What Insights Do You Have?  (Job 15.9) 

Not every thought is insightful. Nor is the end result of every experience necessarily an increase in wisdom. However,  Job's comforters totally discounted the processes of faith in a faithful man because they were not yet faced with an end result. Real insight requires a faith perspective.

Quite simply put, and to jump to the end of this discussion, we simply MUST exercise some faith in the processes of God at work in the life of a fellow pilgrim. In the words of an old song, "He's still working on me, to make me what I ought to be..."

As we recognize that our "...faith and hope are in God" (I Peter 1.21), so, too, should we acknowledge that there are processes based upon experiences which will lead to spiritual maturity.

Peter explained the experiential processes that lead us into "everything we need for life and godliness..." in his second letter. (II Peter 1.2-11) These processes are for those who "have received a faith" in God.

Peter indicated that the first addition to a person's faith in God is to be "goodness." The progressive additions are then: knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, kindness, and then - love. Peter says, "...if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins....if you do these things, you will never fall," (II Peter 1.9-10) what a promise!

I have a difficult time understanding the trials and hardships which come my way. I invariably go through the database of blame assessment. Was this the Devil's fault? Was it God at work? I generally discount this pretty quickly, not wanting to believe it. Can I blame it on someone else? Was it possible that I might have done something to have caused this (another idea I quickly discount)?

Since I have such a difficult time assessing my own life situations, why do I assume such authority in assessing the situations of others? I should not. Neither should Job's friends have assumed such authority in reproaching him by accusing him of having no insight or possibility of wisdom.

Job was in the processes necessary to experience insight and wisdom. That does not mean that he had achieved understanding of his situation. Peter didn't list understanding in his hierarchy of experiential processes of faith to maturity. 

I suspect that if understanding comes, it will be with hindsight. I also suspect that God is more interested in our accumulation of wisdom than He is with our assumption of understanding. I have often quoted an elderly friend and neighbor of nearly three decades past, "I don't understand everything I know!" How's that for insight?!

I must also assert that the ultimate proof of any wisdom we perceive in others or wish for in ourselves will be manifested in the graciousness of love. 

Love is the end result in the processes of faith in a faithful person. Live on...despite your detractors' sentiments and discouragements, these experiences can lead to something good!