I don’t know about you, but often through my life I have felt a desperate need and desire for wisdom and knowledge. They always felt evasive, like understanding of them was just around the corner and I couldn’t quite catch it. Sometimes I read the verses in the Bible that promise wisdom and understanding and pray passionately that God will pour it out on me, but somehow, I never feel magically wise afterwards. It was in pursuit of this that I bought the Delighting in God’s Wisdom Bible study book, which I’ve been going through at a snail’s pace.
The book breaks down Proverbs literally verse by verse and makes you think through each one to figure out its meaning, which is pretty cool. Well, today, it was bringing me through Proverbs 2:6-9. And they asked a question that made me think about wisdom in a different way. Well, they asked a lot of questions that I felt provided insight, but this one in particular was kind of like an “Oh.” moment. They said to read verse 9 and then asked, “Why does understanding of righteousness, justice, equity, and good paths come from our pursuit of God?”
I had to think about it, honestly, because I’ve always before kind of nodded at that verse like, “obviously” but I’d never really THOUGHT about it before, and here’s the answer I came up with, which you are welcome to disagree with. Understanding of all these things come from pursuit of God because they come FROM God–as we PURSUE God, we gain knowledge and understanding of HIM, which in turn gives us more wisdom and understanding of all the things He created and leads us in.
And that was my “Oh.” moment. See, I realized that I kept expecting that if I prayed JUST THE RIGHT WAY, that my mind and heart would suddenly open and be miraculously filled with wisdom and knowledge and I’d just walk forth with all this newfound understanding of both from that instant encounter. Not that God COULDN’T do that, but it had never really occurred to me before that the actual pursuit of knowing God gives me wisdom and knowledge in and of itself.
It’s kind of a beautiful thought to me. And it also put my need for wisdom and knowledge in a different perspective. Do I want wisdom and knowledge for myself? So I can show off to others how “wise” I am? So I can feel better about myself? Or do I want it as a child of God? Putting it in the perspective of pursuing Him and therefore gaining wisdom and knowledge gives it the parameters I’ve always been missing, even if I didn’t realize I was missing them. I must first desire to know my Savior and take from that the wisdom and understanding given to a heart of righteousness, to be used for Him alone, to better discern the paths in front of me so I can glorify Him as I move through life.
Forest Idylls 