Open Heavens Devotional by Pastor E.A. Adeboye
MEMORIZE: “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” (Prov. 13:20).
READ: Matthew 25:1-13
“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish” (Matthew 25:1-2).
One outstanding difference between the virgins who made it and those who lost was wisdom—the presence thereof in the lives of the wise and the absence thereof in the lives of the foolish. Wisdom directs us in the appropriate and right way of acting. Similarly, foolishness misdirects life in a wrong way. In other words, your lifestyle and destination will be determined by either the presence or absence of wisdom. In the same manner, your eternal destination will depend on whether you possess wisdom or not. Believers who fail to access the wisdom of God may miss Heaven. This is why wisdom is not optional for us, but a compulsory virtue that must be embraced in all we do. Are you wise hearted? Do you have adequate wisdom to guarantee your entry into the heavenly planet?
It is important to put wisdom in its proper perspective. Are those addressed by the world as wise truly wise? How do you identify a wise person? A wise person is identified by company he keeps. Proverbs 13:20 says, “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed”. Do you know that this scripture was fulfilled in the lives of the ten virgins? All the wise ones formed a group and kept influencing each other positively; hence, none of them was left behind. On the other hand, all the foolish ones formed their own group and no wonder all of them were shut out. If you are foolish but you decide to associate with the wise, you will soon replace your foolishness with wisdom. By merely seeing the kind of friends you keep, one can determine whether you are wise or foolish. If you are always frolicking with smokers, drunkards, gamblers, fornicators and liars, you will imbibe their traits over a period of time. You are not wise. If as a student, you always move with loafers and the unserious who do not appear to understand why they are in school, you are not wise. You may never excel. Reconsider your friends and acquaintances. Anyone who cannot move you to excellence will pull you down to his or her level; hence, you must separate from them before they cause you irreplaceable harm.
ACTION POINT:
Draw a list of your friends according to their impact on you. Delist those influencing you negatively.
Bible in One year: Eccl. 1-3
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