Scripture
"The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.
Though it cost all you have, get understanding." --Proverbs 4:7
Observe
The very start of being wise is to acquire wisdom in the first place--which will take you everything you have.Apply
Giving all we have to obtain wisdom is done in two ways:- We GIVE our all.
- We SURRENDER our all.
We GIVE our all.
In Proverbs 4:7, the word for "all you have" is the Hebrew word "kol" which means "all". Kol comes from the word "kalal" which means "complete, perfect."
Kol is the same word used in Jeremiah 29:13, when God says, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with ALL your heart."
It reminds me of the Greatest Commandment: "Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your mind and with ALL your strength."
Since wisdom comes from God, we must seek God to find wisdom.
And God is found by us when we give our ALL.
We SURRENDER our all.
In order to obtain wisdom, we must first give up our own human wisdom.
Like it says in 2 Corinthians 10:5, "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."
Part of the battle to gain wisdom is a battle against the thoughts that come naturally to us.
On Day 3 of our cleanse, we discussed how humans have a soul--containing our mind, will, and emotions.
Our soul is how we think and feel about things.
Unfortunately, oftentimes our soul gets in the way of listening to the wisdom of God: His thoughts and feelings about things.
Therefore, in order to gain true wisdom, we must surrender our thoughts and feelings in exchange for his.
First off I love when you give the hebrew. It puts the bible in a whole new perspective when you know the language it was originally written in. Some of the meaning and the sincerity gets lost in the translation and we don't simply have some the words in english that can even describe the things that the bible was originally meant to show. I really liked in Proverbs 4 how wisdom was compared to a Mother. It says do not forsake her and she will love you, love her and she will protect you. And it keeps on going comparing things a mother would do to what wisdom will do. So if you keep God's wisdom close to you heart and acknowledge it, it will protect you in all aspects of your life. I just really liked this comparison so I thought I'd mention it. Great blog once again :)
ReplyDeleteI love languages and am really happy that God gave me a natural curiosity for words--especially since you love it too! Yes! People often see the manly and tough sides of God the Father, but there is a mother heart of God too (i.e. Matthew 23:37, Psalm 131:1-2). It's cool that you should mention this tonight, as well, because Caleb just brought it up at UnitedRefuge. Way to be on the same page!
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