"My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you." (Proverbs 2:1-11)
When I feel that I am under siege, the first place it shows up is my mouth. I am grateful that God seems to have given me a spirit of great resolve, and I find that I can usually rally myself to move on to the next thing.
But I am human, I wear down. I get frustrated. My heart aches. I question and I doubt. I lose focus and things slip. I say too much. Or not enough. Or I say the right amount but in the wrong way. I look back hours later and agonize over whether or not I should have said it differently, or not said it. I live in unrest, uncertainty, anxiety when it comes to the things I say.
But that, dear friends, is not living, is it? That is an empty, unproductive and unfulfilling existence.That is putting my hope in my words and I how I present myself. That is self-reliance and self-reliance is death.
What a contrast: self-death = life.
That is why I love this piece of scripture in Proverbs so much. It takes the weight out of my personal ability to form a sentence with some thought to it and puts it in the wisdom of the Lord. All we have to do is tap in. We just have to ask for it. Beautiful!
So here is the question I am asking myself lately: DO I ASK FOR IT? And not just ask for it, but crave it.
Do we cry out for wisdom the way we cry out for a touch down? Do we ache for it the way we long for the acceptance of someone we love or admire? Are we seeking His wisdom out as a treasure - desiring to fill our hearts with it even more than we would desire to fill our savings account?
How mind-blowing is it that Godly wisdom is just a heart-felt request away from coloring everything we do - especially our speech! Are we begging for more of Him? More of him means more of His understanding.
"For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright"
He literally has it 'stored up.' I will take hours to edit an email or decide which emoji most adequately portrays my tone in a text. He's got ALL KNOWLEDGE. ON TAP. More easily than I could go to the sink and get a glass of water, I could receive His perfect and abundant wisdom.
You at a restaurant about to put in a drink order with your waiter:
Waiter: "What can I get you folks this evening?"
You: "Uhhm... what do you have on tap?"
Waiter: "Everything."
You: (blink)...... "Um, everything?"
Waiter: "Yes. All of it. Everything."
WHAAAT?!? YESSSSS!!!! Wisdom on tap, y'all! Forget a flight of beer... I'll take a flight of the supreme wisdom of The Most High, please. Ammiright!?! (If I were texting you this, I would insert the praise hands emoji here.)
Today, I am reaching out, crying out, begging for His wisdom over my own. And with His wisdom comes His peace and assurance. He holds truth in His hand like a scepter. His light exposes what eludes us or hides in darkness. His wisdom is full of substance. Mine is folly. All the wisdom of this world combined and concentrated in one place is absolute silliness in comparison to the vastness of the knowledge of our Father.
If we want more of His understanding, this is a certainty: the more we look up, the more we wise up.
LET'S ENGAGE:
Cry out to God and ask Him for greater wisdom and understanding. Commit a portion of the scripture reference from Proverbs 2 to memory for encouragement and as a reminder of where your wisdom and help come from.
LET'S DISCUSS:
How has God displayed His great wisdom in your life? What verses offer you peace and encourage you to remember that He is in control and his ways are higher? Share below and let's inspire the salt in one another!