Hidden Treasures #3-The Wisdom of God
In our last posts, we talked about the hidden treasures of mercy and grace that each of us can ‘spend’ every day. Today, we will open the door to the treasure of The Wisdom of God and see how much more wealth we have at our disposal.
Paul cries out in Romans 11- ** O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! **
I think what Paul is telling us in this verse is that we can read and listen and learn our whole lives and we will never get to the bottom of the treasure chest of wisdom that the Lord has laid before us. We can read the Bible every day, go to church every week, and still not come close to receiving or understanding all the wisdom that the Lord has and shares with us.
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep digging for the treasure, right?
The Process of the Finding the Treasures of Wisdom
As with any treasure hunt, there is a map that leads us to it. The hidden treasure of the wisdom of God comes from following a certain process which is a series of steps. These steps guide us from our Day One with God and leads us to the long awaited X on the treasure map. Three of these steps are found in the book of Proverbs:
- Knowing (learning) the information
- Understanding the information
- Living the information (ie: applying it to our every day lives.)
We see this in Proverbs 2:
My son, if thou wilt receive my words,and hide my commandments with thee;2 so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom,and apply thine heart to understanding;3 yea, if thou criest after knowledge,and liftest up thy voice for understanding;4 if thou seekest her as silver,and searchest for her as for hid treasures;5 then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.6 For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding…9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. 10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:** (emphasis mine)
Our verses from Proverbs 2 give us plenty to think about and help us to see that all knowledge, understanding and wisdom come from the Lord and are all bountifully available to us. We know that wisdom doesn’t come into our room at night like a little fairy on our pillow that wakes us up, and fills us with perfect and complete wisdom. Even Solomon, who was given a mega dose of wisdom when he asked the Lord for it, already had his father, David, teaching him as a child what he knew. As a young man he continued to teach his son through his life and through his songs. This laid the groundwork for Solomon’s wisdom long before Solomon answered the Lord’s question of what he wanted most from Him. (Psalm 37, 49, 51, 90, 104, 105, 111, 136).
It is also important to notice that our verses from Proverbs 2 are full of verbs…action words…(in bold)…that challenge us to be actively involved in the pursuit of wisdom. Just reading a little every day is not a guarantee that we will find the hidden treasure of wisdom. Seeking her as for hid treasure requires years of searching and study. Trial and error is essential. We will need to test these principles of wisdom and try to discover how they are lived out or not lived out in real life. God’s Word has to become a part of us, a part of our very being. The search is continual, the treasure map leads us step by step, day after day after day.
We can also learn by observing those around us and see how wisdom is or isn’t playing out in their lives. We do not watch them to judge them, but, to learn from their example. We can do the same with any character mentioned in the Bible. We can look at Moses and then look at Samson. One lived his advanced years with God and obeyed God’s words and the other chose to do things his own way and ignored most of what the Lord and others tried to teach him. These two men faced major events in their lives with different measures of wisdom. Through them we can learn much about how to manifest wisdom and what steps we can take to gain more.
Wisdom is a lifelong process. This one post will not ever teach us all we need to know and understand to live with wisdom every day. This Hidden Treasure-the Wisdom of God will take some time to just open the lid of the treasure chest. I hope you will join me on this treasure hunt and share with us your own path to finding wisdom.