Thought for 19 May

James 3:17-18 (New Living Translation) But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favouritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. This chapter focuses on our ability to control the things we say.  It rightly points out that we are all capable of saying nice things, but we are equally capable of saying nasty things.  It tells us that if we have the ability to control our tongues, we will also be capable of controlling other aspects of our behaviour.  It points out the ‘enormous damage’ ill-considered words can do to the extent that they can ‘ruin our whole life’.  In this case, being in better control of what we say is a good thing to consider today and every day. We learn today a little about God’s wisdom.  How can we possibly disagree with any of the characteristics of a wise man: peace loving, gentle, merciful, prepared to concede to others, doing good deeds, sincere, showing no favouritism, a peacemaker?  My thoughts immediately went to some famous national and international politicians of the past and the present and wondered just how many of these boxes they could tick.  I’ll leave you to have your own thoughts on that one! I looked for some sayings from famous ‘wise’ people and found the following that I thought were not too far from some aspects of what we are being taught today and are therefore worth sharing: "Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them." Dalai Lama "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?" Martin Luther King, Jr. "God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well." Voltaire "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." Albert Einstein   Monday’s thought this week showed how God’s concept of riches differed greatly from ours.  The first thing today’s verses tell us of God’s wisdom is that it is ‘pure’.  My thesaurus suggests that this means it is unadulterated, uncontaminated, untainted, clean and wholesome.  It follows that the wisdom of men is impure or contaminated, mixed, tainted and other such words.  These two examples give us some idea of the gap that exists between God and man when we consider riches and wisdom.  A similar gap would appear when considering any aspect of life and how it is regarded by God and by man.   Prayer Our Lord and our God, how blessed we are to have You to turn to in our prayers, that we may confess just how often we fall short of what you would expect from us.  We are thankful that You offer forgiveness for our continued shortcomings.  We thank You for Your riches and Your wisdom and help us to draw closer to the way You think rather than the ways that mankind thinks.  Amen