In today’s article, I encourage you to take two verses and slowly meditate on them. I will supply some ideas for your consideration.
After you’ve meditated, I hope that you and the Lord will have a good talk about what you’ve read.
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 blamelessly (Proverbs 2.6-7)
What is wisdom? Wisdom can be defined as masterful understanding, skill, or expertise.
This verse, and others like it, tell us that the Lord alone has access to wisdom; he gives it to us from His very Being.
The three terms – wisdom, knowledge, and understanding – form a perfect picture of someone who has humbled themselves before God, received His guidance and followed it.
In that situation, we are led by the wisest and most loving Being the universe will ever know.
Some Suggestions:
We are familiar with people like Brother Lawrence, Teresa of Avila, and Francis of Assisi. While we know their names, we may have no idea who the rulers or the mighty men of business were during their era.
Their walk with God and the wisdom they achieved through that marks them as incredible people for their age.
Here are some of the things they did daily to connect with God’s wisdom.
(1) Prayerful Solitude: Solitude allows humans to quiet the inner voice of self-sufficiency and self-will.
When we wait before God, He does something to our inner self. Solitude and silence allow Him to speak to us His wisdom.
(2) Sacred Reading: Today is a good opportunity to practice sacred reading.
Try approaching today’s text as God’s message of love for you. As you talk to Him about what you’re reading, listen intently, ask questions, and seek understanding.
In your conversation with God, look for His wisdom.
(3) Continuous Prayer: Brother Lawrence worked in a kitchen, washing pots and pans. He learned that while he worked, he could keep a continual conversation with God going in his heart.
Brother Lawrence inspired Frank Laubach to do the same. Both of these men lived with incredible wisdom.
Their wisdom was not something derived from human insight, but rather, it came from their interaction with God daily.
(4) Self-Examination and Repentance: Self-examination is an essential practice.
It involves looking at who we are in the light of God’s truth and acknowledging our sins and imperfections.
Once we have examined ourselves, we then look to God. We offer Him our brokenness and accept His grace and forgiveness.
This step is essential. We cannot be available vessels for God’s wisdom if we are filled with our misconceptions about life.
(5) Surrender and Obedience: Ultimately, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding are gifts from God, freely given but not unconditionally so. They require a surrendering of our own will and an obedience to God’s will.
Why seek God’s wisdom if we are not willing to follow His direction? Jesus taught us the best path is to say to the Father, “Not my will, but Yours, be done.”
Ethical Matters
The prophets teach us that the God we worship affects our behavior.
If we worship self and self-will, this will be evident in how we treat others. On the other hand, if we worship the God who offers us His wisdom, it will be shown by upright and blameless attitudes and actions.
He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly. (Proverbs 2.7)
Lady Wisdom knows there are only two ways: being wise or foolish, good or evil, righteous or wicked. One is life, the other is death.
She stands on the street corner, the place of business, politics, and religion, and cries out to people who are wavering between one way or the other (Proverbs 1.20).
She calls everyone to find God’s wisdom that will be reflected in our attitudes and actions.
James reminds us that God’s wisdom and pure religion involve caring for the most vulnerable and living aligned with God’s will in the world.
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27).
As I conclude this article today, I encourage you to join me and meditate on these two passages.
Consider incorporating what the “tools’ the great men and women of the faith have used to develop their relationship with God.
YouTube Video
Rudy Ross, Whispering Danny, and I discuss this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
Real Voices 