0:00 [Music] Shall we begin with a word of prayer? Our heavenly father, we thank you for helping us to come together again. Thank you for all your goodness and mercies to 0:17 us, for keeping us safe and giving us these few minutes when we can spend time at your feet. Lord, we pray that you'll speak to each one of us. Lord, we are in so much need in our lives and we want you to speak to us and strengthen us, 0:35 encourage us, comfort us so that we can be true and faithful to you. Lord, we can obey you. Give us the strength. Lord, bless this time that we spend together. We ask in Jesus precious name. Amen. It's nice to be together again after the 0:59 vacation is over and the children have started school and we are back in that uh treadmill mode. We have to send the children to school and take care of their needs and all kind of things. It's good that we can spend this little time 1:16 together throughout our lives. We realize that we need wisdom. Young, old, whatever our age is, we all need wisdom. I don't know about you but most of us 1:32 feel there were times when we somebody told came to us and said uh you should not have spoken like that or that was the wrong time you said like that and maybe you were too hasty 1:50 and we resent it. what that person said must have been true but we resent it and we sometimes we have regret and we are that's the time when we realize that we need wisdom wisdom from God for every small and big thing that 2:10 we face the Bible speaks of two types of wisdom if we turn to James 3 14- 16 there are two types of wisdom. One is the earthly wisdom 2:27 where and I could summarize it like this. The way worldly people look at wisdom, they want to succeed in life, make lot of money, get as much as possible for ourselves, for themselves 2:45 and maybe compete with others. Maybe pull down others. May have contacts so that you can get on in life. Make use of people to get some benefit for yourself. That's the earthly wisdom and James 3 3:05 says it's the selfish ambition and jealousy and even goes on to say demonic can be cuz we just think of ourselves if a person is just thinking of him herself and getting advantage taking advantage of others that's the wisdom of this 3:24 world but godly wisdom we've been thinking and meditating on it in the past few months month. Godly wisdom we know is uh verse 17 says wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, 3:43 gentle, full of mercy and good works is easy to be entreated. In other words, is reasonable. There's no hypocrisy, no partiality. And today I want us to meditate on this 4:02 aspect of wisdom. It says it wisdom is easy to be entreated and is reasonable. And I looked up many translations of that little phrase is tucked away in the middle of all the qualities of wisdom. And and I looked up many translations in 4:21 different uh New Testament and says that kind of w that aspect of wisdom is reasonable is willing to listen. It yields to others. It allows discussion. 4:39 It's not self-willed or stubborn. It's easy to be intreated, easy to be persuaded, is teachable and friendly. I want to repeat all those again. Reasonable. That wisdom from above is 4:57 reasonable. Is willing to listen. I wish we could put that many times. We need that. Willing to listen. Be a listener to yield to others. Allow discussion is not self-willed or stubborn 5:16 is easy to be entreated, easy to be persuaded, teachable and friendly. And then we when we think of this, we say Lord I wish we had this kind of wisdom. I wish I could be that type of person. Cuz from our childhood 5:34 especially as we reach teenagers we've all had this experience we like we know what we are in control of ourselves my way is the best way I want to do the thing everything my way if somebody want to advise us says I know like some 5:53 children say I know mommy I know I know and we want to do our work and there's a inner battle within us. Somebody wants to tell us something the way it should we should do things or say things and we don't we 6:10 resent it and if if they have told us about this need of having this kind of wis wisdom wisdom be listen be reasonable be willing to listen maybe your way may not be the best 6:29 the per God's way is the perfect One, I may be deceived by the enemy and the happiness I get from doing my own will is only a temporary momentary happiness. Later on, I may discover that it was a wrong decision, you know, wrong 6:49 way I went about it and I bear the consequences of it for months. Maybe others have to bear the consequence of you know what I mean. How uh and I often think of this verse which often which comes to me that 7:07 promise was given to us at our wedding in Isaiah 30:21. Isaiah 30:21 it says your ears shall hear a word behind you saying this is the way you walk in it when you turn to 7:25 the right or to the left. when we have to make a decision, the Lord will uh give us a word in our hearts and say this is the way walk in it. We know many verses about uh about wisdom especially in proverbs there are verses 7:44 like if we turn to proverbs 8 says wisdom proverbs 8:1 says wisdom cries out and understanding puts out her voice. She stands on the top of high places and by places on the paths and she cries out at the gates 8:03 and calls out to all of us, you