New lease of life

Job 32:7 I said, Age should speak, and a multitude of years should teach wisdom.
Happy New Year! 2015 is the year that our Lord has made for us and we will rejoice and be glad in it. We have reason to rejoice because we understand that every New Year is a new lease of life given to us by our loving and kind Heavenly Father. You can take advantage of this new lease of life to make resolutions like finishing what you started last year, starting all over again what you failed last year, or starting something completely different. New Year’s resolutions vary from one person to another. However, I would encourage you to resolve, among other things, to get wiser with age.

Age is the accumulation of years while wisdom is the correct application of knowledge. According to the popular saying “with age comes wisdom”, there is supposed to be a positive relationship between age and wisdom. Thus an increase in age should have a corresponding increase in wisdom. God and other people expect us to get wiser as we get older. Getting wiser with age is the ideal, but it is not always the reality in practice. In many cases a multitude of years does not teach us wisdom. The mistakes we repeat, the darling sins we cling to and the grief over the past failures we nurse all prove a lack of growth in wisdom though years continue to increase.

Elihu, a young man full of divine wisdom, kept quiet while Job’s old friends continued to find fault in Job for his intense suffering and Job continued to profess integrity. The unpleasant debate went on for quite a long time until misery and indignation filled the atmosphere. Realising the growing misery, Elihu broke silence and levelled an indictment on Job’s miserable comforters for lack of wisdom though more advanced in years than him. He interrupted, “I am young, and you are aged; for that reason I was timid and restrained and dared not declare my opinion to you. I said, Age should speak, and a multitude of years should teach wisdom.” In other words Elihu was disappointed because he expected to find wisdom in age, but it was not there. Likewise, God and other people who expect us to grow in wisdom as we get older are disappointed when we fail to display wisdom.

To continue doing the same thing in the same way and getting the same results while you expect different results is one way to demonstrate lack of wisdom. And most of us may fall into this category because of one thing: unending grief over past failures and mistakes. Yes, we are human beings and we do err a lot. But the tragedy of life is to fall and never rise again; to make a mistake and never get past it; to be hurt and never forgive; to be ever learning and never getting wisdom.

By now you have learnt that a year has 365 days, 12 months and 52 weeks. This knowledge should help you to make plans and set goals and targets for your personal life, family and business. But when you just jump into this New Year without resolutions and goals, do you think you have grown any wiser from last year? When you leave important things to chance, can you call that wisdom? If you have not yet discovered that things do not change themselves, and change is caused, then you are still wanting in wisdom.

Past years surely must have taught you that lack of forgiveness blocks the flow of God’s power in your life; that bitterness is a corrosive disease, and that prayer and fasting and daily scripture intake are the recipe for true spiritual growth and maturity. I am cocksure that yester-years have taught us not to trust in man and things like money, but in God who never fails and not to be worried about what the uncertain future holds, but to trust in God who holds the uncertain future. With the benefit of hindsight, you now know better the wisdom of living within your means, the blessedness of contentment and the truth that God cares for you more than He does birds and flowers. Surely, by now you know that diligence, giving liberally and a habit of saving money are the common factors for prosperity. Let us not just get older, but also get wiser.

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