Psalms 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

The older I get the more I know. I’ve learned so much that I now know nothing. It seems that way at least. When I was young I knew it all. Fifty years later I can look back at the things I know now and can honestly admit, there is more knowledge out there than I will ever know. Is that wisdom? No.

Wisdom as it says here is an application. Wisdom must apply to life to have any value at all. Learning is burning your hand on a hot stove. Wisdom is not doing it again. That is why this psalm verse begins with teach us. This life we live with God is a learning experience, but what value does it have if we do not apply wisdom gained?

The vision of an all wise guru sitting on a mountain top is a good illustration. He sits and waits alone for those who will make the effort to climb to the top in order to hear him speak. It is a waste of wisdom for it does nothing.

The application of wisdom is in living.

In this same venue, what value is there in coming to Christ and come away to only say I met Him once and not live the life He gives you? None.

Wisdom says live, Christ says love. Where is wisdom in keeping the love of Christ to yourself? Do not be a love guru sitting afar of waiting for seekers to find you.

Get out there and live. Get out there and love.

That is wisdom applied.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

NYR, New Year’s resolutions, a fresh start, a do over of sorts, but more than that, a new mind set. After all a NYR is nothing more than a mental exercise of resolve to make changes.

First one has to recognize there is a need for change. That is still a matter of self-determination, it is after all your resolve. What if you are wrong about what needs to change? How will you know?

I began this devotional today wanting to lead off with this opening verse. I went to my on live bible, Biblegateway, and low and behold the verse of the day was 2 Corinthians 5:17. I did not have to type the address in the search box. Coincidence? Not in my experience.

As I pondered what to write the issue of all things become new came into focus. Really, all things? I have the same body as before. I have the same memories as before. At the instant of conversion I even had the same faults as before. What is the true meaning of all things if many things in my life did not change?

Here once again we are stuck in the mindset of self-determination. We want to see change and in that moment of conversion we miss the true meaning of all things. We miss it because we have not yet learned how to look at things from God’s point of view.

Our pastor likes to define justification in the simplest of terms, “Just as if we never did it.” Now we know we did it, we know we are guilty, but from God’s point of view, as He sees it, in His determination, it never happened.

To truly understand “all things” you have to see it through God’s point of view.