Seeking God's Wisdom

Proverbs 2:1-11

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding — indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, 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 holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.
I hope you are having a blessed week. I have been blessed by simply staying home with my son this week. I got a taste of what is yet to come, as I prepare to homeschool my son next year. It has been great jumping into the Word each morning over breakfast with him. We've been studying the book of Proverbs, and have really enjoyed digging into it. It is great seeing these scriptures through the eyes of a child - such innocence, yet such great insight.
Proverbs is such a great book to turn to when you feel you need that extra dose of God's wisdom. It is God's wisdom which will allow us to live to our full potential; it is God's wisdom that will keep us on the paths of the straight and narrow. So, how do we get this wisdom? This passage indicates that God gives wisdom, and James confirms it by saying that anyone who seeks wisdom should simply ask for it: James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
So, if God is giving us wisdom, what do we do with it? Let's pick this apart verse by verse. It says to tune your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding. What do you think this means? In Proverbs 1, it speaks of wisdom screaming in the streets, yet only the fools failed to listen. Are we listening to Wisdom's instruction? Can you hear her screaming? Are we ignoring the distractions in our lives long enough to listen to wisdom's instruction? However, it isn't enough to simply just listen to wisdom's instruction, we have to apply it to our hearts, meaning we have to believe in our hearts, do as wisdom instructs.
So, how do we hear wisdom? I love what the next part of the passage says, "indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God." We simply have to seek it, as we would for treasure, and when we find it we will understand the fear of the Lord. The Fear of the Lord, what a magnificent insight! We are so quick to say we’re believers, yet so quick to go on with our day to day lives, treating God as common. However, God is anything but common - He created the world and everything in the world in a week’s time. He understands every part of our being. He is Love, Peace, Truth, Comfort, Justice, Provider, Healer, Father, and our Friend. There are so many facets of God, that He is so much more than any list can contain. He is so much more than we can even imagine. So, why would we treat Him as common - as an accessory to our day, our agenda? I want to understand more than before, that is why I want to seek God as I would treasure. For God is more valuable than anything this world has to offer.
Let us look at verses 7 and 8, “He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones." My son and I were talking this morning, what does it mean by success? So, I looked up the Hebrew lexicon, because the King James Version of this scripture uses wisdom here rather than success. In looking further in the scripture, I noticed that this wisdom is different than the wisdom used before. Up to this point when wisdom is used, it is the Hebrew word Chokmah (pronounced khok-maw); which means, wisdom, skill (war), wisdom (administration), shrewdness wisdom, wisdom in prudence (in religious affairs), wisdom (ethical, religious). Here the word for wisdom is Tuwshiyah (pronounced too-shee-yaw), which means wisdom, sound knowledge, success, sound or efficient wisdom, abiding success, a sound or efficient wisdom, abiding success (of the effect of sound wisdom). What I see this is the result of wisdom - the result of making a wise choice. So when you choose wisdom (chokmah) you will have the soundness of wisdom (tuwshiyah). I think this is how you obtain peace. I'm sure you have all felt this, when you make a choice, and look back and recognize it was the right choice. You get this sense of satisfaction, relief. What a beautiful way to view success! In this world, we seem to think success is driven by how much money we have, if we have a great job, house, car, etc... What a sad way to view success, because it is so difficult to obtain these things, and if we don't obtain this so called success - does that mean we are not successful. I love God's view of success - it is much different. If we walk His ways, then we are successful - we can feel the peace in our hearts. I think obtaining peace is much more satisfying than obtaining material objects. I love what the next part of the verse says; he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Once again, by following wisdom's instruction of walking the blameless path, we have the success of knowing God is our shield. I have experienced God's shield, and it is amazing. Seeing the attacks of the enemy blocked by the shield of the Lord is amazing.
I love how this ends, verses 9-11, Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. It all leads up to this point - if we listen to wisdom, apply her instruction, stay on the straight paths, then we will get the blessing: understanding truth, for isn't truth what is right and fair? Then we will know the paths to walk, because wisdom will be in our heart, discretion will protect us and understanding will guard us. What an awesome promise. Yes, I want wisdom!!!
Let us seek God today for His Wisdom - it is far more than we have ever imagined.