Living in “However” Faith: Choosing God’s Wisdom Over the World’s Noise

My daughter has an incredible imagination; she’s easily affected by what she sees and hears.

I need to be careful about the books, TV shows, and media she consumes, as she often has dreams (both good and bad) about what she’s read or watched.

More times than I can count, she has come to my room in the middle of the night and snuggled next to me because of a bad dream.

My mother-in-law has rocked all her grandchildren to sleep and is now rocking her great-grandchildren, so far, by singing the song “Be Careful Little Eyes.”

There is more truth in that little song than most of us realize and need to hold onto. There are only two ways into anyone’s thoughts: through what is seen and heard.

Unfortunately, we tend to desensitize ourselves over time by exposing ourselves to things that do little to help us grow.

While it’s essential to stay informed about what is happening in the world, we should consider how much we actually need to hear to be truly informed.

However, God’s Wisdom Is Different

Ephesians 1:15b-20 NLT “…I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty powerthat raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.”

It seems that what we need to understand isn’t worldly wisdom but God’s wisdom, which we find by knowing Him.

We grow in our knowledge of God the more time we spend with Him. I suspect many of us know more about politics, health trends, celebrities, and fashion than we do about our Savior.

The person I know best in this world is the one I spend the most time with: my husband. I’ve worked side-by-side with him throughout our entire marriage.

It hasn’t always been easy, but the more we work together, the better we understand each other, and the stronger our working relationship becomes.

Sure, we’ve had to learn to give and take; sometimes I give more, sometimes he does, but in the end, we get things done. We’ve gone from enduring working together to loving the process. We are blessed!

Getting to Know Him

Our relationship with God is similar; the more time we spend with Him, the better we get to know Him.

You might think I’m only talking about time spent reading His Word and praying, and yes, that’s an essential part of knowing Him, but I’m also referring to spending time with Him and getting to know Him in other ways.

We can be with God when we spend time with other believers because, when two or three of us gather, He is with us (see Matthew 18:20). We can also spend time with God through worship, whether alone or with others (see Psalm 22:3). We need to be a little more aware of what we’re doing so we can connect with Him wherever we are – because He is always with us (see Psalm 139:7).

I dare go further and say that we will filter what we hear God saying to us through a filter of what we know better: Him or this world.

Let that sink in for effect.

Luke 8:18 AMP “So be careful how you listen; for whoever has a teachable heart, to him more understanding will be given; and whoever does not have a longing for truth, even what he thinks he has will be taken away.”

Being Teachable Brings Wisdom

Perhaps the most important quality we can have is being teachable; having the ability to absorb the truths God is trying to communicate to us. We can’t accept His truths, however, if we are more familiar with the world’s system than with God’s, because we will naturally reject what He says as they “don’t make sense.”

1 Corinthians 3:18-20 NLT “Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say, ‘He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.’ And again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise; He knows they are worthless.’”

God’s way of doing things runs cross-grain to this world; He won’t be influenced by popular opinion or reason.

Enter However

Luke 8:40-56 gives the account of Jesus’ healing of not only a woman who had a long-standing hemorrhage, but also of Jairus’ daughter, who died before Jesus could get to her side.

In verses 51-53, Jesus enters Jairus’ house and finds a crowd of mourners that had gathered “lamenting for her.” Jesus told them to stop crying as the girl was only asleep, and He was summarily mocked, because everyone knew the girl was dead. What more could be done?

What follows the crowd’s laughter can easily be missed, as it is only 1 short phrase: vs. 54, “He, however.” Not minding the crowd, Jesus moved ahead and moved against common sense: the girl was dead. Indeed, she was dead, but that did not matter because “He, however,” had other plans.

From now on and beyond, I want to live in “however.”

I can only live there when I know Him better than I know my natural circumstances.

The deeper I go with Him, the less power my surroundings have over me. Jairus faced the unthinkable news of his daughter’s death, and the woman with the issue of blood faced twelve long years of disappointment, but both discovered that Jesus changes everything.

Today and every day, let’s dare to live in “however.” When fear whispers that it’s over, remember that He still speaks life; there’s still power in the edge of His garment.

When hope feels gone, reach for Him anyway. Keep drawing closer, keep pressing through the crowd, and keep trusting that His “however” is waiting on the other side of your faith.

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