You don't need to be intelligent or well-educated to worship and follow Jesus; you need to be wise.
What Does God Say?
Matthew 2:1-2, tells us about some wise men. "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him'" (ESV).
These "wise men" who came to seek and worship Jesus were probably well-educated men who spent their lives studying many things including the stars. But while their studies made them aware of the birth of the King, it wasn't mere curiosity or genius that brought them to Jesus. It was a desire to see, know and worship the one "who has been born king of the Jews."
And "when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh." (Matthew 2:10-11, ESV).
You don't have to "check your brain at the door" in order to believe in Jesus. In fact, Proverbs 9:10 tells us,
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight" (ESV).
On the other hand, Psalm 14:1 tells us "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" (ESV)
Respect or fear of the Lord helped these "wise" men understand who this Baby was and gave them the perfect reason to bow and worship.
My Thoughts
In John 3, Jesus had a conversation with an intelligent, learned man named Nicodemus. Read John 3:5-21 with these questions in mind.
How does one get eternal life?
- What are the qualifications for believing in Jesus?
- Who does this exclude? Or include?
- What gets in the way of believing?
- What are the consequences of not believing in Jesus?
My Part
Real wisdom is seeing Jesus and believing in Him; in bowing down to worship as the "wise men" did. You can go looking for Jesus and learn everything about Him but until you take the step of faith, you gain nothing. It's not blind faith--God's Word is full of all you need to know in order to believe. (Try Romans 3-8.) Are you wise enough to believe?
First Corinthians 1:26-29 says " Few of you were wise in the world's eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God" (NLT).
You don't have to be wise, wealthy or powerful to put your faith in Jesus. But wisdom, wealth and power don't have to be barriers to living with Him either.
What Does God Say?
My Thoughts
My Part
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