After over 30 years following our Spoken Word Bible Reading Plan, I have been learning more this year through than any other year! I can hardly wait for 2018 to see how much better next year will be! God's Word is TRUTH (John 17:17) and it is LIMITLESS! There is SO much to learn! As far as we have come, there is SO much farther that we can go into the things of God! HALLELUJAH! Reading in Proverbs 4 today I see new illumination of almost every verse! Look at verses 1-2:
Hear, my sons, the instruction of a father, and pay attention in order to gain and to know intelligent discernment, comprehension, and interpretation [of spiritual matters]. 2 For I give you good doctrine [what is to be received]; do not forsake my teaching.
Solomon, who sought Wisdom when he was young, only to turn from wisdom when he was older, is speaking here from great experience. You see, there are really only two ways to learn. We learn either through experience, which is by making our own mistakes, or through wisdom, which is learning from the mistakes of others! I MUCH prefer wisdom! Experience can hurt! Solomon is remembering, and sharing, WISDOM with us, his own experience. Verses 3-6:
3 When I [Solomon] was a son with my father [David], tender and the only son in the sight of my mother [Bathsheba], 4 He taught me and said to me, Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments and live. 5 Get skillful and godly Wisdom, get understanding (discernment, comprehension, and interpretation); do not forget and do not turn back from the words of my mouth. 6 Forsake not [Wisdom], and she will keep, defend, and protect you; love her, and she will guard you.
Solomon goes on to say this gem that is a vital TRUTH that we all should hold to heart! Verse 7:
7 The beginning of Wisdom is: get Wisdom (skillful and godly Wisdom)! [For skillful and godly Wisdom is the principal thing.] And with all you have gotten, get understanding (discernment, comprehension, and interpretation).
THE most important decision we can make in order to have wisdom operating in our lives is this: GET WISDOM! You may be thinking 'who doesn't know that?', but unless we make a purposeful decision to really DO something, we will NOT follow through! Cares, worries, distractions (from both good and bad situations), interests, people, jobs, things, will all pile up until we forget that we really DO desire Wisdom! Meditating on these next verses, where Solomon gives us the benefits of operating in Wisdom, should help us to keep focus! Verses 8-10:
8 Prize Wisdom highly and exalt her, and she will exalt and promote you; she will bring you to honor when you embrace her. 9 She shall give to your head a wreath of gracefulness; a crown of beauty and glory will she deliver to you. 10 Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of your life shall be many.
In verses 20-23 Solomon re-emphasizes these things!
20 My son, attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings. 21 Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh. 23 Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.
I LOVE how Solomon, again operating from a place of Wisdom, says this in verses 25-27:
25 Let your eyes look right on [with fixed purpose], and let your gaze be straight before you. 26 Consider well the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established and ordered aright. 27 Turn not aside to the right hand or to the left; remove your foot from evil.
IF Solomon had done these things when all of those foreign women began to catch his eye, he would never have had to experience the things he writes about in Ecclesiastes! He allowed his gaze to wander and his attention become distracted to the point where the one who had received riches and honor, along WITH Godly Wisdom, because he had only asked for Wisdom, turned aside from that Wisdom and eventually got to the point where his foreign, pagan wives influenced him to worship their foreign 'gods'! He forsook the One, True God Whom he had so desired to please! Do we REALLY think that the same thing can't happen to us today if we neglect this Wisdom? While we DO have Holy Spirit living IN us, He can do NOTHING in us unless we ask Him to! God has given us all a free will, and He will NOT force anything upon us! So, make up your own mind today to pursue after God with everything you've got inside! You will NEVER regret that timely decision! Here is Hillsong with "With Everything":
Shalom in Him!