simple people, I'll give you wisdom. It's like how Jesus said, if any of you are thirsty, come to me. He shouted out, cried out with a loud voice and said, if any of you are thirsty, come to me and 8:18 drink of me the living water. That's the same word which we hear, which we need. We said, "Lord, I need wisdom in my daily life. I don't want to make a mess of my life. I want to have that pure and peaceable and gentle wisdom. I don't 8:35 want to be so proud that people cannot correct me and say things about me. I don't want to be hurt when somebody corrects me." Jesus said, "Uh, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves." 8:52 that what wisdom does a serpent have? The serpent I heard that I I read somewhere that the serpents have such a good hearing or some vibration uh even vibration on the ground they can sense that there's an enemy nearby and 9:10 they're c they slide in and go into the hole and hide. They know when to take care of themselves. Jesus said, "I'm sending you," and that's in Matthew 10:16, "I'm sending you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be wise as serpents and 9:28 yet be harmless as doves. Don't harm anyone, but have that wisdom to take care of yourselves. Don't go into any uh dangerous place. Don't say things which will harm others, which will hurt others or hurt yourself. Be wise in your 9:45 behavior. be because there are all wolves around trying to attack us. We must have that wisdom and the Lord and in 1 Corinthians 3:e 19 there's this beautiful verse the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. 10:04 We think of all the wise people and we try to get wisdom from them. And when we come to the Lord, the Lord says the wisdom which I want to give you is nothing compared to the worldly wisdom. Well, the worldly wisdom is foolishness 10:23 compared to the godly wisdom which God want the Lord wants to give us. And we had need to cry out to the Lord. Lord, how much I need that wisdom in my daily life, in dealing with my children, in young people, in their studies, 10:41 in uh in the work situation. Those of us who are married in a married life and in our home running our home like if if somebody was to even tell us a small thing like why is the coffee a 10:58 little cold today? We get like that's it. We we can't take that small criticism. We get easily shaken said I've done so much and he's just he or she is finding fault with that little thing. 11:15 We are so influenced by worldly worldly ideas. What do worldly people say? Girls to tell girls, young ladies, they say you don't have to give up your rights. You don't have to submit to anyone. You are the 11:34 um you control. You are in control of your own life. And that's what the world says and social media and modern ideas for girls is like that. But and modern ideas keep changing. And Proverbs 2:12, there's a verse which says there's a way that seems right in 11:54 our eyes. In everybody's eyes, we think, "Oh, my way is the right way. I want to do it." But the Lord's way is completely different. And we need to seek the Lord and say, "Lord, give me wisdom. give me this kind of wisdom which is willing to 12:10 listen, which willing to yield my own will and and not be stubborn. I think of some examples in the Bible of people who are stubborn. There are a lot of kings in the Old Testament who are stubborn. 12:28 Prophets used to come to tell them uh don't turn away from the living God. Follow the Lord. if you if you forsake him, he'll forsake you. And he the Lord even said, "I'll hand you over to your enemies. You'll be taken as captives to 12:44 distant lands." And king after king heard that warning from the those warnings from the prophets. Some of them changed, some of them changed a little bit, but mostly they all turned back to the following way of other heathen 13:02 nations, idolatry and forsaking the Lord. There's this verse in I read this verse in 2 Chronicles chapter 36:3 which says about King Zedekiah. It says 2 Chronicles 36:13. 13:20 Zedekica was strong and stubborn so far as following the Lord. He rebelled against God against God. He rebelled against the prophets. And we know what happened in his time. In his time, 13:35 Nebuchadnezzar came and um Jerusalem was o over uh was a uh overthrown and shattered. the walls were destroyed and many people were taken as captives because it didn't because Zedekica was 13:53 stubborn and didn't give heed to the to the Lord's warning. Another man who was like that um a little bit like that but he changed was Jacob. We all know the story of Jacob. Um, in the Old 14:09 Testament, Jacob, uh, God had told his parents that Jacob is a special child and he's chosen to be a leader and he has a special calling in his life. But Jacob was in a hurry. He wanted to go ahead of God and inherit all the 14:28 blessings which God had. He didn't want to wait for God's time. So he tried to um twist his brother's hand and he got the birthright by giving him a little soup. He tried to fool his father by putting some goat skin on his h 14:45 pretended to be his brother to get the blessing. And then he had to run for his life and stay with his uncle who was a equal match for him. And he we know how he got his two wives and he pro tried to get his uncles as much as possible of 15:03 his