The Wisdom of God
“The wisdom of the prudent is to understand their way.” Proverbs 14.
One day, God told me that I was not very good at finishing something I started. So immediately I asked how to remedy this situation. God suggested that I study the entire book of Proverbs in the Bible, from start to finish.
Fortunately, Joyce Meyer has a ‘study plan’ called 31 days in Proverbs so I signed up to receive her emails.
Now I’m finished the book Book of Proverbs and I’ve made notes and saved some key quotes and I’m proud to say that I now finish what I start.
It’s a new discipline for me which is exactly what I needed.
Proverbs 3 reminds us to trust only God and to do so with all our hearts and to “lean not” on our own understanding of things.
This verse also reminds us to “submit to him” in all our ways, so that He may “make our paths straight.”
And Proverbs 30 reminds us that God is perfect and that every word from Him is in fact “flawless,” which reminded me of Matthew 4, that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
God, in all his wisdom, knows that occasionally people have so called bad days. But in Psalms 118 God suggests a different way of looking at things.
He suggests that because “God has made a new day” [our Ascension?] that we rejoice and be glad in it. God knows that bad times do not last and that sunny-side-up is the way to make our day brighter!
And again in Philippians 4, God reminds us to rejoice yet again but for a different reason this time. He reminds us that he is always close by and for that reason we can let our “reasonableness be known to all.” He reminds us as well through prayer we can contact God with a request to make our days better.
God even goes so far as to make some serious promises in the Bible.
Again in Proverbs, this time chapter 4, He promises “perfect health” to those who study the word of God. He says that His words are “life to those who find them AND health to all their flesh”! That is one serious promise!
In all His wisdom he promises his “believers” that when we truly believe in one of our prayers, that this ‘belief’ will be enough to have made the prayer come to good fruition in our lives.
In Mark 11, God is in effect saying that if you have rightly believed in the prayer that you have prayed that it is more or less a guarantee that you will receive whatever it was that you had asked for! Believe and receive so that saying goes! Such wisdom!
Psalm 119 contains the advice that reading the Bible will illumine your life path to such an extent that the word of God will be a “lamp unto my feet” and a “light unto my path.”
God warns us about fear. In Psalm 23, God himself warns us to “fear no evil” for God is so very close to us that His presence (represented by the rod and the staff) provides us with constant comfort. For is that not wisdom incarnate?!
God even warns us of the dangers of the ego mind, or ego thoughts. In Ephesians 4 God guides us away from holding a grudge, an egoic tendency, lest the ego lead us into error. We are forewarned about nurturing anger or harboring resentment or cultivating bitterness, practices of the egoic mind as well.
God warns us about the dangers and snares of having a “sharp tongue.” In Proverbs 21 God says that “He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards himself from trouble.”
I practice saying to myself, or writing down, a jumpstart sentence such as “It would be wise to…” then filling in the blank: “Read Proverbs thoroughly.”
After I hear or read wisdom, I begin to put it into practice. See how many more wise decisions I can make in a day. “Today, it would be wise to try…”. Think up some more on your own, be wise and you may just surprise yourself!
Practicing my wisdom helps me have a better future – it’s the wise thing to do. All day today, I may practice starting my sentences with the phrase, “it would be wise of me to….” Try it and you may be amazed at how it will make your daily life more livable.
(From Kathleen Ann Zinck, The Wisdom & Genius of God & the Archangels [2023].)