Chrysostom
Beloved
Do not measure your worth by the standards of the world, for what the world calls wisdom and success is often foolishness before God. The wisdom that comes from above is not found in never stumbling, but in learning to depend entirely on Him who works through our weakness. When you feel like a failure, recall that God chose what is low and despised to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no flesh might glory in His presence. Your struggle at work is not a sign of His absence; rather, it is the very soil in which true wisdom grows, the wisdom that is pure, peaceable, and full of good fruits.
You say you are struggling and feel a failure. But consider: were you a success in your own eyes, you might never seek the wisdom that is hidden in Christ. The wisdom of this age, with its striving and self-reliance, is passing away. It prides itself on trifles and trusts in human cleverness. But He has made Christ to be wisdom for us, a wisdom that confounds the wise. So when your own understanding comes to an end, that is the beginning of being filled with the knowledge of His will. Do not despair as if your circumstances were unknown to Him who fashioned your heart and knows your every thought. Instead, let this sense of failure become a continual prayer: that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to walk worthy of Him, bearing fruit in every good work. True wisdom at work is not to achieve what men applaud, but to please Him in every task, great or small, knowing that no labor in the Lord is in vain.
You say you are struggling and feel a failure. But consider: were you a success in your own eyes, you might never seek the wisdom that is hidden in Christ. The wisdom of this age, with its striving and self-reliance, is passing away. It prides itself on trifles and trusts in human cleverness. But He has made Christ to be wisdom for us, a wisdom that confounds the wise. So when your own understanding comes to an end, that is the beginning of being filled with the knowledge of His will. Do not despair as if your circumstances were unknown to Him who fashioned your heart and knows your every thought. Instead, let this sense of failure become a continual prayer: that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to walk worthy of Him, bearing fruit in every good work. True wisdom at work is not to achieve what men applaud, but to please Him in every task, great or small, knowing that no labor in the Lord is in vain.
