Today’s reading is Proverbs 1.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and knowledge.
Proverbs 1:7
Just last week our 10-year old asked us what fearing the Lord meant. I know at least for me it is not easy to explain. However, if you look up the definition of the word ‘fear,’ Merriam-Webster gives one definition as, “profound reverence and awe especially toward God.” Thank you, Meriam-Webster…that helps. When I think of standing in awe of something, I think of the time our family visited the Grand Canyon as a child. None of us had ever been there before. When we got out of the car and walked up near the edge, I don’t think anyone said a word for a while. If there were flies around, one of us probably could have caught one in our mouths because our jaws may have been dropped, too! While the Grand Canyon is not a person, I would say we had respect for it pretty quickly…I know I wasn’t getting too close to the edge! Now, if we were in that much awe of the Grand Canyon, imagine what it will be like when we see the God who made it…
If we respect God immensely and we are in awe of his power and creation, we likely will not only want to please Him and follow His instruction, but we should also want to seek His wisdom. Sometimes we may move away from things we are in awe of like me from the edge of the Grand Canyon. However, how cool is that despite God wanting us to have reverence for Him, He wants us to actually get closer to Him? James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. ” Proverbs 1 is pretty poignant that if we don’t seek wisdom from Him we will experience bad things using words like calamity, anguish, distress, and terror.
So, how do we seek God’s wisdom?
Here a few ways….
- Attend a church that preaches and teaches from the Bible
- Read His Word and possibly a daily devotional to help with the interpretation and explanation, as well as perhaps giving thought provoking commentary and reflection
- Attend a small group/Bible study
- Pray and also ask for His wisdom
What area is the one area you feel like you could improve on to gain wisdom from God?
For me, I would say it’s prayer. It’s not lack of prayer (although I could and should pray more) as much as it is I need to remember to ask God for wisdom in my prayers. And that’s not just for wisdom in my perceived problem areas I’m praying to God for help, but also just wisdom daily to be a better Christ-follower, better husband, better father, better son, better friend, and wisdom to be a better financial planner (my career)….wisdom in the ‘little decisions’ I will make that day and that I make each and every day. I should also be in conversation (prayer) with Him throughout the day asking for wisdom in these things.
I pray that as we stand in awe and reverence in fear of God, we seek His wisdom and reflect on how we can better do so.
