What does your church teach you? Do you receive instruction in the Bible and in prayer? What else? Does your church teach you how to deal with a faith crisis? This is rare, more so than faith crises are, so people who experience them are normally left to deal with them on their own. A faith crisis can be an opportunity for growth and development, but it is helpful to have considered the matter before you are in the midst of it. Do you double down on all your original positions? Do you examine them for revision? You don’t have to assume that you got everything right at the first.

The New Testament speaks much about freedom. You are to stand fast in the liberty in which I have made you free, and whom the Son sets free is free indeed. If you continue in my word you will know the truth and be free. What does freedom mean to you? Having enough guns to defeat any tyrant or oppressor? But these passages were written in an occupied country and nothing in the context suggests a political uprising. Then what dimensions of freedom do these passages refer to? Do you know anyone in a state of internal bondage? Can anything more severe be imposed from without?

Do you know the difference between wisdom and knowledge? Ignorance is the opposite of knowledge, and foolishness is the opposite of wisdom. You can acquire knowledge from books. Can you acquire wisdom from books? This is not as obvious but you may be thinking of one book that is a source of wisdom. What does it say? That if any man lack wisdom let him ask of God. If the fear (reverence) of God is the beginning of wisdom then the process of obtaining it is to know that you need it and to know where to get it. Do you have a conscious need for wisdom? I’ll give it to you for free.

Do you have the good fortune to have an education? Perhaps you should consider the concept of intellectual humility. Are you eager to correct other people? You can come across as arrogant and condescending even if you allow other people’s errors in expression to pass without comment. Your own estimation of your acceptance of others may not be accurate. How do they perceive you? Do you relate primarily to those at your own level? Your education should make you more able to relate to those outside of your circle rather than less. Be not wise in your own conceits.