True strength, wisdom, and understanding come to us from God. His Spirit gives us wisdom and understanding through the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus.
It's easy to walk around our neighborhoods and communities and find places where people have dropped trash. People get so caught up in what they're doing, and what's important to them, that they don't pay attention or care about how their actions affect others. But, we do the same thing in our lives every day.
God created your body and mind. He gave you a soul and emotions. Our bodies are complex, elegant, and amazing. We conjure ideas from our minds, then express them without mouths. We read peoples' body language with our eyes. Our hands can tap out a musical rhythm from our heartbeat. Blood flows through our bodies carrying oxygen that makes it possible for us to conjure ideas from our minds. Every part of our body, mind, and soul function in unison so that we may enjoy life.
But, then, we decide to pour something into our bodies that hurts and harms them. We get so caught up in what we're doing, and how it makes us feel, that we don't pay attention or care about how our actions hurt ourselves and others. More than that, we don't comprehend the effects that harming our bodies will have on our souls.
The amazing work of God is ignored or forgotten. We don't know or remember the wonderful things our Creator does for us, for those around us, and for the whole world. We don't sing to praise the Lord. We don't read, or pray, or meditate on God's words. We have no fear of God because we've taken all that God's given to us and used it to glorify ourselves.
We're strong and wise, and understand the way things work. We're in control. We know what's good for us and what's harmful. But, we don't fear the Lord, and this is why we don't trust him to deliver on his promise to redeem us from sin, death, and hell in Christ Jesus.
When we fear God, we're awestruck by what he does for us. His artistry in creating us. His faithful-loving kindness in redeeming us. His craftiness in delivering forgiveness, new life, and eternal salvation to us through simple, earthly words, water, bread, and wine.
True strength, wisdom, and understanding come to us from God. His Spirit gives us wisdom and understanding through the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus. Our whole heart is converted by the forgiveness of sin, and it's freed then by God to pour out praise and thanks for all his amazing works.
We're brought to faith in Jesus as our Savior through the Spirit and the Gospel. Wisdom and understanding are delivered to us in the same way so that we can stand in awe of all of God's doing for us. He makes all of us, and has given us our body and soul, eyes, ears, and all our members, our reason and all our senses, and still takes care of them so that we may hear the Good News of Jesus Christ and in turn thank, praise, serve and obey him.
Our God has made us so that we may enjoy our life with him and each other, and in faith, remember all the wonderful works of his hands. All that he does for us each day. All we're given each day, especially his great gift of salvation in Jesus' name.
