The “heart” in the Old Testament referred to a person’s basic drive and motivation. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see a list of every plan we had ever made and compare that list to those things we actually did? All of us who looked would see and be grateful for the hand of God as he intervened with protection and redirection in our lives.

Each of us is driven by our own plans, desires, hopes, and dreams. We want to want God’s will but often we don’t want what is God’s will. Sometimes we pray, “Lord, what is your will for my life?” The more important prayer is actually, “Lord, what is your will?” If we know God’s will, we know what he wants us to do with our lives.

The Lord establishes our steps. God is less concerned about what we want and more concerned about what we should want. God is less concerned about what we want to do and more concerned that we do what we should. God always has an eternal perspective for each of our steps. His will for our lives is that we do his will.

We often make our choices and decisions based on the passions of our heart. When we walk with God’s will, he transforms or authors “the desires of our heart.” God will cause us to want what he wants for us if we just understand that his priority is more for our eternal lives than our earthly lives. That perspective will enable us to “plan” our way according to the “steps” our Lord establishes.

Good advice and careful instruction provide wisdom. Knowing that our plans need to be submitted to God’s direction is good advice and wisdom we need to faithfully step onto the path God has established for us.

Jesus ended his Sermon on the Mount by telling the crowd that a wise person will build his life, his “house,” on the solid foundation of faith his sermon had taught. Some have said that every lesson Jesus taught can be traced back to the foundational truth of his most famous sermon.

If we want to be like the wise man who lived with the biblical truth Jesus preached that day by the Sea of Galilee, we need to build our lives on the rock of his truth. The question isn’t “Do you know the Sermon on the Mount?” Rather, it’s “Do you live it?” We can’t just hear these words; we must do them.

Matthew 5–7 contains the foundational truth of the Christian faith. So often we read and study those chapters in sections. How long has it been since you sat down and read the entire sermon in one sitting? 

You can evaluate your walk with God by this question: How much of your life have you built upon the rock, the foundational truths of Jesus’ key sermon? 

The Beatitudes:

—Are you living a life God is able to bless?

—Are you living as salt and light in a world that needs both?

—Do you understand Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Law and God’s new and final covenant with the world?

—Do you understand the high standards Jesus set for your earthly life?

—Do you pray as Jesus taught you to pray?

—Do you live for heaven’s treasures or the world’s rewards?

—Do you live with faith or worry?

—Do you love and treat others as Jesus would?

—Do you believe there is a heaven and a hell and everyone will go to one or the other after this life?

Is your life built on the truth of Jesus’ teaching or on a weak foundation?

The Sermon on the Mount is crucial teaching for our walk with God and wisdom for our witness. Good advice and careful instruction provide wisdom. Jesus began his earthly ministry by the Sea of Galilee and gave us all we needed to live with his perfect wisdom. Read Matthew 5–7 from start to finish and you will gain the best advice and instruction you could receive for your life now and your life eternal.

God created people to need other people. No one person knows everything. No one is always right about everything. We are all uniquely created with gifts and abilities, but no one has every gift or every ability. We were created to need other people’s help, wisdom, and advice.

It’s humbling to realize we can’t live life well if we only live it with our own abilities. On the other hand, it’s comforting to realize we were created that way for a reason. The fact you don’t know everything isn’t your fault; it’s your blessing.

Proverbs 15:22 says that “without counsel plans fail.” If we only have our own thoughts and opinions, we only have a percentage of the wisdom we need. Our plans could fail if we don’t gain the counsel of a different perspective. 

The proverb also teaches us that with many advisers our plans can succeed. Sometimes too many advisers can muddy the waters, but even bad advice can be good. It is just as important to understand what we don’t want to do than coming to our decision about what we will choose to do.

How do we discern our good advice from the bad? Ask:

—Which advice glorifies God?

—Which choice has a kingdom purpose too?

—Which choice is accompanied by the peace of God and seems to be opening doors only God could open?

—Which advisers prayed before they spoke?

—Which advisers walk with God and understand that his counsel is the only perfect answer?

Some advice provides earthly gain while other advice provides treasure in heaven as well. 

Good advice and careful instruction provide wisdom. Do your best to discern God’s biblical advice and seek counsel from people who understand their need to receive God’s counsel before they have counsel to give. God made us to need the counsel of others and gave us discernment to understand whose counsel we need.

We know we are different from non-Christians who don’t share our values, and we expect to disagree with them at times. But it can be tough when there is someone in your church or Bible study who can get on your last nerve at times. You might even have prayed for God’s wisdom to help you know how to appreciate that person. We are called  to love one another, but sometimes that is a difficult command to follow.

