Hiding in Plain Sight: Get Wisdom

Today’s post is part of a series to help us take what we learn on Sunday into the rest of the week. These posts summarize the main points from the week’s sermon and include questions for continued reflection and prayer. The posts in this series are written by members of our church’s Adult Christian Formation team.

 

This past Sunday our service theme was “God’s Wisdom is Infinite.” Pastor Bobby preached from Proverbs 4 about the need to “Get Wisdom.”

People in our area might have a lot of opportunities and educational experiences, but most of us still feel that we could use more wisdom about how to live. There are many competing voices offering that to us. Proverbs shows us that wisdom is necessary because it is woven in the fabric of all of creation.

Proverbs 4:10-19 teaches what wisdom is. It is a way that includes choices, steps, and a path. Our choices at the start of the path lead to habits, which create character, which determines our destiny.

In verses 16-19 we see what Tim Keller has called spiritual addiction, a wicked way of life that results from unwise choices. C. S. Lewis has described hell as something that begins within us if we make wicked choices.

Proverbs 4 also teaches us about the heart of wisdom. Verse 23 describes the heart as a wellspring of life. The Bible teaches that the heart is the key to change. Through Jesus Christ, God can change our heart desires, which will change our entire lives, leading us to live wisely. In Jesus, we have someone who embraced wisdom and actually is the wisdom that God offers to us. Wisdom is a person, offered to us.

Questions for prayer and reflection:

  1. Have you seen the eventual results of someone consistently making choices that were unwise? How have you seen this happen in your own life?
  2. Proverbs 4 tells us to pursue wisdom “though it cost all you have.” Jesus lived in the wisdom of God in a way that cost his own life. Do you believe in following God’s wisdom even though it may be costly?
  3. What kinds of choices are you making in your life right now? Pray that the Spirit of God will direct your choices in light of the wisdom revealed in who Jesus is and what he did.
  4. How are people you know who aren’t Christians seeking wisdom? Pray that God will give them wisdom, showing that Jesus is the ultimate revelation we have of the wisdom of God. Pray that you will be able to live out the wisdom that God gives in a compelling way.