Daily Thought for Friday, December 2nd

December 2, 2011 

Spiritual Intelligence

Today’s Thought:

“We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.” – Albert Einstein

Today’s Quote:

“Intelligence is not something possessed once for all.  It is in constant process of forming. .” – John Dewey

Today’s Question:

Would you be willing to concur with the notion that: “Most people have minds like concrete: mixed up and permanently set?” – Anonymous

Today’s Bible Verses:          Proverbs 4:5-9 &  Colossians 1:9-11

Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.

For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

Today’s Spiritual Thought:

“Of work comes knowledge, of knowledge comes fruitful work; of the union of knowledge and work come the development of intelligence.” – Vinoba Bhave

Intelligence and wisdom isn’t necessarily the same thing.  A person can be super intelligent and have absolutely no wisdom, but it is a little harder to become wise without attaining some intelligence along the way.

Intelligence is simply the knowledge one posses and if we become wise through our experience it is probably reasonable to assume that in the process of garnering that wisdom we will pick up some knowledge along the way.

For today’s Christians it is important to be both spiritually wise and spiritually smart.  The best way to attain God’s intellect is to study His word.  The best way to gain Godly wisdom is to experience life by doing our best to live His way and when we do fall short: learning the lessons that come with falling down and having to get back up again, so to speak.

Most folks like to joke about how dumb sheep are and since we are His sheep and He is our shepherd: that would infer that it is ok for us to be less than smart.  However, I believe God’s children are among some of the smartest people in the world. After all they did choose to surrender their lives to Him.

However like physical intelligence, spiritual intelligence must be continually fostered, developed and nurtured.  We can’t assume we have learned it once, way back in Children’s church and that is all we need for the rest of now on and forever.

We need to heed the words of Paul when he wrote to Timothy.  We need to study and we need to do it perpetually.

And something else to consider about a truly intelligent person is this:  they are smart enough to know they don’t know it all and that there is a lot more out there that they need to learn.

Today’s Prayer:

Father, I’m not as smart as I need to be nor as wise as I want to be; so help me to continue to grow in both wisdom and intelligence.

“Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are.”

- George Santayana