The Lost Art of Wisdom: A Devotion From Proverbs 2

Here's how it works
You either listen to words of wisdom or you don't. If you're inclined to listen the the wise people instead of what my dad used to call the stupid people trying to mask themselves as wise then you need to discern who is truly wise and who is not. The problem is how do you know which words of wisdom are worth your attention? Older people are wise not matter what young people try to tell you.

Older people have been there and done that enough to grow from their mistakes and springboard from this successes. One of the wisest men if not the wisest man in the Bible is Solomon. His wise words inspired by a life living in and out of the footsteps of God are worth reading and taking to heart because life is not about how much you know but how well you use what you know. Seeking wisdom is a very simple process according to Proverbs 2

There are a lot of words out there. All you need to do is check out your local library or bookstore. Self-help books are big sellers because people are always looking for a quick answer or simple solutions to their problems. Well not all words are useful or helpful, so how do you discern the source of truly helpful and life changing words, go to the Bible.

I can hear all the skeptics out there balking about opening the Bible. The Bible is for religious people. The Bible is for Christians. While those statements are true there are also parts of the Bible I feel were written for all people. Proverbs is one of those books. So for now put your skepticism aside and skim through the Book of Proverbs.

Many of the Proverbs you probably have heard before like Proverbs 27:1, Don't brag about tomorrow, since you don't know what the day will bring. The Book of Proverbs, which once again is a book of primarily the wise sayings of Solomon, the Third King of Israel.

Solomon,in his day, had it all,money and power, then he lost is all as pride took over his life. He turned from the God of his father David and fell. In the Book of Proverbs, Solomon wants to tell you what he learned about life, faith and not using the wisdom he was given for the right purpose. You'd be hard pressed not to listen to His wisdom.

In Proverbs Chapter 2 :2 -3 Solomon says,”accept my words and store up my commands within you,turning your ear to wisdom,”. Solomon is stating the obvious, first you must accept God's Word as the source of true wisdom and then store it deep inside your heart only then will you be able to discern true wisdom from false hope. Solomon wrote Proverbs as a guide for us so we can stay out of trouble. As I said before Proverbs was not just written to God fearing people but also to anyone who would read the words, and listen to them.

Solomon continues Proverbs Chapter 2 by saying if you seek true wisdom as much as you seek precious things like silver and then once found treasure the Word (God's Wisdom) in your heart then and only then will you, “understand what is right and just and fair—every good path”. In other words when you find true wisdom you must treasure the wisdom, lock the wisdom deep in your heart and then be attentive to the wisdom when the time comes where you need to stand against the “adulteress” which is the calling of this world.

Solomon understood how hard it was to deal with the temptations of the world. He fell into a lot of the worlds traps-greed, lust, power and many more. He knew in his heart he had not used the wisdom he was given in the right way. He did not treasure true wisdom which came from the Truth in his heart so he fell and fell hard. How often have we done the same thing?

We know what is right because we were warned from someone who lived through the same thing. But do we treasure the advice from others in our hearts? NO! We seek our own faulted wisdom and then when all fails we cry out to blame others.

God wrote His word not just for those who follow Him, God wrote His word to help everyone avoid a life of folly. The Book of Proverbs is a book for everyone. All you have to do is open up your eyes and your heart to the words. Then let down your barriers and you will find Proverbs is a book of wisdom as useful today as it was the day Solomon was inspired to write down the words.

So in the end the value of wisdom comes not in hearing but the value of wisdom comes in heading the wisdom and doing what is right.