“But my Lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God, to know all things that are on the earth.”
– 2 Samuel 14:20
So, 2 Samuel 14:20 comes in the middle of a chapter that revolves around David, Absalom, and Joab. We don’t have time to get into all the details of the story here, but the reason I want to read 2 Samuel 14:20 and lead us to pray according to it because there’s an acknowledgment here that God has given King David wisdom, wisdom to lead. And we think about all the promises we have in the Bible. “For those who are in Christ, he is our wisdom,” 1 Corinthians 1 tells us. James 1, “Whenever you lack wisdom, ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault.” So, God promises to give us wisdom.
2 Samuel 14:20 Leads Us to Pray for Wisdom
God, we pray in each of our lives for courageous wisdom.
We have in us, those who are followers of Jesus have in us, the spirit of wisdom, but what is lacking here in David’s life and his leadership in2 Samuel 14:20 is the courage to act upon the wisdom that he has. And this is why one of the things I pray all the time for in my life and the lives of my family members and co-laborers and members of the church that I have the privilege of pastoring, I pray all the time for wise courage.
Or maybe a different way to put it for courageous wisdom because you think about how unhelpful it is to have one of those, but not the other. Like to have wisdom, to know what to do, but to lack courage to do it. That’s not good. Or to have courage, to have boldness, no fear to act, but without wisdom. I don’t want to act and be bold and courageous and foolish at the same time.
So I want to encourage you to pray for wise courage in your life. And I want to lead us to pray that for each other right now based on 2 Samuel 14:20. God, we pray in each of our lives for wise courage, for courageous wisdom. God, we pray that you would give us wisdom just as you promised in your word. I think about all the different things going on in my life and the lives of every single person who’s listening to this right now, we need your wisdom today. We are prone to be foolish.
This Verse Leads Us to Pray for Courage
We pray for wisdom and we pray for James 3:13-18 kind of a wisdom, not the wisdom of this world, but the wisdom that comes from spirit that is so different from the wisdom of this world. We pray for 1 Corinthians 1 like wisdom that revolves around the cross of Jesus Christ, a totally upside down different way of looking at the world. God, we pray for wisdom in our lives and our families and our churches. In the world around us, we pray for your wisdom.
And we pray, God, we pray for your wisdom to know what to do. And God, we pray for courage to do it. God, we pray for courage to act on the leadership of your spirit in us, in your word to us, and your wisdom in us. We pray that we would not live 2 Timothy 1:7 with a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power and love and self-discipline.
God, we pray that you would help us to do all that you are calling us to do, even when it’s hard, even when it’s costly, even when it goes against the grain of the world around us or even goes against the grain of the way we are prone to think. And we pray for your wisdom and your courage. We pray today for wise courage, for courageous wisdom in our lives. And not just today. God may our lives be marked by wise courage by wisdom to know what you are calling us to do and courage to do it. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