Why do we occasionally struggle to get along with our brothers and sisters in Christ? Why does God allow our paths to intertwine? Proverbs 27:17 says that “iron sharpens iron.” God allows people in our lives who will sharpen our thinking and our actions. If you learn to get along with a brother or sister in Christ, you will be much more able to get along with a person who is not yet saved. If you learn to forgive a fellow Christian, it will be easier to forgive a non-Christian too.

Our greatest blessings and our Christian strength will probably not come from those who we find it easy to be around, but from those who caused us to be careful, stronger, and to lean upon God’s character more than our own. There will always be a few brothers and sisters in Christ who push you to your last ounce of self-control. Iron sharpens iron. Chances are you will gain some of your greatest blessings, now and eternally, from these people God allows into your life.

Good advice and careful instruction provide wisdom. There will be people in your life who force you to run to God for strength and for the sake of your witness. It’s good advice to see them as God’s path for blessing. It’s wisdom to remember that iron sharpens iron. Allow God to use the difficult relationships to refine your life and witness and you will gain his wisdom.

Several verses in Scripture discuss the importance of working hard and choosing not to be lazy. Working hard is a sign of good character in Scripture and important to our witness with others.

The Apostle Paul taught the Christian church this lesson so they would be a good witness to the pagan culture around them. But he expanded the idea of our work to include our entire lives. He said, “Whatever you do, work heartily.” In other words, our witness is as much about the hours we are off work as it is the hours we are at the office. 

Why should we be diligent with both our private and public lives? Because we have the same “boss” whatever we do. When we placed our faith in Christ, we became servants of the Most High God.

When we work hard at our jobs, we earn a paycheck, but when we work hard to glorify God at our jobs, we earn an eternal inheritance as well. When we work hard at our marriages, we gain blessings for this life and for our lives eternal. When we work hard to raise our children to know and love the Lord, we work for our family life on earth, and we work for the opportunity to be together as a family in heaven.

Whatever we do, our highest priority is to do it all for the glory of Jesus, in service to him. Whatever we do, we are serving Christ or something less important. Good advice and careful instruction provide wisdom. Paul taught us good advice in Colossians 3:23–24. He taught us to work hard at everything we do because there is never a moment our lives do not reflect our love and commitment to our Lord.

Bookstores have changed a lot in the last fifty years. Slowly, sections devoted to Bibles and Christian theology became shelves and then the sections were renamed religion and usually placed in a back corner. The more popular, growing section of the store has been labeled “self-help.”

The author of Proverbs 19:8 would not understand the need for that division in the bookstore. He taught: “Whoever gets sense loves his own soul.” If we really want to help ourselves, we should love our souls more than our earthly lives. Our souls will live in heaven with our new bodies and our lives will be eternal. If we have good sense, we will live this life for the sake of our souls.

How do we invest in our souls while living here on earth? We continue to understand our eternal priorities and continue to discover all that is good, all that is of God. The best “self-help” book is the Bible itself because it teaches us how to live a life God is able to bless now, and especially for all eternity.

We all know the verse that teaches us to store up treasure in heaven, but it requires a conscious effort to understand that the value of our earthly lives is a result of investing in eternal priorities. If we make that effort, we will “discover good” and enjoy doing those things that make us right with God.

We will never be finished living for God until we finally live with God. Good advice and careful instruction provide wisdom. We are wise to care for our own souls by gaining the wisdom of God and carefully living under the wise instruction of his truth. That’s how we store treasure in heaven and live this life for the sake of our life eternal.

When the members of a family argue with each other, the entire family is impacted by the tension. When the argument is made public, even more people become involved in the disagreement.

Scripture teaches us an important truth from Genesis to Revelation. God wants his children to be different from people who are outside the faith. Our message to the world is damaged when we don’t get along with our brothers and sisters in Christ. God has called us to a very high standard: “to walk in a manner worthy of [our] calling.” God said we are to be holy because he is holy. You and I are called to be “imitators” of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1).

Jesus taught us humility when he, the Son of God, stepped out of heaven and chose to be born in a manger. Jesus taught us to be gentle when he allowed the children to come to him for a blessing. Jesus was an example of patience when his disciples remained doubtful, even after witnessing his miracles. Jesus bore every circumstance he faced, choosing to respond in a way that displayed his love to the people around him. 

