Wisdom & Desire

SCRIPTURE:  If you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:3-6 NIV

THOUGHT: What do wisdom and desire have to do with one another? Well, rather than an answer, pause and consider a different question. Ask yourself, where are my own longings taking me? When I am quiet, and can consider the things that I have desire for, what are they? Because longings often turn into action – they drive our lives in ways we aren’t even aware of. And if you think you have no longings, go back to the drawing board. They’re there and they’re taking you somewhere.

I like today’s Scripture because it’s one of those passages where everything essential is boiled down to a simple step: if you cultivate a deep longing for wisdom, and it moves your feet to search for insight and understanding as if you’ve been handed a treasure map by a credible source, you’re going to find God. Boom. That’s it. The real deal. The source of the headwaters of the river. You won’t accidentally bump into a false god or a false narrative, because the first first thing you’ll comprehend is the fear of the Lord: shock and awe time. And that will lead to  the knowledge of God: your doubts and fears about God’s existence fade. You stop asking the same weary questions and coughing up the same protestations. The moment God becomes more real to you than anything else is your introduction to wisdom. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

We don’t get to wisdom first, then somehow find God. We find God first, then from his mouth, get wisdom.

PRAYER: Oh God, help me love and long for the source of wisdom even more than the river that flows out from there.