uncle's uh property and sheep and all as much wealth as possible even though God had promised him but God was following him met him at Bethl then said I I'll take care of you and he was always going ahead of God 15:22 trying to um manipulate things and get things for himself till one day he had to yield to the to to God. We know that pen experience when he wrestled with God but God broke him. It 15:41 he dislocated his his thigh and from then on he had to limp. That was the breaking point and he but they Jacob he yielded to the Lord. He yielded and he got he got blessing from the Lord and wisdom 15:59 from the Lord to the rest of his life. He didn't want to be a schemer or a getting it going ahead of God. He was waiting wanted to wait for God's time to fulfill his promises. And there are examples of women also who who 16:19 had this noble quality of wisdom. We think of a girl like Ruth. She was a heathen girl, a Moabitis. and she got married and she became a widow and she was con convinced that 16:36 uh Jehovah is the true God and she was faithful to her mother-in-law and she went back and she yielded to the advice of her mother-in-law. So when her mother-in-law said do like this, go and glean from the fields, she could have thought, "Oh, I the way I 16:56 grew up was different. I never went to the fields and collected the leftover grain from the fields uh in in Moab. I brought up in a different way. I don't want to h go beneath my dignity and do such things." She could have reacted 17:12 like that. But she humbled herself and listened to the advice of her mother-in-law. And we know how God gave her a beautiful future, a wonderful husband and she became um um the line of David. David came from her 17:31 line how God blessed her. Those are some examples. Esther also. So those are examples of people who who who submitted to godly wisdom in the Old Testament. 17:49 In in Romans 12:2 it says don't conform to this world. The world has different ideas. Oh you as a woman you shouldn't be doing this, you shouldn't do that. That's the worldly idea. But the Lord's ways don't don't copy the 18:08 uh ways of the world. James 1 says, "Be slow to speak, quick to listen, be a listener." Being a listener is not a sign of weakness. Jesus is an example. He humbled himself 18:26 and did the father's will. He he didn't never wanted to do anything without uh knowing what the father wanted him to do. And we must always have our ears open to 18:45 hear what the father want speaking to us. We must be so familiar with the hearing the father's voice when we read the word of god and say yes this is the way I want to walk in it. I was thinking of a beautiful example 19:03 which happened in the family conference that really spoke to me. Some of you were there at the family conference and um we were all blessed by hearing God's word at the family conference and at that conference there was um I think 19:21 sister Mara is here. Yeah, there's a a wonderful sister called sister Mara who was there with she had a foster child. I think they called him Baba. And that child's mother, real mother, biological mother was on drugs. 19:40 And this baby was born completely blind. He couldn't see anything. Everything was dark for him. But his hearing was good. He was about I think 18 months old just able to stand up. A beautiful boy baby 19:57 with beautiful blue eyes wide open but he couldn't see a thing. So we were I he was so beautiful that we all took turns carrying him and I think Gloriana was holding him in the dining hall and we were all talking together 20:15 and um talking about godly things and about the conference and this boy was always his eyes were looking from side to side listening or what and sometimes he would shut his eyes 20:31 and behind us my husband was standing there talk sitting there at the table or standing there talking to a group of brothers I didn't know but he was there and this boy suddenly he shut his eyes 20:46 tight as if he was focusing on something and then he stretched out his hand and reached stretched and reached and held out my husband's shoulder so tight like this. He's a very strong 21:05 boy even though he was only 18 months old. He held my husband's shoulder on the shirt and wouldn't let go. And we thought what's going what's he doing? Is he like you know sometimes we misunderstand some children like that 21:20 they can be uh they can have some fit of anger or some frustration or something. He didn't he is such a sweet noble boy. We've never seen him behave like that. And holding my husband's shirt like that and he wouldn't let go. And my husband 21:37 turned and he saw him and he tried to release his hand from his shoulder but he wouldn't let go. He held on to it so tight. And finally my husband turned and stroked his hand and caroused his face and he slowly let go. 21:55 And then I was thinking this kind of behavior I've never seen. and his sister Mara his the sister foster mother who was taking care of him she said you know we often listen to brother Zach's messages and he's there listening to the 22:11 messages he keeps on he's heard brother Zach's voice so often that when he heard Zach's brother Zach speaking somewhere behind him he understood this is someone whom I know who familiar with me and I want him. I want to reach out