for six years.  I shouldn't be anxious.  I've got to fix this!  My anxiety might show and mess up my speech.  They might reject my dream.  Maybe it's not such a good idea after all." 

A lot of you are feeling anxious just listening to the thoughts I had because you can identify with this kind of pressure to be in control and to be strong.

My anxiety was fear: Fear of failure, fear of having my dream rejected.  Obviously, I needed help to accept my fear, to care for the scared boy inside me. 

• So I turned to God and I prayed about it and that helped a little, but I still was anxious. 
• I wrote out a summary and outline for the seminar and that helped a little bit too, but I still was anxious.
• I meditated on the "Biblical Prescriptions for Anxiety" that I put on my website, ChristianSoulCare.com.  (Hey, at least I take my own medicine!)  This was also comforting, but there was still more anxiety.

So I pressured myself some more: "Come on Bill.  Get yourself together.  You're supposed to be a therapist and you can't even soothe your own anxious emotions."  Ouch!

• Finally, I saw my inability to help myself, or even to internalize God's help by myself.  I admitted that I was poor in spirit, that I couldn't manage my anxiety on my own.
• I humbled myself and I reached out to some of Christ's Ambassadors.  I talked with a colleague, a friend, and my wife and that helped a lot.  But still I had some anxiety.

Then, it came time for my presentation.  It was time to act.  It was time to obey what I felt God leading me to do. 

• So I met with the committee.  I trembled.  My eye twitched.  The butterfly's danced.  And my heart thumped.  But I took some deep breaths and pitched my idea, my voice quivering a bit at first as I talked...  And they accepted my proposal.

Like me, you probably you struggle with anxiety at times, but if not you have some other pain or stress that regularly overwhelms you or perhaps debilitates your ability to function well. 

We need each other.  Whatever you're struggling with right now you need someone's help to get through it.  My strengths can help your weaknesses and your strengths can help my weaknesses.

We're like the two beggars, one was blind and the other lame.  Have you heard this old Eastern parable?  The two poor men found a way to help one another travel through life. The blind man was strong enough to carry the lame man on his back. He became his legs. In return, the lame man became the eyes for the blind one. By helping each other, they both benefited.

It's important that you don't make the mistake of thinking that helping or caring is something that God or people do for you!  If you do you'll never feel cared for and you'll walk around feeling sorry for yourself and complaining that other people just don't care enough for you.

To receive care you must participate in the process.  There are four things that you need to do for the care of God and others to take root in your soul: 

1. You need to reach out for help.  This means humbling yourself and taking a risk.  Sometimes you'll feel disappointed or rejected, but you must continue to reach out anyway.
2. You need to internalize the care that's given.  I'm talking about emotionally digesting it.  It's not comfort until you take it inside.  A hug isn't a hug unless you hug back.  When someone cares you need to trust the care and agree with it.  The power of care is when God, a friend, and you, all 3, join in caring for you.
3. You need to make use of the care.  This means taking the comfort you've received with you when you leave the caring encounter.  Think about the person who cares for you.  Review in your mind the encouraging words that were said.  Thank God for your friend.  Send a thank you note.
4. Finally, you need to pass on the care.  In the last 8 years I've helped train over 1,000 volunteer crisis counselors.  I believe strongly in the power of caring for others.  Again and again the Bible teaches us to show our love for God by loving other people.  They need our care AND we need to give it.  Take whatever care you have inside, however little it seems, and offer it to hurting people.  You'll be blessed.

Growing in God's Wisdom will Bring you Hope (Summary)

"Honey from the comb is sweet to your taste, know also that wisdom is sweet to your soul; if you find it there is a future hope for you." (Proverbs 24:13-14)

In Ephesians Paul prays for us that we will have a "Spirit of wisdom" because wisdom from God will give us hope, glory, and power (Ephesians 1:17).

Let's go back to the example I just shared.  Let's look at what I did in response to my anxiety about presenting my proposal for a two-day seminar on soul care:

I relied on God and His resources, especially Christ's Ambassadors, for help. 

In doing this I put into practice each of the four principles of God's wisdom:

1. I feared God, not people.  If I had given in to a fear of criticism from the committee then I would've scrapped my proposal.  (Incidently, this would've been the worst thing to do for my anxiety.  Avoiding what makes you anxious only makes your anxiety worse.)  Instead, what I feared was not obeying God's purpose for me.  If the committee rejected my dream, it'd hurt but I could re-group and handle that.  But if I rejected God's leading that'd be a tragic mistake.  So I feared God and I put my trust in His way of wisdom.
2. I denied myself.  I didn't give into old compulsions of workaholism to numb out my anxiety.
3. I felt my pain (which in this case was anxiety).  I prayed about it.  I thought about it.  I talked about it.  I breathed my way through it as I faced my fear and sold the committee on my idea.
4. I accepted my needs, which I wasn't able to do on my own.  I was only able to do this with the help of God and His ambassadors. 

I believe that's how God's wisdom makes a way for us through our problems.

There's no CE Exam for this class.