What is the one thing you seek for most out of life? What’s the strongest desire of your heart? We all know what the “Christian” answer should be. But if we search the deepest corners of our hearts and are honest about what we most want, what answers would we find? Maybe it is security, comfort, money or romance.
The writer of Proverbs, King Solomon, leaves no doubt in our mind that the strongest desire of our hearts should be a yearning for wisdom and the knowledge of God, and in Proverbs 2:6-8 Solomon shows us that the wisdom we are to search for comes from the mouth of the Lord; in his very words found in the Bible. It seems simple, doesn’t it? But it can be tempting to think there must be something more. The world would lead us to believe that true wisdom cannot be found in the Bible. It’s not relevant enough, it’s not reliable enough, and it’s not intellectual enough.
If the wisdom we are to seek is found in the Bible, then we must devote our lives to studying, pondering, mediating on and reading God’s word. Only then will we find the knowledge of God. But before we get carried away and put too much weight in our own efforts in the search for wisdom, we must remember where this wisdom comes from.
It can be tempting to think that the search for wisdom is a bit like a treasure hunt with extremely cryptic clues which can only be solved through our efforts alone, our long, hard work. Instead the writer of Proverbs is clear that it is ultimately given by the LORD. Wisdom is not found because we studied harder than anyone else, listened to sermons better than anyone else or read all the best commentaries. No, if we find wisdom it is because God gave it to us as a gracious gift.
This is encouraging because we can often think it is only those who are extremely intelligent, with a wealth of theological experience who will discover God’s wisdom. Instead these verses give us confidence that those who can receive God’s wisdom are the upright, those who walk with integrity, his saints. To gain access to God’s wisdom requires no other qualification than to be a believer and to desire to search after God all our lives.
It’s humbling as it can be easy to become proud of any wisdom God gives us. We can easily slip into the mindset that any wisdom we have is only because of our hard work. Especially if people start praising us, “you really opened up God’s word to me through the way you spoke” or “you spoke so wisely tonight during the study.” These verses remind us that we need to be humble in our search for wisdom, yes, we must diligently search for it, but it is only because of God’s grace that we receive sound wisdom.
So coming back to the question I started with – What is the one thing you seek for most out of life? We should passionately seek God’s wisdom found in his word, and as we apply it to all of life, we will recognise what a wonderfully gracious gift it is.