to 22:31 him and he held on to him so tight. Would not let go till my husband um stroked him and later he prayed for him. He prayed with him then he let go and I thought what a beautiful example this is. 22:49 This boy has heard had heard this person's brother Zach's voice so often and he must have been blessed by it in some way or comforted by it or something good must have happened in his high in his life by hearing those words those 23:07 spiritual truths I don't know how much he could understand I'm sure he understood more than what we uh can believe he it was such a blessing maybe for him that he reached out and wanted to make contact with that person and I 23:27 thought what a blessing it is if I can so familiar with hearing God's word I can only reach out to God in faith and say Lord I need you I have heard your voice but really I need you I want your strength I want your power I want your 23:45 help I want your comfort I want you Lord This poor boy couldn't express his words but his feelings came out. His language, his actions came out in that sweet language he spoke to me. And I thought 24:01 of how Jesus said to Thomas, our Lord said to Thomas, Thomas, you believe me when you saw me. When you see me, you believe me. Blessed are those who believe me even if they haven't seen. 24:20 This boy was a was a preacher to me. This little boy Jesus said the kingdom of God belongs to children and the children speak to us. In the new heaven a little child shall 24:38 lead them. The Lord said it's so wonderful that we can learn from little children like that. Another little child who always blesses me is little Elijah. We all know him in RLCF. However busy is, however busy we are, he 24:56 always comes to greet us and hug us. After he says this verse, he comes and gives a high five or fist five. It's so lovely to have children like that who minister to us. Praise God. Those are the the ones who bless us when 25:15 teach us to hear the father's voice. In Proverbs 12, it says, "Love instruction, love reproof. A wise woman loves correction." There are many verses in Proverbs. I think if you read the whole book of proverbs and 25:32 you say a wise woman of wisdom there'll be so much of instruction especially if you love correction you'll be among the wise so many verses like that be among the wise and and the prudent proverbs 8 I wrote down so many verses but there's 25:51 no time and in Hebrews there's a verse which says whom the father loves he corrects so when the lord corrects us or reproves us or disciplines us. We should be willing to listen, willing to, as I said, willing to yield, 26:10 willing to give up our self-will. We should be, we shouldn't, somebody should not keep on saying, "Please, please listen to me. Please, I'm telling you for the 10th time, please listen to me." We don't have to be entreated like 26:25 that. The first time somebody says something, we can say yes, I'll gladly do it. Whether it's our husband or our sibling or uh someone at home, maybe a child who's in need, maybe a child who's gone astray. Many teen teenagers have 26:44 gone astray and and we say uh we want to them to come back come back to the Lord and and we we can say just like that the Lord is speaking to us. One word from 27:02 him is enough to make us obey. He we nobody need to keep on trying to persuade us to follow him. We hear, we read the word in God's word and say, "Yes, Lord, that's for me. Even though it's difficult, I'm going to take that 27:19 word. I'm going to obey. I want to take it as top priority because you said it. It's not from man. Your word says every word of yours is valuable. It's not just like thrown like dust. It's so valuable. I want to take that 27:37 word seriously. I want to take it to my heart. I want to be a person who's teachable, willing to yield. And if somebody wants to talk, I'm willing to listen to them and give in. You know, many families there's so much 27:54 of um chaos because people both the husband, wife, they want to keep on arguing and giving his point of view, her point of view. You go on discussing and discussing and go to bed discussing. 28:12 Get up the next day the same discussion continues. Think of the poor children who are listening to that. What are they learning? They learn to discuss. They learn to despise father or mother or they might be thinking when is this going to end? 28:31 Will one will they separate and we are left as orphans? or have to deal with a single mom or a single dad. Think what happens in the child's mind when all these discussions go on. If on the other 28:46 hand you say yes I'm be the one I'm the wife. I'll be the one to give up this discussion. I'll yield even though I don't agree. I don't want to discuss about it. Let's be happy together. And later on we may and we pray about 29:05 it. We pray about it and we tell the Lord Lord this matter we were talking about I really feel convinced that what I'm saying is right but I don't want to be strong willed and make a fight in the house. So I yield but you speak to my 29:22 husband and convince him. And most of the time almost every single time the Lord will work on our behalf and will convince and there'll be peace and harmony and but I can say most of the time we sisters may be the ones who are 29:40 at fault because we are