Day 28: Wisdom to Live on

Reading: Proverbs 3:11-20

The value of wisdom is immeasurable, as this Proverb continues to show us. We must accept the Lord's discipline if we wish to gain wisdom and understanding to the world He created for us. Wisdom, understanding, and knowledge are what God founded this world on. His greatness is filled with unimaginable understanding that He puts into action as we follow Him. We must strive for the wisdom He calls us to grasp, and apply it to our lives. Knowledge is simply knowledge. But knowledge that is applied to life is wisdom, and God calls us to get wisdom.


Reading: Matthew 19:16-30

The things we value most on this earth are not the things that God values from heaven. The story of the rich man who follows all the rules and is told to sell all his stuff is a hard one to grasp in our country. We may not realize it, or even think it's true, but compared to he rest of the world, we are the rich man. When Jesus tells him to sell all his possessions to the poor and then to follow Him, he gets really sad. We see how eager this man is to be a follower of Jesus. He's learned and followed the commandments, probably knows the traditional ways of the religious people well, but when it comes down to applying what he's learned, he can't bring himself to do it.
How often do we sit in on church, hear an amazing, challenging message, say our "amens", then go through the rest of our weeks unchanged and unmoved? We know the Bible, we've heard the sermons, we've even put money in the offering plate. But what about wisdom? At what point do we go out and do what that sermon moves us to do? Jesus challenges the rich, young man who has heard the teachings, knows the commands, but when he's challenged to move from his comfort zone, to apply the things Jesus has been teaching about the poor, he can't. He wants the benefits of Jesus, but not the work of Jesus.
When will we start applying what we've gained knowledge in, and turn it to concrete wisdom?


Reading: Job 8:1-10:22

We continue to see Job's friends offer him all sorts of advice, with mixes of good advice, true advice, bad advice, and false advice. Can we tend to do this to our own friends? Or can our friends tend to do this to us? Sometimes we comfort with the wrong words, yet sometimes we get the right words from God. Wisdom is a deeper plan of God's. When we have those rough patches in life, we need to remember that God's wisdom and purpose is deeper than we'll be able to see till later on.
We can offer our friends all sorts of comfort and advice, but when it lacks the wisdom of God, it can feel like we're just throwing words at them. The words can come out empty, and sometimes a little know-it-all if God's Word isn't in it. Words without wisdom are just words, a lot like how knowledge without wisdom is just knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Make sure your words are filled with wisdom and love, not just smarts and knowledge.


The value of wisdom comes with every aspect of our lives. Wisdom is the basis of our Creator's world, the proof of following Christ, and the love behind advice to our friends who need comfort. Wisdom carries great value, more so than the treasures of this world.