W I S D O M

I remember my mom’s good friend giving me a copy of the Rebel’s Bible when I was 14 years old. Inside the front cover she wrote all about wisdom and quoted from Proverbs. Here is a key verse.

My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
    incline your ear to my understanding – Proverbs 5:1  ESV

The wisdom she was sharing with me was not of this world but of a spiritual nature. In fact, even more than what Solomon possessed. Wisdom is used here to describe the ability to see something from God’s viewpoint. Wisdom is God’s character in the practical affairs of life. God’s wisdom is not based on theory but is worked out, with discernment, figuring out good and evil or right and wrong. God’s wisdom is also not based on a formula, but based on a right relationship with Him. In this chapter of Proverbs, wisdom is defined as having the ability to guard the heart and mind of a man.

‘If you lack knowledge, go to school. If you lack wisdom, get on your knees! Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is the proper use of knowledge.” – Vance Havner

Understanding is more than just gathering data. It is the capacity for discerning a right course of action. It implies a mental grasp and the importance of something.  It is the ability to connect the dots.

“The faculty of the human mind by which it apprehends the real state of things presented to it, or by which it receives or comprehends the ideas which others express and intend to communicate. The understanding is called also the intellectual faculty. It is the faculty by means of which we obtain a great part of our knowledge.” – 1828 Webster’s Dictionary

Solomon is telling me that his lecture is not designed to fill my head with ideas, with wishful thinking or possible argumentative positions, but to guide me in how I conduct myself. All this with the idea that I actually might act with wisdom, that it would be part of my nature and in fact, its pursuit would be my true interest.