What’s the best place to eat? Consult a bona fide foodie. Need a different hair stylist? Ask a friend with a fabulous cut. Time to get a new camera? Check with a photographer.
When we want helpful solutions to life’s simple questions, we have options.
But when easy answers fall short, when we long for Truth with a capital T, when our hearts ache for something we can’t even name, there is only one place to turn.
For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6
Ann, who chose this verse as her favorite from Proverbs, admits how “often has God given me direction and answers when I needed them.” A brief testimony to a profound reality: God cares about everything that matters to us.
That thing you think is too small, too insignificant for God’s attention? He not only cares about it, he also knows what to do about it.
Friends may offer sympathy, a tissue, a listening ear, but God brings us what we really need.
For the Lord gives wisdom;… Proverbs 2:6
People are quick to hand out opinions—“I think this” or “I believe that”—but when God speaks to our hearts, he is “the source” (ERV) and he “gives out Wisdom free” (MSG).
Free. Let that sink in for a moment. Free. Freeing. Freedom.
When we buy a Bible—his Word, his truth—we are paying for the printing and the binding, the translating and the editing, but the wisdom it contains is free.
“For the Lord grants wisdom!” (NLT) He gives away the deepest secrets of the universe, and shares with those he loves his “skillful and godly Wisdom” (AMP).
Need some? Just ask. “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (James 1:5).
Free is as generous as it gets.
If we spent countless dollars and the whole of our lives trying to read every book on every shelf, we still wouldn’t have what God is offering us at no charge.
…from his mouth come… Proverbs 2:6
He spoke the world and all it contains into existence. “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). He is still speaking, beloved. He has never stopped speaking. His wisdom falls on us like rain from the heavens, watering our souls, planting seeds, bearing fruit.
“The words I speak are like that.
They will not return to me without producing results.
They will accomplish what I want them to.
They will do exactly what I sent them to do.” (Isaiah 55:11 NIRV)
His spoken Word, his written Word, his living Word not only pours out of God’s mouth, it’s meant to pour out of our mouths when we teach, when we preach, when we speak.
Someday, when I work up the courage, I’m going to stand in front of an audience and simply read the Word of God. No commentary, no asides, no Lizzie Revised Version, just verse by verse with all the passion and commitment and excitement his Word deserves.
Oh! Just think what might happen if we got out of the way and let God’s Word go forth, believing in its ability to transform us, to recreate us in the image of his Son.
Doesn’t it just want to make you stand up and shout?
Glory!
…knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6
Knowledge is power, all right—the power of God, the One who knows everything.
A dozen years ago, Donald Rumsfeld, then U.S. Secretary of Defense, made this classic statement about knowledge: “There are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don’t know.”
Seriously? Unknown unknowns? People are still laughing about that one.
Except there really are things we don’t know we don’t know. And all those things? Those are the things God knows.
He is Lord over our unknown unknowns. He is in command of our lives from beginning to earthly end and on to eternal glory.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). When we throw up our hands and say, “I don’t get it, Lord,” he says, “Exactly!”
I am so grateful God gets what we don’t get, knows what we don’t know, and loves us where we are. His “true knowledge and insight” (VOICE), his “prudence” (DRA), his “intelligence” (JUB), stretch far beyond the stars, yet he graciously extends them to us.
This is a God who cares, who sees a need and meets it with the one thing he knows will change us: his wisdom, his Word. This week’s verse, our first of 50, neatly sums up the whole book of Proverbs. Clever you, for choosing this as one of your favorites.
Are you ready to write it on the tablet of your heart?
For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6
Now, here’s your Printable for Proverbs 2:6, with four copies of this week’s verse on a single page. Why not cut them apart and post them where they’ll do the most good?
I also created a pin for you on Pinterest, which I confess took me so long to fiddle with, I had the verse memorized by the time I was done. Hmmm. You don’t suppose that was God’s plan all along?
Now it’s your turn
Just one question for you this week:
- What is God asking you to do with his free gift of wisdom,
knowledge, and understanding?
If you can, take a moment to Post a Comment below. One of the blessings of studying God’s Word together is sharing what we’re learning.
Can’t wait to unpack #49 next Wednesday. It has the word joy in it, so you know I’m happy!
Your sister, Liz
P.S. A quick review of last week’s verse. You know, the one we memorized.
Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart. Proverbs 3:3
