God's Wisdom For Today

“Those who earnestly seek heavenly wisdom, will never complain that they have lost their labor; and the freeness of the gift does not do away the necessity of our diligence” - Matthew Henry

Today we’ll cover the second half of four verses which are a series of instructions to believers.

John Phillips outlines these verses as:

• We Must Be Receptive (v 1)
• We Must Be Responsive (v 2-3)
• We Must Be Resolute (v 4)

Chuck Swindoll divides it into four disciplines

• Discipline of the written Word of God (v 1)
• Discipline of our inner desire (v 2)
• Discipline of prevailing prayer (v 3)
• Discipline of daily consistency (v 4)

Today’s Scripture:  Proverbs 2:3-4. 

furthermore, if you call out to insight

and lift your voice to understanding,

if you seek it like silver

and search for it like hidden treasure,  (CSB)

That’s right—if you make Insight your priority,

    and won’t take no for an answer,

Searching for it like a prospector panning for gold,

    like an adventurer on a treasure hunt,    (MSG)

“When Betty Goldstein of Staten Island, New York, entered the hospital, her husband Ron wrapped her 3.5-carat diamond ring in a napkin for safekeeping. But in a forgetful moment, the 63-year-old Goldstein threw the napkin in the trash. When he realized his mistake, he dashed outside, only to see the garbage truck rumbling down the street. So he called the local sanitation department and got permission to follow the truck to a transfer station. Workers began sorting through hundreds of garbage bags and recovered the ring an hour later. The writer of Proverbs urges us to search diligently for something far more precious—wisdom. In Pr 2, a father encourages his son to do whatever is necessary to get insight and wisdom. This strenuous search for wisdom is actually a search for God Himself (Pr 2:3-5). In fact, inner happiness comes when man attains this wisdom (Pr 3:13). He encourages his son to search diligently for this rare jewel because wisdom is not usually discovered by the casual observer. Wisdom is discovered and enjoyed only by those who are diligent, devoted, and determined to seek it. Let us devote our whole being to searching for that rare jewel of wisdom.” —Marvin Williams

If you want a place to see and answer the questions I ask in the episode and to keep track of the discoveries you make as we study Proverbs, we include a set of free journal pages for this devotional series in each of our Sunday emails 

Free journal pages to follow the study:  www.getwisdom.link/email

www.getwisdompublishing.com

www.graceandthegravelroad.com

“It’s a biological principle that you will increasingly value whatever you make it a habit to pursue.”   - Chuck Swindoll

Today we cover an overview of Proverbs chapter 2 and the big picture for the verses we’ll be looking at this week. Plus we dig in to the verses below.

Today’s Scripture:  Proverbs 2:1-2. 

My son, if you accept my words

and store up my commands within you,

listening closely to wisdom

and directing your heart to understanding;  (CSB)

Good friend, take to heart what I'm telling you;

collect my counsels and guard them with your life.

Tune your ears to the world of Wisdom;

set your heart on a life of Understanding.  (MSG)

Raymond C Ortland Jr says, “Proverbs 2 is one of the most helpful passages in the Bible, because it explains what growth and sanctification and renewal--what all of that feels like. This passage explains the psychology of change.”

Today and tomorrow we’ll cover the first four verses which are a series of instructions

John Phillips outlines these verses as:

• We Must Be Receptive (v 1)
• We Must Be Responsive (v 2-3)
• We Must Be Resolute (v 4)

Chuck Swindoll divides it into four disciplines

• Discipline of the written Word of God (v 1)
• Discipline of our inner desire (v 2)
• Discipline of prevailing prayer (v 3)
• Discipline of daily consistency (v 4)

If you want a place to see and answer the questions I ask in the episode and to keep track of the discoveries you make as we study Proverbs, we include a set of free journal pages for this devotional series in each of our Sunday emails 

Free journal pages to follow the study:  www.getwisdom.link/email

www.getwisdompublishing.com

www.graceandthegravelroad.com

“Many of us love the book of Proverbs for its practicality. Every verse seems to provide us with insight—some way to think or be—that will make our lives run just a bit more smoothly.And because the book of Proverbs provides us with a poetic road map of how God has designed the world to work, following its practical day-to-day guidance does make our lives more pleasant. But even this will prove a bit hollow in the long run if that’s the only reason we study Proverbs. We don’t want to miss the heart of it—what God is saying to his people through this unique portion of Scripture….This is a collection of sayings that provide skill in the art of godly living and show us how to reflect God’s glory in the details of our lives and relationships. It’s the difference between going to Proverbs for advice and going to it for wisdom.Seeking wisdom and not just advice requires more heart work, but it’s worth it! That’s because the wisdom found in Proverbs takes us outside of ourselves and our own lives to someone else—our covenant Lord. It teaches us that wisdom is not primarily about what we do but about who God is and what he’s done for us. That’s the heart of the book and the primary reason to study it.”

That’s a (really) long quote by Justin S. Holcomb but is a great start to this introduction episode!

I'm going to answer a few questions in this episode before we get started with our study.

Why study proverbs? Or, wisdom literature at all?

Actually...what is wisdom, really?

For that matter, what's a proverb and what's important about the language of this book?

I’m making a generalization, I realize, but most of us don’t study wisdom literature in the Bible. We study the gospels, the letters, and sometimes books in the old testament too, like Genesis and major books of prophecy, like Daniel, or Isaiah. But there are a few groups of books that we tend to quote selected verses from, but not really dig into.

One of those groups is wisdom literature.

That's a mistake, because these books have an amazing mixture of practical, useful wisdom delivered with beautiful, powerful language.

If you want to follow along with the broadcast and keep a journal of what you learn along the way and have a place to respond to the application questions I ask in each episode, we’re making free PDF journal pages available each week.

Go to www.getwisdom.link/email to sign up!