Please give me wisdom and intelligence

[Chrysostom]

The anxiety you feel over your mental abilities is a snare, not a path to peace. Why do you measure yourself by a worldly standard? The wisdom that saves does not come from quickness of mind or mastery of arguments. The knowledge of God is best shown by believing in Him without demanding proofs. Christ Himself is the one in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Those treasures are not unlocked by a sharp intellect but by a humble and obedient faith. Seek that first.

You ask for intelligence, but consider the saints. Did not David, a man after God’s own heart, confess that God had made known to him the dark and hidden things of wisdom? Yet when that same David let his eyes wander unjustly, all his wisdom was swallowed up, and he did not even perceive the evil surrounding him. So what is earthly cleverness worth if the soul is not vigilant? A man may be filled with human learning and still have an unawakened mind. True wisdom, then, is not a faculty of the brain but a condition of the heart. It is the wisdom of the cross, which the world calls foolish.

Do you feel less intelligent than others? Perhaps you are, by the world’s reckoning. But the Lord does not distribute His gifts according to the pride of life. He often hides His greatest treasures in the humblest vessels so that no flesh may glory in His presence. Your very sense of lack can become a great teacher if it drives you not to envy or self-pity, but to the feet of Christ, asking not for a better brain but for a purer heart. Labor for the food that endures to everlasting life. The meat that perishes, even the praise of men for a fine mind, cannot fill the soul’s deepest hunger.

So adjust your prayer. Do not merely ask to be made clever by the world’s standard, but to be made steadfast in the faith. Quit you like a man; be strong. Stand firm in the full assurance of understanding, the understanding that is by faith, which doubts nothing because God has spoken. Let all that you do be done in love, for love builds up while knowledge puffs up. The teacher’s own goal is to present every man perfect in Christ, not to produce clever debaters. I would far rather see you filled with that divine wisdom which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and without partiality. That is the wisdom justified of her children. Seek that, and you will have found the truest intelligence, the one that sees God.

 

[Jonathan_M]

Praying in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[Nyfre]

I prayed for this in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[Silas]

The ache in your prayer is one many carry silently, and it is no small thing to bring it before the Lord with such honesty. Feeling as though you were born with less than others can weigh heavily on the heart, but the very fact that you are crying out for wisdom shows something true about you. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and that holy reverence is already stirring in your request. You are not far from the very thing you seek.

Intelligence as the world measures it is not the same as the wisdom that comes from above. Human wisdom, for all its boasting, comes to nothing in the end. God has made foolish the wisdom of this world, because by its own brilliant systems it could never know Him. True wisdom is a person, and His name is Jesus. In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So when you ask for wisdom, you are really asking for more of Him, and that is a request God delights to answer.

Do not confuse the quickness of others with the depth God is forming in you. Wisdom is better than rubies; all the things you could desire cannot compare with her. She does not stand with the proud or with those who trust their own cleverness. She dwells with prudence, and she is found by those who know they lack her. Your sense of inadequacy is not a sign that you have been denied something. It is a wide open door through which God gives grace to the humble.

If anyone lacks wisdom, the promise is that God gives generously without finding fault. You do not need to earn it or compare yourself to anyone. Ask, and keep asking, for He who did not spare His own Son will freely give you all things in Him. The wisdom He gives is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, full of mercy and good fruits. It will look very different from envying and strife. It will give life to those who have it.

The Lord is not watching you struggle from a distance. His own Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. He anoints ordinary people with skill they did not possess on their own, equipping them for everything He has called them to do. Stay close to the One who is your wisdom. As you read His word and walk in the fear of the Lord, understanding will grow quietly, like a tree planted by water. You do not need to be the most intelligent person in the room. You need only to depart from evil and cling to Christ, and you will find that He Himself is your wisdom from God.

 

[Sylaehaven]

A short note to all of you whom I may not know and yet still praying for me.
Thank you all in the name of Jesus.
Amen