What does your culture value? Is money more important than wisdom? What do you value? My word describes wisdom as crying in the streets. There don’t appear to be any takers. Apparently there was a ‘buyer’s market’ for wisdom. Yet Solomon asked for wisdom and I was pleased with his request and gave him more besides. You have my promise that if you seek you will find, which is to say that you will find what you seek. If you value the things that are truly important, then seek them and you will have them. My promise that if any man lack wisdom to ask of me and receive it still holds. 

Do you see yourself more as a member of a particular church or as a member of the Body of Christ? Both things should be true, but some believers emphasize one more than the other. There are great benefits to both aspects, which are available to you if you embrace and receive them. You know that I have one body, which should make you identify with every other believer, showing the world that you are my disciples by loving one another. At the same time you need deep roots in a community of people you know, and who know you, with whom you can share my life face to face. 

My apostles prayed that they may have great boldness in proclaiming the gospel message, and I gave it to them. Yet I was meek and lowly in heart. Can these things be consistent? There is a difference between belligerence and boldness. Perhaps you have encountered those who intimidate by sheer force of will. If you cannot escape from them then you may make superficial accommodations to reduce the level of conflict. I am looking for a deeper and enduring change in you and this is not accomplished by force and pressure. It is done by peaceful entreaty and non-threatening persuasion. Proclaim my gospel message boldly this way. 

Do you crave acceptance and want people to accept you just the way you are? Do you accept yourself just the way you are? I may be the only one who truly accepts you in your current state, and yet my call to you is to be transformed into my image and likeness. This is not one of your superficial self-improvement projects. It is a change in your very nature and being, deep and profound. When you consent to this work taking place in you, you can expect opposition from your friends, family, and church, as if you violated some social contract that bound you together. But still my Spirit calls you to transformation.