Growing in Wisdom

Call to Prayer

Title: Growing in Wisdom

By: Daniel Peter

Date: 27.02.2024

And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. Luke 2:52 

Yesterday, we learned about growing in grace, today, I am going to write about growing in wisdom. In the life of Jesus Christ, we saw how scriptures documented His growth in wisdom: In Luke 2:40, Jesus was described as being filled with wisdom, and in Luke 2:52, it was said that Jesus grew in wisdom. Now, if He was filled with wisdom initially, how come He grew in wisdom afterwards?

The word filled as used in Luke 2:40 is from the Greek word “plēroō”, which means to make replete, that is, to cram (a net) level up. This suggests that the level of wisdom He had was based on the size of His vessel (His spiritual capacity) in that stage of life. So when the scriptures say in Luke 2:52 that Jesus grew in wisdom, it also mentions that Jesus grew in stature (a word that infers His spiritual and physical size). Therefore, His growth in wisdom was proportional to His growth in stature (His spiritual capacity). Again, when God gave Solomon wisdom more than any in his dispensation, the scriptures mentioned that he also gave Solomon “largeness of heart” ( See 1 King 4:29). The phrase “largeness of heart” means large spiritual capacity. So, for Solomon to accommodate that much wisdom, God had to expand him spiritually. Therefore, from the life of Jesus and Solomon, we can say that the wisdom God entrusts to you is dependent on your spiritual capacity. To grow or increase in wisdom, you have to grow in your spiritual capacity.

Spiritual capacity is a measure of our capacity to love. Therefore, the more we comprehend the dimensions of God’s love (See Eph 3:18-21), the greater our spiritual capacity. Spending time in the presence of God to behold Him helps in this regard (See 2 Cor. 3:18). Again, God expands us through the trials He allows us to experience. This is why the Bible encourages us to count it all joy when we go through diverse kinds of trials (See James 1:2-4). He also expands us when we ask Him to.

Finally, knowing that growth in the spirit is continuous, even as we practice what I mentioned above, it therefore means we should not stop asking God for wisdom and keep on thanking Him for it. Just as it is possible for a large drum to be half filled, it is possible to grow in spiritual stature and not grow in wisdom. So we have to engage every means possible to grow in wisdom. Apart from asking, we gain wisdom by meditating on the word (Isaiah 7:14-15), and by impartation (Deu. 34:9).

Prayer Point:

Let’s thank God for His word today. Let’s ask Him to help His Church grow in wisdom and spiritual stature (capacity)