Jesus constantly preached his love to the world, calling his disciples to be united in their calling to do the same. He told them he would send them a “helper,” his Holy Spirit, to unite them in their purpose. When God’s children are Spirit-led, there is a bond between them, a “bond of peace.”

To live in unity is to live with a powerful bond of humility, gentleness, patience, and love. Unity is a witness to the world of God’s leadership in our lives. We shouldn’t be surprised when our family unity is Satan’s favorite target.

Paul urged the church to be a family of faith and find unity in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Good advice and careful instruction provide wisdom. Our families and our church families will grow stronger if we follow Paul’s teaching about our unity in Christ. Jesus set our example and his instruction is our wisdom.

We live in a much different culture than the one our grandparents knew. Technology has changed the way we live and parent in more ways than we can imagine. Family, and family roles, have been redefined—but not spiritually.

Parents and grandparents are still the most important influence on their children’s spiritual lives, especially young children. 

The wisdom of Proverbs 6 describes the protection that God’s word can give our lives. Parents and grandparents who openly live and depend on the guidance of Scripture will teach their children to do the same. Children watch as adults bow their heads in prayer and worship, search their Bibles for answers, and choose to live according to God’s leadership. 

The way fathers and mothers live their lives will be a daily message about their need for God, and their children will be watching. We will never live perfectly obedient to God’s word, but even our mistakes can be an important sermon to our kids. When they see us ask for forgiveness and repent of a mistake or a sin, they can understand their need to do the same.  

A parent can never underestimate the genuine, honest value of a faith-filled life and witness to our children. We can provide our children with a foundation of faith that they can use to build upon for their own families. The chances are better our children will “not depart” from the faith if we consistently model our own faith-filled life, but no amount of parenting can remove the free will that God gave everyone. Our children and grandchildren will have to choose faith for themselves.

Good advice and careful instruction provide wisdom. Which child or grandchild have you been thinking about because of these words? You can live your witness for them tomorrow and pray for them right now. Jesus wants to be their Lord and Savior as much as you want that faith relationship for them.

The average person meets about eighty thousand people in their lifetime. Some of those people will become friends, many will be acquaintances, and a few will become a significant part of our lives. Each of us has an inner circle of family and friends with whom we share our most important moments. Proverbs 30 would teach us to include wise people in that inner circle.

Whom do you call or text when you need someone to pray for you? Whom do you know who can offer wise counsel based on the truth of God’s counsel? Those are people we should work to include in our lives because those relationships will bless and strengthen our walk with God. 

Which people tend to have an ungodly influence in your life? They may be old friends, good friends, and fun friends, but time with them is rarely beneficial to your soul. They may give profitable advice, but their methods of arriving at the profit are not God’s.

Some people help us live with God’s higher standards while others encourage us to accept less. We all can have an inner circle of family and friends who help us know God and walk with him more closely. 

Of the eighty thousand people you meet, which relationships will make you wiser? Which will cause you to be foolish? 

Good advice and careful instruction provide wisdom. We should surround ourselves with people who provide a godly influence and pray that our own influence will provide God’s wisdom to others.

Whenever you have a big decision to make or feel like your life needs a new direction, consider an amazing fact of Scripture. Our Creator God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and ever-present in our lives. Our God gave us an open invitation to his throne and said, “Ask me.”

James taught that anytime we face a challenging decision, we can ask God for his wisdom and he will answer us. God is generous with his counsel because he loves his children and wants us to know his will. God wants us to have his counsel because his perspective is both for this life and our lives eternal.

So often we seek God’s wisdom for the moment at hand. God cares about our daily needs, but his greater purpose is always our life eternal. We can miss God’s wisdom if we don’t realize his higher purpose and plan.

When we have decisions to make, gathering facts is a good idea. Another good idea is determining best practices and researching common thought. But, at some point, we will need to take all of the information we have gathered and lay it down before God. When we need wisdom, we need to ask God for his perfect wisdom.

God has equipped us with the ability to think and process ideas, and he has taught us to seek counsel from others. The key to God’s wisdom, however, is recognizing that his wisdom is the answer that should always matter most.

God can open doors or shut them. God can inspire thoughts that we would not have otherwise. God can orchestrate our circumstances to guide us to his perfect plan. God wants us to have his wisdom and will give it generously. The question is, will we ask him? Will we submit our common sense to his uncommon wisdom?

Good advice and careful instruction provide wisdom. God’s advice and generous wisdom provide our answers. You have been invited to the throne room of God so you can ask for his counsel. Will you sit at his feet and listen for his answer?