I have a friend who is the best painter I know. I love his paintings of boats in particular and recently he blessed me with one as a gift. His ability to take what he sees and apply it to canvas is nothing short of a gift. It leaves the person looking at the finished work with inspiration and joy.
Now give me a canvas and some paints and ask for a boat and I would paint something I had done when I was 5 years of age. A boat with sails no less, perched right on top of the flat sea! I am not 5yrs anymore, I know boats don’t sit like that but nevertheless that’s what would be produced. My knowledge has grown but how to practically apply that hasn’t.
There is a Greek New Testament word for this and it is Sophos. It means to practically apply an acquired knowledge. The Apostle uses it in today’s verse of Ephesians 5 v15: “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise (Sophos).”
The one thing I have prayed for the most in my life is wisdom and the second is knowledge. It hasn’t changed how I paint but it has helped me immensely in other ways as God has answered that prayer.
You may be in difficult situations. You may be in a prison of some sort today. The temptation is to focus solely on the prison doors opening. Instead ask for wisdom to know what to do, how to live in such a situation. He will give you the ideas, the keys and the ability to make decisions . Ask Him today for such wisdom.
For wisdom is found with God. Reading the Bible every day, meditation and receiving the Spirit’s presence is the path of wisdom. That’s the benefit of such disciplines.
When you sit with God and ask for wisdom you are sitting with someone who created the most amazing things. He saw it and He made it. He had knowledge and He was able to practically apply that knowledge. There are no limits to what He can inspire you with if He created the hummingbird.
Yes, He created the hummingbird! How did He think that through?! It is incredible but if I want to know how to do life I want to sit with the One who created the hummingbird.
Hummingbirds are the lightest birds in the sky. There are approximately 240 species and range between 2 and 8 inches long. They can hover, fly backward, even fly upside down. They can dive out of the sky at sixty-one miles per hour which is the equivalent to diving at 385 body-lengths per second! The human eye cannot see its wings flap they are too fast at 60 times a second. Of all vertebrates it has the largest heart which accounts for 2.5% of its body weight. If we were as active we would need to 155,000 calories per day!
God who created the Hummingbird invites us each day to spend time with Him. If He can do this for the smallest of birds, what more can He do for you in terms of Sophos?
Spend time with Him and seek knowledge and then wisdom and you just might be painting a Hummingbird. After all it isn’t going to be a large painting!
May God grant you the ability to practically apply knowledge.
Missions Paul 