so narrow-minded and we can see only we don't see far ahead what the future going to be. Now husbands can be will have more wisdom. Like for instance, we say this carpet is too old and I want to change it. Or some 29:59 of our friends come and say, "Oh, green color doesn't look nice over here. Maybe you should have a brown color." And we listen to our friends and then we tell our husband, I want to change the carpet to brown color. And our husbands have got the sense and 30:15 say we don't we can't afford it now. You know how many how much it cost to get so many meters so many yards of carpet for all this and if we change in one room we have to change in all the other rooms and then the the wall doesn't have go 30:30 with the brown color. So we have to paint the walls also and then the windows and everything have to be painted. We don't think of all that but our husband have the sense to say it's not practical just because our friend 30:44 says gray is not good or green is not good brown is better and we listen to that and we say and we but when we take the advice of our husbands and we and they have the sense to think ahead and the finances and they are the ones who 31:01 have to work hard and make the money then we realize yes Lord I want to yield. I want to I don't want to be self-willed. I don't want to I want to give up my preference. This carpet is good enough. It's not tone. It's practical. It can 31:20 last for some more time. Maybe after the children are grown up, we can change and maybe we can do a neutral color so that the walls need not be painted or things like that. That's just an example. So those are some of the things which come 31:35 to my mind when we think of her. How a wise woman can have this this wonderful quality this precious quality of being willing to listen and yield to others and not self-build and not stubborn easy 31:55 to be intreated. We can find opportunity for that. Many times in the day we're dealing with our children when we feel like this is the way I'm going to handle my children. I've always said no in this. And then the Lord says you you've been right most 32:14 of the time but now your your child is a teenager. You have to give a little more freedom. You don't have to be so strict and say okay we'll make a compromise. will make a deal. You do this and I'll do this. So that's an example of being 32:33 willing to listen and being willing easy to be p persuaded. Those are some of the things. Now we all come to we realize that we need that precious quality and it's a struggle. There's a battle going on within us. I don't want to give up my will. I've 32:52 always done it this way. My mom and dad have done it. I don't want to change and why should I change just because somebody has some other view but for the sake of peace we know that I'm we are going to be reasonable and we are going 33:06 to give up our will and we have the example of Jesus who always here wanted to do the father's will so I wrote down a few tips how we can um inherit this precious quality first of all acknowledge 33:26 that we need that we need that quality. We are so stubborn and often we want to have our way and we must be convinced. We need that quality of being reasonable and willing to give up our will. That sense of need must be there. And 33:46 secondly, not only we need, God wants us to have that because in the just I said in James 3, godly wisdom, a godly girl must have this virtue of being willing to yield 34:02 and uh give up our strong will. Of course, sometimes when the if the many uh homes in India especially in heathen homes and if the wife is converted and the husband wants to do some idolatry or some heathen custom there we have to 34:21 stand firm and say no I if you don't mind um this I'll do anything else instead of this can I do this but please don't ask me to bow down to idols or these heathen worships or being in the presence of people who mock God or who 34:38 gossip. Those are things we should be firm about. There's no it's not negotiable. I'm going to be firm on those things. But and we can ask the Lord, Lord, don't let me be put in such a situation where I'll be with people 34:54 who are mocking God or gossiping or backbiting or speaking ill of others or I have to do some heathen custom. Please Lord, free me for that. don't let me be placed in that and the Lord will set us free. I know many girls in India who uh 35:11 took a stand for the Lord and the Lord undertook for them and the parents unders understood them and said okay if you're so strong about your faith you don't have to come for this idol worship you can stay away I know people who are 35:25 sitting right here who've taken a stand for that and God honored them there was one girl uh who used to come to CFC and uh she accepted the Lord and her uh family was belonging to some other religion and she refused to take part in 35:43 that idol worship and so her mother said I'm going to bang my head on the ground till you bow down to this idol and the mother kept on banging and this girl thought when is my mom going to stop this I I don't want to do this and she 36:00 prayed and just then the doorbell rang and the mother had to stop and then she thanked the Lord said, "Lord, you saved me out of this situation." Like that, a simple thing like