Tonight's message at church was from (Proverbs) regarding the true measure of success of one's life and the difference between intelligence and wisdom. Solomon is known as one of the wisest men in the history of the world (apart from Jesus Christ) and his perspectives are rather intriguing to me. I'll share a few of my notes/thoughts as I promised myself I would start doing. (Thanks, Wayne!) You never know who is reading this out there in the cyber world and I can only pray that the people who may need it do!
Proverbs 2:1-15
1 My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding—
3 indeed, if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He holds success in store for the upright,
he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
8 for he guards the course of the just
and protects the way of his faithful ones.
9 Then you will understand what is right and just
and fair—every good path.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
11 Discretion will protect you,
and understanding will guard you.
12 Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men,
from men whose words are perverse,
13 who have left the straight paths
to walk in dark ways,
14 who delight in doing wrong
and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
15 whose paths are crooked
and who are devious in their ways.
In order to have Godly wisdom, one must first be willing to receive that wisdom. With wisdom becomes responsibility and with that becomes stewardship. The beginning and essence of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. A fear of the Lord is respect and reverence for God and seeking to obey Him and His plan because it is the right thing to do. Knowledge of the Word and wisdom through application of the Word are two very different things....
What would happen if I sought God's wisdom like money and all the things that money can buy?
What would happen if I treated my Bible like my cellphone?
Wisdom isn't just something to get you out of your problems or something all old folks have.....it keeps the problems from occurring.
And here's the kicker-
If the love of God ever quits motivating you...
The fear of God should!
It is my prayer that I would always be motivated by the love of God rather than out of fear of His chastisement. I pray that I would seek Him first and rather than just having knowledge of Him and the Word, I would truly experience Him and seek out the wisdom He wants for me--knowledge applied throughout my life to bring glory to His name!
No comments:
Post a Comment