Can I pray for you in any way? Send any
prayer requests to OurChristianWalk.com.
In
Christ, Mark
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
I, wisdom, dwell together with
prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion.
To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.
Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I
have insight, I have power. By me kings reign and rulers issue decrees that are
just; by me princes govern, and nobles—all who rule on earth.
I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.
With me are riches and honor, enduring
wealth and prosperity. My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield
surpasses choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of
justice, bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me and making their
treasuries full.
Proverbs 8:12-21
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to
God.
When you want to begin to relate to
someone (i.e. start to develop a relationship), it’s important to get to know
them. It’s how we begin to find common ground, discover personal preferences,
and determine compatibilities. This works in our personal life and it also
works in our spiritual life.
For as we ponder what it is to walk as
a Christian believer every day, it all comes down to our relationship with the
One who we gain our identity from. It all comes down to how well we know Jesus,
our Lord and Savior, the One who is one with God, His Father and ours.
So how well do you know Jesus? If you
were to be given a simple quiz about His life, how well would you do?
Unfortunately, many people who claim to
know Him would not fare well. I know because I have been teaching adult Sunday
School classes for more than 20 years now and have witnessed it first-hand.
They know Jesus is their Savior, that He was born in Bethlehem to Joseph and
Mary after being conceived by the Holy Spirit. They know He was crucified,
placed in a tomb, and was resurrected after three days. This is pretty common
knowledge but look at what it represents. It covers His entry into Creation and
His departure from it but what about everything in between? This is where
believers fall short. They do not know about the life of Jesus and this is a
critical aspect of having a genuine relationship with Him.
For as Christians, we are to live as
Jesus lived but we can only do that if we know how to do that. We have to
relate to Him and know how He lived, and the way we do that is to read and
study the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, four books that detail the
life of Jesus.
God’s word helps us build other
spiritual relationships as well. All of God’s word leads to a greater relationship
with God, our Father, the One who not only created His Son Jesus to save His
created children (namely all of us)_but He also created divine wisdom and then
offered it to us.
As we have examined all throughout the
opening chapters of Proverbs, divine wisdom is directly related to the Lord for
it flows from Him. You can’t relate to the Lord without having divine wisdom in
tow. Thus, if we get to know the Lord better, then we better know divine wisdom
and vice versa.
Our scripture passage through the
remaining verses of Chapter 8 will help us to get to know divine wisdom a
little better and in doing so, we’ll also grow in our relationship with our
Maker and Redeemer God.
Let’s turn to our scripture and get to
know divine wisdom a little better, growing in our relationship with it.
I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge
and discretion.
To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.
Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I have insight, I have
power. By me kings reign and rulers issue decrees that are just; by me princes
govern, and nobles—all who rule on earth.
I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.
With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity.
My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver. I walk
in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing a rich
inheritance on those who love me and making their treasuries full.
Through these words, we find out the
following:
1. Divine wisdom dwells with prudence.
One who exercises spiritual prudence
will use caution and care when choosing their behaviors, ever judicious about
staying away from sinfulness. Divine wisdom, ever living alongside prudence,
serves as the master advisor we all need to steer us toward prudent decision making.
2. Divine wisdom possesses knowledge, discretion, counsel, sound
judgment, and insight.
When we talk about the riches and
incomparable value of divine wisdom, we do so understanding that true
intellect, guidance, direction, righteousness and holiness are only in our
grasp when we seek, receive, and apply the Lord’s divine wisdom in our lives.
3. Divine wisdom hates evil, pride, arrogance, evil
behavior, and perverse speech.
This makes complete sense when we
connect divine wisdom to the Lord. Knowing they are interchangeable allows us
to see that sin is as detestable to divine wisdom as it is to the One who made
it. And when we conscientiously decide to allow divine wisdom to govern how we
live, then and only then will we begin to take strides toward living sinlessly.
4. Divine wisdom is powerful.
There is worldly power but it pales in
comparison to the power that divine wisdom brings. Those who seek it, receive
it, and apply it will always be marveled at and supersede anyone who functions
void of it. It’s been often said that knowledge is power but one cannot hope to
reach the pinnacle of intellectual prowess without divine wisdom at the
forefront.
5. Divine wisdom is loving.
The Lord shows us His amazing love in
many forms and as we find in our scripture today, divine wisdom is one of those
forms. Think about that the next time you pray over a situation and receive the
heavenly counsel you were looking for. God gave you that counsel via divine
wisdom because He loves you so very much.
6. Divine wisdom can always be found when we seek it.
Divine wisdom isn’t just discovered like
a coin dropped onto a sidewalk or street. No, you have to pursue divine wisdom,
making a concerted effort to show you hunger and thirst for it and the
righteous instruction it brings. Jesus tells us in His teaching that those who
hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled (Matthew 5:6). Know and
trust that when you seek divine wisdom, the Lord will deliver it to you in a
way that will satisfy your need for help, and it will happen that way each and
every time. No one or no thing in the world will ever be able to do that for
you.
7. Divine wisdom is priceless.
You cannot place a dollar sign on
divine wisdom. God’s word clearly underscores that.
Take anything that you consider of
worth, and none of it will ever surpass the enduring wealth and prosperity
found in divine wisdom. We have read several times already in Proverbs how
divine wisdom is greater than the most precious metals of Solomon’s day. It’s
little wonder why our Savior Jesus taught us to seek after treasures in heaven
instead of what the world would offer (Matthew 6:19-20). For when we seek the
treasures of heaven, we will find divine wisdom as part of the bounty, a divine
wisdom that promises a rich inheritance and full treasuries to those who devote
themselves to it.
8. Divine wisdom travels on the paths
of righteousness and justice.
The path that divine wisdom walks on is
the same narrow path that Jesus speaks about, the path that all His believers
are to travel on (Matthew 7:13-14). When you always seek divine wisdom, you
will find it. And when you then put it into practice, then you will walk
alongside it on the paths of righteousness and justice, living right and fair
with all.
Friends, these words from God are
amazing and awesome for through them we get to know divine wisdom well. There’s
more to find out and I hope you’ll come back for parts 2 and 3.
In the meantime, grasp the hand of
divine wisdom now that you now know it better and spend more dedicated time
together on your own.
It will be time well spent, trust me.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you
feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
No comments:
Post a Comment