that, God is working on our side and he loves us and if you 36:15 honor him, he will honor us and you take a step towards him, he run to come and help us. So God will take care of that. But in these strong will and things of our stubborn, God wants us to give up that stubbornness. So we ask in God ask 36:32 the Lord Lord please help me to get rid of this stubborn nature. James 1 says if if you lack wisdom you ask of me and I'll give you wisdom. And you must ask in faith. Don't doubt ask in faith and face every 36:50 form of criticism or correction in a mature way. Don't be hurt about it. take it in a mature way like don't in a childish way and hurt and pout and not talk to a partner and be angry or a tantrum. All those things 37:09 um we should avoid. Be mature and say yes what you said is true. I want to I want to consider it and take change my life. I want to take that correction. Don't have a negative attitude to those who correct us and 37:27 forgive people. If they if you're hurt about them, say, "Lord, I want to forgive that person. Please help me to forgive from my heart." And the Lord will help us to forgive. God gives grace to the humble. Every time the Lord sees 37:42 that we're willing to humble ourselves, apologize, and not be resentful or stubborn, he'll give us grace. And be willing to bend. Bend means bow down and humble oursel. I always think of that word God inclines his ear to hear us. 38:00 That means he bends down to hear us. He bent down to hear this little child crying out to him. And just like that, I want to bend down, give up my will. And this virtue is such a valuable virtue for us wives. 38:20 It says a gentle answer turns away wrath. So if somebody's angry and we it's not our uh time to get angry and answer in a 38:35 in a anger angry way or a louder than that person. That's a time for us us to be gentle and polite and gracious and wait till the other person has cooled down. Maybe if that person is angry, wait till that person has cooled 38:54 down and then uh in a kind we ourselves will cool down and ask Lord the Lord to give us grace so that we can say things in a kinder way. And this uh claim this promise Zechariah 4:6 39:11 Zechariah 4:6 it says it's not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord. It's only by the power of the Holy Spirit that we can achieve anything or do anything. So seek for the power of the Holy Spirit daily. Daily ask the 39:30 Lord. Lord this is a new day you've given me. Give me your power, your grace, the power of the Holy Spirit. It's only with my with your power that I can live and I can be a child uh testimony for you and be live the 39:49 life that you want me to live. And so please give me the power and prayer throughout whenever especially when we face these difficult situations when we're tempted to not give up our will and be stubborn and be angry. That's the 40:05 time when we need to whisper in our thought short prayer. Lord help me. Help me not to fall in this situation to anger or to say things which I'll regret about. Help me Lord. And that silent prayer, a minute or a word of prayer, 40:23 the Lord will take us. And our goal is to be like Christ. Christ likeness is our goal. So say, "Lord, make me like you." And when we ask the Lord for Christ likeness, he's building us up and breaking us, building and breaking, 40:41 building and break. That goes on all the time. You know in in medicine there's a thing when our bones are broken or when bone need to be repaired there are two types of cells which work one type of cell is called the osteoblast 40:58 it keeps on building the bone building the bone building and another type of cell it's also a bone cell it's called a osteoclast it keeps on breaking the bone I mean fashioning it smoothening it. If the bone were to be if you have a 41:17 fracture and the bone is getting built and built at the point of the fracture, there'll be a big lump. If just the osteoblasts were building, but the osteoclass are breaking it down, breaking it down and smoothening it so 41:32 that the when the bone is healed, it looks just as beautiful as it was before you had that fracture. So the Lord also is working. He's building us up and breaking us up. Building and sometimes the breaking process is very painful. 41:50 But say Lord in the end it'll be a beautiful Christlike person. It's not the same person I I was last year or 10 years ago. It'll be a person with Christ living inside. Outwardly I'll have the features of a of me but inside my inner 42:10 man inner person will be Christlike. I'll be patient, forgiving. I'll be uh loving, merciful, all the qualities of a good qualities that we read of in James chapter 3 verse 17. 42:28 So submit to that building and breaking which the Lord want to do throughout our life. It'll never get finished throughout our life. Uh the Lord will do. And another secret we promise which I want to share is in 42:46 Isaiah 30 verse1 15 there's a verse which says in quietness and confidence shall be your strength. We think that our strength must be in shouting louder raising our voice and say look this has to be done. No more of this slipshot 43:04 work. This has to be shout. It's not in shouting. But the Lord will give us strength in quietness and confidence in him. The quietness which he gives in our heart. That rest inner rest which he gives in our heart. Not that unrest and which 43:21 leads to shouting and fighting and arguing but in quietness and confidence shall be your strength. Many times that I claim that promise. Lord, in this situation, there's all turmoil around. There's chaos around my children, people 43:37 and and I have to entertain guests. I have to clean up and I have to do so many things. But the Lord says, "Be quiet in quietness and confidence. You'll have rest. Just submit to me. I'll give you rest and I'll give you 43:52 strength to take care of this." So that's the promise we I want to share with you. And then there are some verses in Proverbs which I I I thought I'll share and yeah in James 3 in verse 13 there 44:11 there's this verse who is a wise man and you can say who is a wise woman and endured with knowledge or wisdom among you let her show out her good life her works with meekness of wisdom. If we want to be wise, a wise woman, 44:31 we show our life and our character with the meekness, meekness of wisdom. That meekness can come only from the Lord. It's not artificial. You know if it is of our own making for one day we'll be nice and meek and quiet and then we get 44:47 tired of this artificial trying to be nice and speaking nicely and our true nature comes comes out and then it's not Christlikeness at all. Just like we've heard many times my husband giving this example of teaching a dog how to behave 45:06 like a cat and teaching it to say meow meow and for a long time it s we succeed the dog and making this meow sound but another dog fierce dog comes across its path and the meow disappears and it's a 45:25 bark that comes. So our trying to improve ourselves will be like us trying to imitate of um uh worldly or carnal way of changing ourselves. It'll be only a artificial meow coming and the true nature will be 45:44 a roar. So the we don't want that to happen. You say, "Lord, change me from within that I'll be changed from glory to glory and I'll be willing to listen to you, willing to listen to others." When we listen to the Lord first of all 46:01 and we humble ourselves, we'll be listening. We'll be able to listen to others who want to teach us. Even our children can help us. Even our little grandchildren can help us. husbands, parents, we don't like to hear from our 46:15 parents after we are grown up. But there lot of wisdom in what they have to what they say. So be willing to listen. And another verse which blessed me is in Isaiah 52:13. It says, "My servant shall deal prudently." 46:32 If we want to be the Lord's servant, he'll help us to deal prudently in this. The uh Proverbs 8:12, it says, "Wisdom dwells with the prudent." People who are prudent and who are meek, who are sensible, wisdom deals with 46:52 dwells with them. So may the Lord help us. We have so much need in our life and especially we as ladies we need this quality. People can come and tell us whatever is in their heart and we should not get we 47:11 would not get offended. We take it and say yes that's good for me. I want to improve my nature. Take I want to take that correction in a good way. And we God will help us. When he sees us humble, he gives grace to the humble. He 47:25 sees us wanting to humble ourselves. He'll give us grace and change us and make us better and better and make us be more and more Christlike. And when he comes, there'll be a shout of joy from our heart for the work he has done in our lives. 47:42 So shall we close in prayer? The time is up. Our heavenly father, we thank you for your word is so full of wisdom and truth and so precious. Your word is so precious, Lord. More 47:59 precious than jewels. We want to receive your word. We want your word to change us. Your entrance of your word gives light. Lord, in our heart there's so much of darkness, unwilling to change and unwilling to 48:16 give up our will. But let your word find root in our hearts and let their light come into our heart and change us, Lord, little by little. We know that we can't change overnight. But you are patient with us and we are patient, Lord. We just want to submit to 48:36 you that you change us little by little. make us more and more Christlike. Help us, Lord, in our daily life that we'll take correction in a good way. We'll have this aspect of wisdom, Lord, that we are teachable. We won't get offended 48:53 when somebody teaches us something and to give up our way of looking at things and find a better way, a godly way of doing things. We need it so much, Lord. We have to unlearn so much of our past and we want to learn from you. Please 49:09 give us grace in our daily life. We open our hearts to you Lord. Fill us with your Holy Spirit and make us your children. Help us Lord to have Christlikeness to value Christ likeness so that we can transmit give that nature 49:28 that goodness to our children to our husbands and all those who come across our path in the church or in the world. Christlikkeness will come out in our lives. Please help us Lord. We thank you. It's not by might or power but by 49:43 thy spirit. So Lord, fill us with your Holy Spirit every day when we wait patiently at your gate for that wisdom. Lord, we thank you for this time you've given us. We ask all this in Jesus precious name. Amen. 50:00 [Music]
